"Minister of the Interior Davor Bozinovic said on Tuesday that the case of expecting mother Mirela Cavajda was sensitive, however, it was solely a health and not a political issue," state agency Hina said.

“This is definitely not a political but a health issue. I do not understand people who are not from the health sector and comment on the details of the case,” said Bozinovic after a meeting of coalition partners in Government House.

He added that it was necessary to rely on the medical profession to make any decisions.

Bozinovic said that the Cavajda case cannot be brought into connection with the right to abortion and added that that right was not brought into question by the Constitutional Court, government or parliamentary majority.

The right to terminate a pregnancy and the right to conscientious objection exist and one does not exclude the other, he said.

Constitutional Court President Miroslav Separovic earlier in the day called on the parliament to pass a new abortion law, and reporters asked Bozinovic why the government and the parliamentary majority were turning a deaf ear to the request, considering that the Constitutional Court back in 2017 gave the parliament two years to adopt a new law.

Bozinovic said that this was a delicate matter which the government would consider.

Referring to the pregnancy termination bill put forward by the Social Democratic Party (SDP), to be discussed on Thursday, Bozinovic said that the debate would show “all the dilemmas surrounding this very difficult issue.”

“We are returning this topic to the public sphere because of a case that should not have anything to do with it,” he said in reference to the Cavajda case.

He recalled that the Constitutional Court discussed the matter 27 years after a request was made to test the constitutionality of the abortion law and that in that period, Croatia had been run by different governments and coalitions – from the right to the very liberal-left ones.

“That would make it a topic for all. I think they were all very much aware of how sensitive that issue was,” Bozinovic said.

The meeting also discussed Prime Minister Andrej Plenković’s recent visit to Ukraine, Bozinovic said, adding that one of the fundamental principles was territorial integrity and sovereignty of each state and that that applied both to Croatia and to Ukraine.

“No claims are possible today regardless of the messages someone might use for internal purposes. There are no doubts whatsoever with regard to Croatia’s territory,” he said in reference to statements by Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban that his country would not have any problems with a ban on Russian oil imports had the sea not been taken away from it.

Asked about fuel prices, Bozinovic said that it was not discussed at today’s meeting.