Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Mirjana Rašević Author-Workplace-Name: Demographic Research Centre, Institute of Social Sciences, Belgrade (Serbia) Author-Name: Katarina Sedlecki Author-Workplace-Name: Republic Center for Family Planning, Institute for Health Care of Mother and Child "Dr. Vukan Čupić", Belgrade (Serbia) Title: The Abortion Culture Issue in Serbia Publication-Status: Published Abstract: The problem of a large number of abortions in our country was first pointed out as far back as 1935 at the 17th Congress of Yugoslav Physicians. The abortion problem in Serbia is still present today, even though modern science has provided new methods and means which are a logical solution to the dilemma on birth control methods from the health and social aspect. Namely, total abortion rate in Serbia was estimated at 2.76 in the year 2007. It is very high; double the number of the total fertility rate and among the highest in Europe and the world. The term abortion culture was first used, as far as we know, by Henry David in the introduction of the book From Abortion to Contraception - A Resource to Public Policies and Reproductive Behavior in Central and Eastern Europe from 1917 to the Present in 1999, without specifically determining it. The aim of this paper is to identify the most important factors of the deterministic basis of endemic induced abortions in Serbia together with indirectly estimating their connection with the existence, namely nonexistence, of the abortion culture in our country. In that sense, potential factors of abortion incidence in Serbia which emerge from the social system and those connected to the individual level have been considered. In other words, a series of laws and other legal and political documents have been analyzed which are significant for perceiving the abortion matter, as well as institutional frameworks for family planning, health services, educating the youth regarding reproductive health, including findings of numerous researches carried out among women of various age and doctors from 1990 till present day in Serbia. The following most significant factors for the long duration of the abortion problem have been singled out: insufficient knowledge of modern contraception, a belief that modern contraceptive methods are harmful to health and a number of psychological barriers as well as those arising from relationships with partners. Gynecological attitudes about modern contraception and behavior do not differ significantly from the rest of the population. Additionally, there are few organized efforts to promote sex education, as well as limitations in the family planning programme. Distinguished macro and micro factors of traditional birth control in Serbia confirm the existence of the abortion culture. The nature of these factors though, indicate to the presence of the abortion culture in our country on the political, educational, health and individual level. The abortion culture obstructs the adoption of a modern concept of family planning and points out to the persistence of the abortion problem in our country in the years to come. Keywords: abortion; culture; Serbia Journal: Stanovnistvo Pages: 1-13 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Year: 2011 Month: July DOI: 10.2298/STNV1101001R File-URL: https://stnv.idn.org.rs/STNV/article/view/119 File-Function: Abstract page File-Format: text/html File-URL: https://stnv.idn.org.rs/STNV/article/download/119/113 File-Function: Full text File-Format: application/pdf Handle: RePEc:eto:stanov:v:49:y:2011:i:1:id:119 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Milica Solarević Author-Workplace-Name: University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Sciences - Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management, Novi Sad (Serbia) Author-Name: Branislav S. Đurđev Author-Workplace-Name: University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Sciences - Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management, Novi Sad (Serbia) Title: IV International Conference "Sustainability of regional-demographic development" Publication-Status: Published Abstract: Nema. Journal: Stanovnistvo Pages: 105-108 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Year: 2011 Month: July DOI: 10.59954/stnv.242 File-URL: https://stnv.idn.org.rs/STNV/article/view/242 File-Function: Abstract page File-Format: text/html File-URL: https://stnv.idn.org.rs/STNV/article/download/242/226 File-Function: Full text File-Format: application/pdf Handle: RePEc:eto:stanov:v:49:y:2011:i:1:id:242 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Zoran Ponjavić Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Law, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac (Serbia) Author-Name: Mirjana Varjačić Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Medicine, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac (Serbia) Title: Legal and Medical Aspects of the Ethics Committee’s Work Relating to Abortion Publication-Status: Published Abstract: This paper analyses the legal and medical aspects of the work of ethics committees on abortion. According to the legislation of the Republic of Serbia, these committees are competent to determine justifiable terms for abortion after the twentieth week of the fetus. It is well known that abortion is not only a medical but a legal, ethic, social and demographic problem as well. A liberal solution in view of abortion in the first trimester has been accepted in most European countries, as by the legislature of the Republic of Serbia. Since prenatal diagnosis cannot always determine the fetus state with certainty but at times may do so at a later stage, abortion is then required when the child is already capable of extrauterine life. The necessity for performing abortion in the third trimester is thus a result of good knowledge of techno-medicine but also from the limited information it provides. In such situations, the physician needs confirmation and justification of his standpoint with respect to abortion through a legal formulation which should contain "minimum moral". Society has found a way to protect and help him through moral and ethic forms of prevention without anybody’s emotions being affected. Ethics committees should thus help the physician in view of determining the terms for performing late abortion, since the rules of doctor’s ethics are not sufficient in this case. The article especially analyses the work of the Ethics Committee of the Clinical Center in Kragujevac in the period 2000-2010. It is stated that the largest number of cases referred to determined diseases or fetus anomalies while only a negligible number (11.29%) to the illness of the mother. There were no requests for abortions due to legal reasons (pregnancies from criminal offences). A significant number (40.28%) of requests submitted to the Ethics Committee related to pregnancies under the 24th week of pregnancy. Since a pregnancy of 24 weeks represents a boundary line between a miscarriage and preterm birth, the paper proposes a shift in the boundary line of pregnancies which must be terminated according to the Ethics committee, from 20 weeks of gestation to 24 weeks of gestation. At the same time, the requirement for narrowing legal conditions for abortion in later phases of pregnancies is pointed out as well as abolition of legal indications. Keywords: abortion; ethics committee; legal and medical aspects; Clinical Center in Kragujevac Journal: Stanovnistvo Pages: 15-31 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Year: 2011 Month: July DOI: 10.2298/STNV1101015P File-URL: https://stnv.idn.org.rs/STNV/article/view/120 File-Function: Abstract page File-Format: text/html File-URL: https://stnv.idn.org.rs/STNV/article/download/120/114 File-Function: Full text File-Format: application/pdf Handle: RePEc:eto:stanov:v:49:y:2011:i:1:id:120 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Vladimir Nikitović Author-Workplace-Name: Demographic Research Centre, Institute of Social Sciences, Belgrade (Serbia) Title: IX Italian Population Conference Publication-Status: Published Abstract: Nema. Journal: Stanovnistvo Pages: 109-112 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Year: 2011 Month: July DOI: 10.59954/stnv.243 File-URL: https://stnv.idn.org.rs/STNV/article/view/243 File-Function: Abstract page File-Format: text/html File-URL: https://stnv.idn.org.rs/STNV/article/download/243/227 File-Function: Full text File-Format: application/pdf Handle: RePEc:eto:stanov:v:49:y:2011:i:1:id:243 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Vesna Klajn-Tatić Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Legal Research, Institute of Social Sciences, Belgrade (Serbia) Title: Current Problems Regarding Abortion, Prenatal Genetic Testing and Managing Pregnancy Publication-Status: Published Abstract: Current ethical and legal issues with regard to abortion, prenatal genetic testing and managing pregnancy are discussed in this paper. These problems are considered from the legal theory point of view as well as from the standpoint of the Serbian Law, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, European Court of Human Rights, legal regulations of several EU countries, the USA, Japan, and their judicial practice. First, the pregnancy termination standards that exist in Serbia are introduced. Then the following issues are explained separately: the pro life and pro choice approaches to abortion; abortion according to the legal approach as a way of survival; the moral and legal status of the fetus; prenatal genetic testing, and finally matters regarding managing pregnancy today. Moral and legal principals of autonomy, namely freedom of choice of the individual, privacy and self-determination give women the right to terminate unwanted pregnancies. In addition, the basic question is whether the right of the woman to abortion clashes with the rights of others. Firstly, with the right of the "fetus to life". Secondly, with the right of the state to intervene in the interest of protecting "the life of the fetus". Third, with the rights of the woman’s partner. The fetus has the moral right to life, but less in relation to the same right of the woman as well as in relation to her right to control her life and her physical and moral integrity. On the other hand, the value of the life of the fetus increases morally and legally with the maturity of gestation; from the third trimester, the interest of the state prevails in the protection of the "life of the fetus" except when the life or health of the pregnant woman are at risk. As regards the rights of the woman’s partner, namely the husband’s opinion, there is no legal significance. The law does not request his participation in the decision on abortion because the decision is exclusively brought by the pregnant woman. Critics of prenatal genetic testing claim that the woman’s autonomous choice is seriously prejudiced, as the women are pressured first with genetic testing and then with abortion, if the test is positive. However, there are views that many parents are left to bring their decisions in a vacuum because the physicians do not discuss all possible available options with them out of fear that they will be perceived as orders. Genetic counseling has an aim to facilitate informed reproductive decisions. Rigid application of policies on non-directive genetic counseling make pregnant women and families unaware of the nature and consequences of the genetic state which could affect the future child. If the real goal is an informed choice then it is the obligation of the physician-specialist to inform the parents with the facts and familiarize them with the true state. Managing pregnancies today medicalizes and pathologizes all pregnancies, and not only the risky ones. Since these techniques are becoming a routine part of medicalized pregnancy managing, pregnant women find it difficult to resist undertaking such technologies or to refuse them. Thus the question on how much these technologies offer sensible choices is imposed. Generally speaking, it is stated that women are becoming observers rather than active participants in giving birth to a new life. Attempts of legal control over a pregnant woman for the protection of "the life of the fetus" violate the woman’s human rights in democratic societies. Keywords: abortion; fetus; testing; pregnancy; reproductive choice Journal: Stanovnistvo Pages: 33-52 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Year: 2011 Month: July DOI: 10.2298/STNV1101033K File-URL: https://stnv.idn.org.rs/STNV/article/view/122 File-Function: Abstract page File-Format: text/html File-URL: https://stnv.idn.org.rs/STNV/article/download/122/115 File-Function: Full text File-Format: application/pdf Handle: RePEc:eto:stanov:v:49:y:2011:i:1:id:122 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Mina Petrović Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Belgrade (Serbia) Title: Changes of Marital Behaviour and Family Patterns in Post-Socialist Countries: Delayed, Incomplete or Specific Second Demographic Transition? Publication-Status: Published Abstract: The paper starts by questioning the theory of second demographic transition (SDT) and its universal relevance in the field of marriage behavior and family organization in low fertility context, arguing for more differentiated approaches. With an aim to illustrate the contextual specifics of post-socialist countries in general and of Serbia in particular, the author claims that analyzed changes have not just been delayed or incomplete in comparison to more developed European countries, but shaped by specific modernization processes, which led to rationally developed strategies in overcoming structural risks, although, without ideational changes typical to the theory of SDT. Slow changes in marital behavior and family organization in Serbia are illustrated in recent sociological (empirical) research findings. The perceived changes are linked to specific structural risks (war, slow transformation and enduring economic hardships, weak state and low trust in institutions, etc) and value characteristics (persistence of materialism and traditionalism, but with increasing ambivalence). The connection between structural and ideational changes is considered through social stratification variable by relying on Coale's model on necessary preconditions for behavioral changes as well as on social deprivation concept.  Having in mind upper social strata (more educated and better off), the value changes precede the behavioral that are adapted to economic uncertainty, which still force more traditional marital and family patterns. Therefore, there is a rank of different options, from extended family (for a short period at the beginning of marriage or after divorce) to separated leaving (of married partners) in parental households (due to refusing the extended family option thus creating quite specific "living apart together" form), combined with dominant strategy of prolonging the marriage.  Hence, for upper social strata, marriage is still a universal but negotiable institution since more alternative options (although attractive and in accordance to changing values) are deemed irrational (have no obvious benefit). As regards the lower social strata (less educated and worse off), marriage is more in accordance with their higher inclination  to traditional values, but general value liberalization legitimizes possible failures (divorces, extra marital births), which, even if not desired or economically rational, happen due to lower capacity to command life. For that reason, cohabitations and extra marital births are more common among actors at the lower end of the stratification ladder. The paper concludes that adaptive strategies related to traditional patterns of family organization dominate in Serbia, which might be illustrated by the fact that every third of one parent families lives in extended families. Even with significant structural changes (and economic improvements) in Serbia in the near future it is realistic to expect familism as an influential context, which suggests the spreading of cohabitation primarily as a pre-marital option (but more desired than forced).   Keywords: Second demographic transition; marriage; family Journal: Stanovnistvo Pages: 53-78 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Year: 2011 Month: July DOI: 10.2298/STNV1101053P File-URL: https://stnv.idn.org.rs/STNV/article/view/123 File-Function: Abstract page File-Format: text/html File-URL: https://stnv.idn.org.rs/STNV/article/download/123/117 File-Function: Full text File-Format: application/pdf Handle: RePEc:eto:stanov:v:49:y:2011:i:1:id:123 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Ana Gavrilović Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Political Science, University of Banja Luka, Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina) Author-Name: Aleksandar Jugović Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation, University of Belgrade, Belgrade (Seria) Title: The Significance and Role of Local Self-Governments in the Population Policy of Serbia Publication-Status: Published Abstract: Population should be in the central focus of local community institutions and the local community may constitute its population policy which will supplement state population policy measures, considering the local specific various traditions, values and models of living. The paper's basic goal is to critically perceive the characteristics, significance and role of local self-governments in the current population policy of Serbia. Social situation and social policy characteristics in Serbia are analyzed in the context of the population policy. It is pointed out that poverty, unemployment, the economic crisis, the process of privatization, the issue of system decentralization and social expectations of the population, as current expressions of transition, all have a consequence on the demographic development and population policy. A critical estimation of the activities in the field of population policies which are carried out by local and provincial self-governments in Serbia in the last decade are brought into focus, with a special review to the activities of provincial and local governments in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. As a result of the analysis it is pointed out that the population and social policy measures have been separated since the year 2000 and that they have been directed only to stimulating births and not child raising and that solutions regarding maternity leave brought improvements, however shortened maternity leave for the third child. The new conception of the population policy brought a whole series of restrictions such as: suspension of aid for newborn essentials; discontinuance of the right to maternity allowance; abolishing of compensation for preschool expenses for the third child; children’s allowance lost its population measures character along with considerable tightening of the census and decreasing of amount; the activities of preschool facilities have been reduced only to an educational function, and the terms for realizing rights to preschool education for children without parents and children with special needs have been tightened. The authors point out to the values and principles on which a contemporary population policy of local self-governments in Serbia should be established, such as: stability of established measures, a clear message on the needs of society, compatibility and not uniformity with measures of other bodies, compassion and uniformity with aspirations of couples and individuals, respect for the rights and freedom of man, information availability, equality of birth and raising children in measures. The establishment of population policy municipality funds is suggested and that local population policy measures are both material and non-material type, as well as in the form of organizational measures which could use the existing resources in a better way. The municipal assembly should create organizational suppositions by appointing a Population Policy Commission as its permanent body. The Commission would propose to the Municipal Assembly to adopt a strategic document – the Population Policy Strategy in the municipality. The Municipality Assembly should adopt the Action Plan for carrying out of the population policy every year, which would define the measures, bearers, terms and methods of evaluating measures with a plan for the following year. The population policy of the local self-government should be a constant process which manages, follows and evaluates, which is public and which understands the engagement of competent people, participation of citizens-volunteers and civil organizations. Keywords: society; demographic changes; local self-government; population policy; Serbia Journal: Stanovnistvo Pages: 79-103 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Year: 2011 Month: July DOI: 10.2298/STNV1101079G File-URL: https://stnv.idn.org.rs/STNV/article/view/124 File-Function: Abstract page File-Format: text/html File-URL: https://stnv.idn.org.rs/STNV/article/download/124/118 File-Function: Full text File-Format: application/pdf Handle: RePEc:eto:stanov:v:49:y:2011:i:1:id:124