An association of women's rights groups called Zenska Mreza ("Women's Network") said on Friday that the government's proposed legislation on health care threaten to push women into "even greater poverty" and consequently deny them access to health, state news agency Hina reported on Friday.

They described the proposed changes, which include a raising the maximum amount of co-payment for public health services, as “the continuation of anti-women policies of ignoring women’s rights.”

Bojana Genov of the Women’s Network told a news conference on Friday that the proposed amendments do not take into account the specific needs of women and do not introduce adequate protective measures to combat all forms of discrimination against women.

“The increase in payments for all medical services and medicines,” Genov said, “will push women deeper into poverty, which is already increasing in Croatia, and will consequently deny them access to health.” She added that the poverty risk rate for women is 34.6 percent, while for men it is 25.8 percent.

Genov said that the new proposed legislation failed to put the cost of contraceptives and abortions under the umbrella of publicly funded medical services, which effectively means that abortion will remain “the only health service that has a market price.”

Women’s rights activist, Sanja Juras, pointed out that the government had received recommendations from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to combat all forms of discrimination against women back in 2015, but has failed to implement any of its recommendations in the seven years since.

In their country report for Croatia CEDAW called on the Croatian government to ensure the coverage of abortion and modern contraceptives by the public health care system, and recommended protective measures for women during childbirth, as well as to enable easier births at home.

“Since 2015, the government has not implemented any of the UN recommendations, and in practice we are witnessing numerous cases of violence and denial of medical assistance to women,” warned Juras.