Social Democratic Party leader Pedja Grbin said on Wednesday the SDP would start collecting MP signatures for a parliamentary debate on reinstating a woman's right to abortion into the Constitution, and that if that failed, they would collect signatures for a referendum.

Speaking at a press conference, he said a woman’s right to choose was a fundamental human right which could be protected only by being written into the Constitution.

We will not allow the US scenario, or worse, the Polish scenario, to occur in Croatia, he added.

Grbin said a woman had the right to freely and independently decide about giving birth and that the state’s task was to ensure that she can exercise that right.

He said this was not just one political party’s issue but a civilisational issue.

According to SDP political secretary Mirela Ahmetovic, “fundamentalists from the margins are trying to contest women’s constitutional right to choose.”

“Everyone who sees women as equal members of society will stand with the SDP and women, as well as with men who know that women are not secondary,” she said.

Grbin would not say if the SDP would make his support for the ruling HDZ’s constitutional changes regarding referenda conditional on the abortion initiative, saying he would first talk to the HDZ about that.