Speaking at a news conference on Monday, SDP leader Ivica Racan said he regretted that religious communities opened debates about such important issues as abortion at Christmas and at the time of an election campaign.
The SDP considers it intolerable that political parties, especially the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), do not want to present their position on abortion and artificial insemination, SDP vice-president Zeljka Antunovic said, calling on the HDZ to make its position on abortion public.
SDP vice-president Milanka Opacic cited data from the Public Health Institute showing that the number of abortions has been decreasing steadily since 1990, but that the number of abortions among adolescents has been on the increase.
Most abortions (60 percent) are reported among women aged between 30 and 39, who are married but cannot afford to have a third child mostly for financial reasons, Opacic said.
Asked about the involvement of 14 Catholic associations in a protest against the Druzba Adria project, the SDP officials said they were confident that some religious dignitaries were helping the presidential campaign of HDZ candidate Jadranka Kosor.
"The Catholic Church, perhaps not its highest representatives, but rather lower-ranking ones, have become directly involved in a political campaign, mainly supporting the HDZ candidate," Antunovic said.