Volkswacht Bodensee - Anti-abortion group's 'baby box' stirs Croatia row

The modern form of the medieval "foundling wheel" -- where unwanted babies were left at churches -- was built into a convent wall in February in a quiet Zagreb neighbourhood.

Motion sensors set off an alarm on the mobile phones of the nuns inside and of a Catholic anti-abortion group when the hatch is opened.

The angle of a security camera guarantees the person leaving the baby cannot be seen.

"It is aimed at saving lives and preventing infanticide," Alberta Vrdoljak, the head of the Betlehem Zagreb group that runs the "Window of Life", told AFP.

A shocking case of a newborn baby boy left in a bin in a park near Zagreb last May proved the need for it, she said. Luckily the child survived after being found by two teenagers.

Although the baby box has yet to be used, they say police and medical services will also be informed.

"Society needs such a place, offering a solution for cases which are rare but do exist," said Zvonimir Kvesic, another member of the group.

But the Women's Network Croatia umbrella group slammed the move as "illegal, dangerous and against child's best interest" and called for the box to be removed.

- Abortion 'alternative' -

In Croatia abortion is legal but has become less accessible as a majority of gynaecologists in public hospitals refuse to perform them on moral grounds.

Some see the "baby box" as a Trojan horse of anti-abortion groups and warn that it operates in a legal grey zone leaving space for potential wrongdoings.

"It may sound like a good idea, but ultimately it's again to make women feel bad about abortion, offering an 'alternative'," passer by Mia Knezevic, a clerk from Zagreb, told AFP.

But Vrdoljak strongly rejected that saying "it's about an alternative to infanticide, not about abortion ban."

Betlehem Zagreb -- which also runs a safe house for women and another for single mothers -- were just giving "a helping hand to the system", she said.

But official bodies warned that abandoning a child is a criminal act in Croatia and the social policy ministry has launched an inspection.

"Although every saving of life is noble, one should keep in mind ethical and legal issues that such a place imposes," children's ombudswoman Helenca Pirnat Dragicevic told AFP.

- Right to identity -

She cited the child's right to know his or her identity, guaranteed by a UN convention, and stressed the need to address the root causes of children being abandoned.

The Geneva-based UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has been warning against "baby boxes", asking countries to find alternatives.

But some legal experts back them.

"The right to life trumps the right to information on (biological) origins," Zagreb University law professor Aleksandra Korac Graovac told local media.

"The child without a secured right to life does not hold any other right," she said.

At least 10 European countries -- Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland -- have similar "baby boxes", according to the Betlehem group.

They also exist in China, India, Japan and the US.

"It's a practice from the Middle Age rather than the 21st century, but if it saves one life it's still worth it," said Lea, a 33-year-old lawyer, who refused to give her full name.

Official figures show there were six cases of infanticide in the last decade in Croatia.

Unlike some European countries, anonymous birth is not possible there, although last year the health ministry launched a working group on the issue.

Last month, another Church-backed group, In the Name of the Family, called for a law enabling anonymous birth and obliging hospitals to have "baby hatches".

O.Schlaepfer--VB