Sarajevo Open Center has started implementing a new project that will deal more deeply and comprehensively with abortion as a matter of reproductive health and rights, as we have observed more and more conservative influence on policies. We have planned the following activities:
- research on the regulation, availability, access, and practice of abortion in Bosnia and Herzegovina
- creation of partnerships/collaborations with feminist movements, organizations, initiatives and individuals, in order to act proactively in the public space to define problems and methods of struggle, but also to create a platform for better advocacy for change;
- meetings with institutions in the field of healthcare, which we will also cover with research, in order to contribute to a better understanding of abortion as a human right and part of the basic package of health services;
- media campaigns after we complete the research and receive the findings;
- research/mapping of anti-abortion groups, media, and experts in cooperation with fact-checking and similar media;
- networking with regional feminist activists who have experience fighting for adequate access to abortion.
So far, we have taken the first steps in researching the availability of abortion, and we are currently mapping local groups we could partner with, who also advocate the improvement of sexual and reproductive health.
SOURCE: Sarajevo Open Center, in: CEE Bulletin on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. No. 01 (209) 2023