Background
In Turkey, when legislative developments regarding abortion since the establishment of the Republic are examined, it is possible to map out three distinct phases starting from a phase of abortion ban to a phase when abortion was legalized within the first ten weeks of pregnancy. During the first periods of the Republic, the adoption of policies in support of birth-increase due to demographic pressures brought up the legal ban on abortion, and abortion was banned up until 1965. Throughoutthe years when negative consequences of population-increase were realized and steps were taken towards a planned national economy, together with the legal regulations regarding the prevention of pregnancies, the attitude towards abortion also started to change. In 1965, with the Law on Population Planning No: 557 and the related bylaw, abortionwas no longer an offense committed against race and situationswhere the life of the mother is in danger have been outlined in a list as occasions where there can be a resort to abortion.This transitionalphase wasfollowed by the permissive phase in 1983, when abortion started to be performed within the first ten weeks of pregnancy upon the demand of the woman.
The following public statement of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that he deliveredon 25 May 2012 at the closing session of 2012 International Parliamentarians’ Conference on the Implementation of the International Conference on Population and DevelopmentProgramme of Action (IPCI/ICPD)paved the way for a public debate that seems to be leading up to the prohibition of abortion in Turkey. The Prime Minister said: “As Turkey, we are also in great sensibility when it comes to children. I love children very much. I want at least threechildren in my country. Because I know that we need a young and dynamic population and we continue to work on this. Turkey is among the first states to sign United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Besides we have also adopted the Child Protection Law and camea long way in meeting the legal deficiencies. I say this frankly, I am a Prime Minister who is against births by cesarean section and I see this as a murder. I see abortion as a murder. Nobody should have the right to interfere with this. You kill a child either in a mother’s womb or after the childis born. There is no difference. We have to be much more sensitive to this. We have to cooperate against this”. On the following day (26 May 2012) the Prime Minister delivered the following speech at the 3. Ordinary Congress of AKP Women’s Branch: “I am a Prime Minister who is against births by cesarean section and I know that these are performed in a particularly planned way. I know these are steps taken to stop this country’s population-growth. I see abortion as a murder and I am calling out tosome circles who object to this statement, also to members of the press; you go to sleep, you wake up and you say Uludere. I say every abortion is an Uludere”.
31 May 2012 / Thursday
President of the Human Rights Commission of the Parliament: “Raped women should not have abortion either”
President of the Human Rights Commission of the Parliament, who is at the same time an MP for Justice and Development Party in Sakarya, defended the view that even women who are raped should give birth, and made new statements that fueled the debate.
Üstün said that women who were raped in Bosnia gave birth and said “if those babies were killed, it would result in a much bigger tragedy and crime caused by the rapists”. Üstün also opposed abortion of babies with the Down Syndrome. Üstün said that the subject could not only be viewed from modern medicine but must be approached from a human rights perspective, and recognize the legal and philosophical issues attached to it.
When asked how human it was to force a woman to give birth to a child not wanted by the mother, Üstün said that there were other options and replied “If the mother does not want to take care of the child, the state can take it. It is important that the matter can be discussed. This is not a matter to be resolved immediately. It has been discussed in the West for a long time. It did not reach a conclusion. In the U.S, the election has two major issues and this is one of them. This debate is not over in the U.S. For us, it is important to discuss this. The society will come to a conclusion for sure.”
His following statements are to be viewed carefully: “abortion may be allowed only when the life of the mother is under threat. The fact that the baby is autistic or has Down Syndrome may not be a justification. God will decide on its life. Death penalty is abolished. When modern criminal law lifts the death penalty as a punishment, we cannot take the life of a human being. This is what social state is about. If the father and mother are not taking care of the child, the social state has to take care of it. In fact, there is the Act on Disability. The state provides assistance to those with such a child such as providing home care and giving a tax reduction”.
To the statement that “a lot of spastic children are unaware of their lives”, Üstün replied, “Can we say, what do the poor know about living, or the slaves, or the disabled? You know in Old Greece they even had a discussion whether women were human beings. We cannot open the door to whether the disabled have a right to life. The human being is sacred, we have to accept this. We cannot make every decision on the basis of modern medicine”
(Source: http://www.aksam.com.tr/tecavuze-ugrayan-da-kurtaj-yaptirmamali--118800h.html)
Pınar Ilkkaracan: “Islam permits abortion”
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pınar Ilkkaracan affirmed that the statements of the Prime Minister concerning abortion wouldn’t comply with Islam.
Ilkaracan stated that the widespread Islamic religious sect Hanefi permits abortion up to 120 days of pregnancy and the sect Maliki up to 40 days. It is evident that Islam permits abortion. Ilkkaracan further stated that she “as a faithful person knows that these statements regarding abortion have nothing to do with Islam”.
She further remarked that “Islam is not a misogynous religion” and that “these discussions instrumentalize women’s bodies as a political means. “As in the matter of the veil, where women were used as a political instrument, now the same is achieved with the abortion debate”.
(Source: http://www.aksam.com.tr/islamiyette-kurtaja-izin-var--118804h.html)
30 May 2012 / Wednesday
Turkey aims to cut abortion numbers to boost demographics
Justin Vela
Backing up recent comments by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish health minister Recep Akdag announced on May 29 that the government aims to reduce the number of abortions performed in the country. The plan is part of a wider drive to boost Turkish demographics as it pushes to become a major economic force.
The announcement comes days after Erdogan declared himself opposed to a woman’s right to choose, sparking outrage from women’s rights groups. The PM described the practice as “murder” and likened it to a botched military air strike in December that killed 34 Kurdish civilians near the southeastern town of Uludere.
“Each abortion is one Uludere,” Erdogan told a gathering of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) women’s branches on May 25. He claimed that abortion was “a sneaky plan to wipe the country off the world stage.”
Erdogan has long called on Turks to have at least three children in order to keep the country’s population of 75m young and dynamic. Since 1983, abortion has been legal in Turkey up to 10 weeks from conception, with emergency abortions being allowed after that. Caesarean sections can be performed upon demand.
However, Erdogan is also gunning for C-sections, claiming that the procedure limits women’s chances of giving birth to more than one child. He described caesarean births as “nothing more than a procedure to restrict and square a nation’s population.” No official has yet indicated who the government believes is behind the conspiracy.
“I am a prime minister who opposes caesarean births, and I know all this is being done on purpose,” he said. “I know these are steps taken to prevent this country’s population from growing further. I see abortion as murder, and I call upon those circles and members of the media who oppose my comments: You live and breathe Uludere. I say every abortion is an Uludere.”
OECD figures from 2011 show that Turkey does have a high rate of caesarean births, about 40% more than in 2009. Only fellow emerging markets Brasil and China beats the country’s rate of such operations. Figures also show abortion is on the rise, with 70,000 performed in 2011, compared with 60,000 two years earlier.
Erdogan has often expressed concern about Turkey’s low birth rate, and has regularly tied sustaining the country’s economic development to maintaining a young population.
Turkey has a fertility-rate of about 2.12 children per woman, just barely enough to replace its population, according to the OECD. In 1984, the fertility rate was about 3.9 children per women. Turkey’s population was reported at 70.54m in 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund, which forecasts it will expand to over 76m by 2015.
However, despite Erdogan’s enthusiasm to accelerate those figures to help drive economic growth, there are several points of concern. In the first place, unemployment remains sticky as the economy moves from an agricultural model to an urban one, and Turkey’s young population struggles to find jobs. Youth labour force participation is only around 40%. Turkey also has the lowest health spending per capita within the OECD.
That has done little to curb Erdogan’s calls for emerging markets to swell their numbers however. The PM even advised Kazakstan premier Karim Massimov recently to copy the practice. “You know I [call for] at least three children to every couple in Turkey, but you should [call for] at least five,” Erdogan said.
(Source: http://www.bne.eu/story3650/Ankara_seeks_to_quash_abortion_conspiracy)
The Rightful Women Platform: “Don’t do politics over women’s bodies”
The Rightful Women Platform has published an open letter to the Prime Minister which stated: “Your recent statements make us think that the State seeks to have a say on women’s bodies once again; thus, making us concerned. We suggest you cease to do politics on woman and her body in every platform, relevant or not. We, women, do not approve of anyone bringing our already acquired rights in relation to our existence and presence up for discussion once more. We want this to be seen and regarded as a decline in our country’s development index.” The Rightful Women Platform is supported by 42 organizations.
(Source: http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/seninleartibir/20644984.asp)
Women of Ayvalık: “Women are no incubators!”
A group of women from several organizations and party branches such as CHP, Emek, ÖDP, TKP reacted to the statements of the Prime Minister:
“Since the day they came to power, the Prime Minister and AKP bureaucrats are attacking women with excuses like ‘honor’ and ‘morals’, and now women are accused of being murderers. Erdoğan had defined abortion and caesural section as murder. In order to decrease labor wages, unemployed people are a necessity.”
“In this manner the statements of the Prime Minister like: ‘At least three children!’ and ‘abortion is murder and a wipe out of this nation from history’, he aims to sustain an economy that is boasted to grow at the expense of working people who live under conditions of misery. The arguments of the Prime Minister regarding equality between women and men, his politics and his demand for many children, show that he obviously sees women as incubators, while his intention is clear towards eliminating women’s struggle in taking ownership of their bodies and their achievements in this area.
“We also know that the Prime Minister doesn’t always show the same sensitivity he feels for the life of a baby in the womb, when for example the 19 year-old E.Ö, miscarried her 2 month-old unborn baby, caused by the kicking of the police during a street protest. It appears that the right of a woman to have a say about her own body is not seen to be legitimate, while women losing their unborn babies by police attacks is considered to be rather normal.
“It is tragic that Fatma Şahin, the Minister of Family and Social Policies, approves of these statements. The law for family planning and the right to abortion is the only way to decrease maternal mortality rates in Turkey. Furthermore, in a country in which pregnancies as a consequence of tragedies such as incest, or forced and early marriages are common, and violence against women is booming, debating abortion rights is an invitation for the murder of women.”
(Source: http://www.haberfx.net/ayvalikli-kadinlardan-ilginc-kurtaj-eylemi-haberi-512831/)
Izmir Medical Society: “Women should decide on a matter, in which the consequences will be billed to them”
President of IMS Dr. Suat Kaptaner stated: “Health issues can not be managed with unscientific approaches. Does the statement ‘abortion is murder’ by the Prime Minister imply that all doctors who carry out abortion and Cesarean section are butchers? If abortion and C-sects are an evil plan to wipe out the Turkish nation from history, then whose plans are these? We demand an explanation from the Prime Minister!”
Kaptaner further stated: “In case of an abortion ban, alternative methods will be resorted to. Mortality rates of mothers in the early stages of pregnancy will increase, and women will be the ones to pay the price. Women who constantly give birth lock themselves in the domestic sphere and are almost disabled, while trying to terminate their pregnancy with primitive methods, are not the needs of this country. Not giving birth is a woman’s right just as much as giving birth is. Neither abortion, nor C-sect are murder, but a medical necessity!”
(Source: http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/saglik/20657986.asp)
Protest of Women from Izmir
150 members of the Izmir Women’s Platform protested against the statements of the Prime Minister regarding abortion. Women carrying banners saying “Uludere is murder, abortion isn’t”, “Women in resistance will not consent to the abortion ban”, “Our bodies belong to us” ended the protest with a sit-in.
(Source:http://www.haberler.com/izmirli-kadinlardan-kurtaj-protestosu-3668141-haberi/)
Protest of Women from Bursa
Women protesting in Bursa against the statements of the Prime Minister declared: “The government constantly states that women and men are not equal, aims to imprison women into the domestic sphere, wants them to give birth to 3, if not 5 children. The Prime Minister, who thinks he has the right to decide not only how many children a woman should have but also how they will give birth, also stated that he is against Cesarean.”
(Source: http://www.haberler.com/bursali-kadinlardan-kurtaj-tepkisi-3668169-haberi/)
Women from Ankara: Abortion is a right, Uludere a massacre”
Women who came together at the summon of the Ankara Women’s Platform marched to the Prime Ministry with their placards and slogans saying: “Abortion is a right, Uludere a massacre”, “Prime Minister, take your hand off my womb”, “Abortion is my choice, murder, your method”. In the press release it was stated that Turkey is also a party to CEDAW, and is therefore obliged to ensure the reproductive rights as well as to provide access to secure health services. After the press release the slogans of women echoed in front of the Prime Ministry: “Prime Minister resign!”,
“Fatma Sahin (Minister of Family and Social Policies) don’t sleep, don’t protect that Tayyip (Prime Minister’s first name).
(Source: http://www.bianet.org/bianet/insan-haklari/138744-kurtaj-haktir-uludere-katliam)
Felicity Party: “Abortion ban is not enough!”
Vice President of the Felicity Party Birol Aydın argued in his written statement said: Adultery was permitted due to the sanctions of the EU, and now the government complains about abortion. This is truly a paradox. Permitting adultery and then complaining about abortion is like watering the swamp, and then complaining about the mosquitoes. Of course there should be an abortion ban. But first the swamp has to be dried and adultery has to be criminalized”.
Amnesty International: “Turkish Prime Minister’s staunch opposition to abortion undermines human rights”
Amnesty International is deeply concerned by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s announcement of forthcoming legislation on abortion which, if passed, would further restrict access to needed health care for women and girls in contravention of their human rights. At a recent event the Prime Minister made comments comparing abortion to murder and calling on the Minister of Health to impose new, more restrictive abortion laws in Turkey.
Abortion has been legal in Turkey since 1983, allowing women to terminate a pregnancy during the first 10 weeks of gestation. Thereafter, a legal abortion is permitted only to save the life or health of the pregnant woman and in cases of foetal impairment.
Restrictions on access to abortion go against medical evidence and place the lives and health of women in Turkey at risk by forcing many who need abortions to seek illegal and therefore generally unsafe procedures. The World Health Organization has noted that, “the more restrictive legislation on abortion [is], the more likely abortion [is] to be unsafe and to result in death.”
The restriction of abortion access and the denial of safe and legal abortion services also violates women’s human rights as protected in numerous binding international human rights treaties. Turkey is party to several international human rights treaties —such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women—protecting a range of human rights that are intrinsically linked to women’s ability to decide if, when, with whom, and how often to become mothers. The United Nations expert bodies authorised by states to interpret these treaties have repeatedly called for women and adolescent girls to have access to a full range of sexual and reproductive health services, including, where needed, abortion.
Amnesty International calls on the Turkish government to ensure that women’s human rights are fully protected and that no further measures are put in place restricting women’s access to safe and legal abortion services.
The statements of the opposition parties
CHP Istanbul MP Ihsan Özkeş stated: “In the history of 1400 year-old Islam, there is no punishment for women who get an abortion”.
MHP Vice-President Ruhsar Demirel affirmed: “I do politics with women, not on woman.”
BDP Mersin MP Ertuğrul Kürkçü stated that with these discussions on abortion the government aims to take the agenda off of Uludere.
MHP President Devlet Bahceli stated: “The Prime Minister presents his own political and ideological viewpoints on abortion. One has to respect that, but to bring a subject like abortion in relation to Uludere and to violate our women is very inappropriate”.
CHP Mersin MP Prof. Dr. Aytuğ Atıcı: “It is the constitutional duty of the Ministry of Health to provide a woman who doesn’t want to get pregnant with primary health services. A mother should give birth to as many children as she desires. This decision is only to be taken by herself. I was also a doctor back then, when abortion was banned in Turkey, and I remember the methods women were using. Some penetrated skewers in their wombs, others took various pills. I witnessed lots of cases. An abortion ban would lead to an increase in child and maternal mortality. If the prime minister prevents access to legal abortion, the blood of every dying woman will be on his hands. This approach is pure ignorance and lacking any scientific data”.
CHP Istanbul MP Melda Onur stated: While banning abortion the Prime Minister should also consider women who get raped. What do we do? Shall we wed them to their rapists?
(Source: http://www.cnnturk.com/2012/turkiye/05/29/bahceli.ak.parti.chp.bdp.ve.pkk/662893.0/index.html,http://www.haberturk.com/polemik/haber/746624-kurtaj-polemigi and http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/20654033.asp)
The Minister of Health: “If it is necessary, such a baby would be taken care of by the state”
The Minister of Health stated that even women who get pregnant through rape or incest should not get an abortion. Akdağ: “If it is necessary, such a baby will be taken care of by the state. If we are going to pass such a law and imply more serious restrictions on abortion, we also have to take ‘side-measures’ into account. My personal approach is that as long as it is not a medical necessity, abortion should not be conducted. But we will have to see what this report will bring about.”
(Source: http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/20660547.asp)
Turkish Medical Association / Women’s Health: The women do not belong to the state but to themselves!
“It seems that the pressures to determine how many children women should have and how they should give birth are going to affect the achievements of the women’s movement. To bring an incident like Uludere, where the perpetrators are still not found, in relation to abortion shows not only the ignorance against the sorrow of those who lost their relatives in Uludere, but also the aim to distract public attention. Not being aware of the difference between these two discussions is not possible.
“The aim of the current government, which states so often that it doesn’t believe in the equality between men and women, is obvious: To lock woman in a secondary position in the family, to provide cheap, unsecured workforce for the capital, to create thousands of unemployed people, who would be willing to work for pittance. The right to abortion is an inseparable part of the ownership of women over their own bodies and their own fertility.
“Abortion is not a crime, but to force women to risks that could endanger their lives is. The right to abortion is the right to abolish the men’s/state’s control over women’s bodies. Contraceptive methods are expensive, cheap methods on the other hand endanger women’s right to health and right to live. Out of that, the access of all women to a higher standard of contraceptive methods should be provided. It is essential to defend abortion as a legal right, as the freedom to choose, and as a social right as well, because a free, accessible and legal right to an abortion is at the same time right to live. Women do not belong to the state, but to themselves!”
Fatma Şahin, Minister of Family and Social Policies: “Abortion is not a way for family planning, life starts in the womb”
Fatma Şahin, Minister of Family and Social Policies, stated “When one conceives and then has abortion, one destroys a life”.
She said that lately, abortion has been presented as a family planning option and therefore abortion rates have seriously increased. She continued, “However, life starts in the womb. We don’t have a strong culture of debate. That is what makes me sad. We, all 74 million of us, should discuss this matter and look for the right thing to do. We may get a counter argument; someone might say “right to choose” while another defends the “right to life”. We should not say that an opinion is wrong just because it comes from the opposite side. The country is being polarized; there is no need for this. We will provide all the necessary information and raise awareness. We will educate our women. We will tell them that abortion is not family planning. The Ministry of Health already provides a lot of technical information on family planning and reproductive health for free. However, when you do not use any of these methods and conceive and then have abortion, you destroy a life. The mother has a right, but the baby has a right to life. Therefore, we should find a balance. Our women should be more conscious, more sensitive and better informed. We will stand at where the world is on this and by science and rationale”.
She said that people should give up their prejudices and stop imputing agendas to the government by saying things like “their intention was to do so since the very beginning” or “see, this is where they are coming from”. She further stated “We will stand by whatever it is right to do both as women and men and fight for it”.
(Source: http://www.haberler.com/bakan-sahin-kurtaj-aile-planlamasi-degil-hayat-3665948-haberi/)
President of the Health Commision of the Parliament: “Abortion is worse than Uludere”
Upon the instruction of the Prime Minister work has started on abortion. The plan is to decrease the 10 weeks limit of pregnancy in abortion to 4 weeks.
The President of the Health Commission of the Parliament Cevdet Erdöl, who is going to provide the final version of the legislation, replied to questions as follows: “No one is opposed to C-section and abortion when this is a medical necessity. Our Prime Minister has not said anything to that effect. Some people are surprised by the Uludere analogy. In Uludere, there is a conflict situation whereby people are bombed for being mistaken as terrorists. In the mother’s womb, there is a totally innocent baby, this is worse than Uludere.” Erdöl said that there has been works on abortion for over two years.
He continued “when we talk about children’s rights, we talk about children between the ages of 0-18. This is a very wrong definition. Because children also have rights before they are born. I wrote letters to WHO, UNICEF, the Ministry of Family and Social Policies as well as the Ministry of Health so as to change this definition to include minus one. We should not only defend the rights of children between 0-18 but also children in the womb”.
(Source: http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/id/25353635/)
29 May 2012 / Tuesday
Call for action: “Abortion is our right, we will not let you discuss it. Our bodies are ours!’’
Women from the People’s Houses group, from ODP (Freedom and Democracy Party), from TKP (The Communist Party of Turkey), from EHP (Labour Movement Party), from DIP (Revolutionary Worker’s Party), from DISK (Confederation of Revolutionary Worker’s Unions), the Socialist Women’s Councils and the University Women’s Collective put out a call for action. They invited all women to the demonstration that will take place in the Kadikoy Square on the 3rd of June, Sunday, at 14:00 with the slogan: ’’Abortion is our right, we will not let you discuss it. Our bodies are ours.’’
Turkish women protest plans to curb abortion
Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press
ANKARA - Thousands of demonstrators on Sunday staged the largest protest yet against plans by Turkey’s Islamic-rooted government to curb abortion, which critics say will amount to a virtual ban.
Around 3,000 women - their ages ranging from 20 to 60 years old - gathered at a square in Istanbul’s Kadikoy district. Some carried banners that read “my body, my choice” and shouted anti-government slogans.
Many of the women were accompanied by husbands and boyfriends. One young protester - her left fist clenched aloft - carried a placard that read “State, take your hands off my body,” while a man waved a slogan reading “My darling’s body, my darling’s choice.”
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called abortion “murder,” and his government is reportedly working on legislation to ban the operation after 4 weeks from conception, except in emergencies.
Fusun Sirkeci, a London-based obstetrician and gynecologist, said in an email Saturday that most women don’t learn they are pregnant until after 4 weeks and it is also difficult to establish the placement of the pregnancy sac during that period.
Abortion is presently legal in Turkey up to 10 weeks from conception.
“They say it is my body, my choice. Feminists say this,” Erdogan said Saturday during a rally in the country’s southeast. “No one has the right to abort a fetus in a body.”
Analysts say Erdogan is pursuing a delicate strategy of beefing up Turkey’s regional power with a large population, while trying to balance the country’s demographics in the face of a high birth rate among the country’s Kurds, a source of concern for Turkey since it is engaged in a bitter fight against Kurdish rebels who want autonomy in the largely Kurdish southeast.
Remarks by members of Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, however, have also revealed deep-rooted moral and religious concerns.
Health Minister Recep Akdag caused an outcry Thursday when he told reporters that if necessary the government would even look after the babies of “rape victims.” Facing criticism, he said Saturday that he did not mean rape victims can never have an abortion.
Deniz Ulke Aribogan, a professor of international relations at Istanbul’s Bilgi University, wrote in Aksam newspaper Friday that the government was seeking to use abortion to balance the Kurds’ high birth rate, since “ethnic reproduction is used by some organizations as a political tool” - an apparent reference to the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, that is fighting for autonomy, and a pro-Kurdish political party also demanding the same.
“The problem is the rapid rise of population in eastern regions, while it has almost came to a standstill in western regions,” Aribogan wrote, adding that the decision had been taken for political reasons, rather than out of moral or religious concern.
The largely Kurdish southeast has the highest birth rate in Turkey with 27.3 births in every 1,000, compared to 11,4 births in the northwest, according to the latest available figures in 2010 by the Turkish Statistical Institute. More than 25 percent of Turkey’s nearly 75 million population is under the age of 14, according to a December survey.
Tino Sanandaji, a post-doctoral fellow at Chicago University who researches demographic change and its link to policy, said in an email Saturday that in the long run the higher Kurdish growth rate is certain to have social and political implications, although the process is “quite slow” for now.
“If it continues for four to five decades, however, the balance of power could start shifting, which is what seems to concern Turkish nationalists,” he said.
Sirkeci warned in her email of the dangers of a virtual ban saying it will force “some women to terminate themselves which could potentially be fatal or disabling.”
Sirkeci said any ban would also create an illegal market for abortions, and have a huge psychological impact on women.
“I feel the danger is very obvious,” she said.
(Source: http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2012/05/29/11934488-turkish-women-protest-plans-to-curb-abortion)
Turkish premier: “I see abortion as murder”
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has provoked a firestorm of criticism by saying: “I see abortion as murder.”
“What’s the difference between killing a baby inside a mother’s womb and killing a baby after birth?” Erdogan asked rhetorically during a talk to women’s groups. He said that support for abortion should be seen as “a sneaky plan to wipe the country off the world stage.”
Abortion is legal in Turkey through the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. The abortion issue has not been a major factor in political debates, so Erdogan’s comments came as a surprise, and drew angry criticisms from opposition groups.
Erdogan has encouraged the people of Turkey to maintain the country’s high birth rate, arguing that population growth helps to strengthen the country both economically and socially. He has called for a “3-child policy” that would urged families to have at least 3 children.
(Source: http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=14453)
Minister of Health: “Abortion may be banned in its entirety”
In a meeting with general media directors, the Minister of Health also commented on the recent debate around abortion.
“I agree with the statement that abortion is murder” he said and further stated that abortion may be banned entirely except in medical necessities. Akdağ stated the following: “A ten weeks baby is an organism that is alive because its heart beats. This is a political decision to be made in the light of science. Women’s organizations do not represent the whole of Turkish women. I am for the right to life, whereas a women’s organization may be for the right to life or for the right to choice. If necessary, abortion may be banned in its entirety unless it is a medical necessity”.
(Source: http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/id/25353618/)
28 May 2012 / Monday
The President of the Human Rights Commission of the Turkish Parliament: ’’Abortion should not be given any legal permissibility.’’
Ayhan Sefer Ustun, the President of the Human Rights Commission of the Turkish Parliament and AKP’s (the political party in power) MP from Sakarya, stated that ’’Abortion is a bad thing and it is also legally unacceptable.’’ He also said, ’’Abortion is a crime against humanity. With abortion a child’s right to life is taken away. It is a dire mistake to accept that life only starts after a certain month. This misunderstanding must be cleared up in our society. We are seeing that our people are slowly realizing that this is a mistake and abandoning this kind of thinking.’’ Ustun also stated that ’’Any intervention on a person living inside the mother’s womb should be banned. Regardless of how many months have passed, abortion is a crime against humanity. I believe that, contrary to how the law is now, life actually starts earlier. This issue has many dimensions. It has a human rights dimension, a Penal Law dimension, a tradition dimension, etc.’’
(Source: http://www.haberturk.com/polemik/haber/745946-kurtaj-yasaklanmali-)
Joint Declaration from Doctors: “Abortion is not murder!”
The Turkish Medical Association - Istanbul Medical Chamber Governing Board, the Governing Board of the Turkish Gynecologists and Obstretricians Foundation, the Governing Board of Turkey’s Maternal Fetal Medicine and Perinatology Foundation, the Governing Board of the Turkish Gynecological Oncology Foundation, the Governing Board of the Turkish Perinatology Foundation, the Governing Board of the Turkish Urinogynecology and Pelvic Reconstructif Surgery Foundation, the Governing Board of the Reproductive Health and Infertility Foundation (TSRM), the Governing Board of the Reproductive Medicine Foundation (UTD) and the Governing Board of the Istanbul Branch of the Turkish Gynecology and Obstetrics Foundation signed under a joint declaration. Here, they stated their discomfort towards abortion being described as murder. The declaration also said, ’’Thousands of our citizens have been able to put an end to pregnancies that started when they were not in socially or economically appropriate conditions, with their own will and based on the right given to them by law. Before our citizens were given this right, meaning when abortion was illegal, many unwanted pregnancies were ended in unsafe locations by people who did not have adequate knowledge about the issue and by methods such as inserting various dangerous substances into the uterus, rather than in hospitals and places with necessary medical conditions as it is now. We would like to remind you that these kinds of enterprises most commonly ended up in mothers’ deaths.’’
(Source: http://www.istabip.org.tr/index.php/haberler/2505--sezaryen-ve-kuertaj-cinayet-deildir.html
Furious Turkish women to lobby over prime minister’s abortion remarks
Some 300 women are to protest to the Turkish government Tuesday after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sparked fury among women’s rights advocates by likening abortion to murder.
Activists have expressed outrage at the premier’s remarks, branding him a “woman’s enemy.”
The representatives from women’s associations will meet Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Sahin, who has supported Erdogan’s stance.
Erdogan, who also opposed recourse to Caesarean deliveries, sparked the row when he told a population conference on Friday he considered abortion a conspiracy to curb his country’s economic growth.
Appealing to women not to use the right to terminate a pregnancy, he said, “You either kill a baby in the mother’s womb or you kill it after birth. There’s no difference.”
The prime minister further fanned the flames when he told women’s branches of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) that “Every abortion is an Uludere,” referring to a botched attack on Kurds by Turkish warplanes in December that claimed 34 lives.
In Istanbul, dozens of women protested at the weekend, unfurling banners reading, “Is the right to abortion the prime minister’s business?”, “Uludcere is murder, not abortion,” and “It’s our womb, we have Caesarean delivery or abortion.”
Women’s organisations accused the Turkish premier of making politics over women’s bodies and urged him to address priority issues that concern women.
“Caesarean births and abortion have legal footing in Turkey. The prime minister’s attempt to change the country’s agenda by attacking women is a grave mistake” said Canan Gullu, head of the Federation of Women’s Associations.
“In such a party congress, the prime minister should have talked about women’s problems including unemployment, domestic violence, or their inadequate standing in political life, instead of making politics over women’s bodies,” she said.
Female deputies from the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) also joined the fray, urging Erdogan to “give up standing guard over women’s vaginas.”
Erdogan, whose governing Justice and Development Party takes its roots from Islam, has repeatedly called on women to have at least three children.
In 2004, his government backed a law criminalizing adultery but had to abandon it after intense pressure from the European Union.
The prime minister’s latest salvo however has raised concerns at a possible government bid to ban abortion in Turkey that has been legal since 1983, allowing women to terminate a pregnancy in the first 10 weeks.
Sahin defended Erdogan, saying he was referring to unwanted pregnancies which could have been avoided by family planning methods.
“It is every family’s most natural right to plan the number of children they want to have,” she said. “It is out of the question for us... to interfere in this right.”
Initially abortion was permitted only to save the life or preserve the health of a pregnant woman and in cases of fetal impairment but growing rates of illegal abortion prompted the government to liberalize the law in the 1980s.
The latest figures show abortions on the rise throughout the country, from around 60,000 in 2009 to nearly 70,000 in 2011.
Sahin also backed Erdogan’s criticism of the high number of Caesarian births in Turkey, where they now represented half of all deliveries.
“The World Health Organization says this rate should not exceed 15-20 percent. If you take a look at the European Union averages, this rate is not over 20 percent,” she said.
However, in a statement posted on its website, the Turkish Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology said the world as a whole had seen an increase in C-section delivery rates.
(Source: www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/05/28/217063.html)
26 May 2012 / Saturday
The Istanbul Feminist Collective: “The Womb is Ours, the Life is Ours, the Decision is Ours”
Women protested the Prime Minister’s declarations with regards to abortion, saying “What you call murder is men’s violence; abortion, on the other hand, is a woman’s choice.” They demanded that the Prime Minister apologize for all these statements he has made and take action to stop the murder of women. The Istanbul Feminist Collective protested the Prime Minister’s latest statements with regards to abortion. When the women wanted to protest in front of the Prime Minister’s office in Dolmabahce but were then stopped by the police, they held a sit-in on the main road, halting the traffic. The police said that they would intervene if the women didn’t clear off the street and let the traffic flow. When the police officers started putting on gas masks, the members of the Collective moved to the sidewalk on that road to continue giving their press release. The Collective listed the many violations that have already been taking place in Turkey with regards to abortion, as follows: While the legal limit for abortion in many countries is 12 weeks, in Turkey this is 10 weeks. However, medical facilities actually perform abortions only up to 8 weeks; thus our legal right is violated by the state’s health services themselves. Aborting pregnancies that result from rape has become nearly impossible in reality, due to the procedure prescribed by the state. In some cities there aren’t even medical facilities to perform abortions and women have to come to larger cities to get abortions and/or risk their lives in abortions performed under unsafe conditions. Additionally, it was stated in the press release that cheap and easy access to high-standard birth control methods should be provided to all women, and their right to free abortions under healthy circumstances that have sufficient quality should be guaranteed. The women also called the Prime Minister to apologize to them for his discriminatory statements and take immediate action to prevent the murder of women.
(Source: http://www.bianet.org/bianet/bianet/138652-rahim-bizim-hayat-bizim-karar-bizim)
Prime Minister: “Each abortion is an Uludere”
The Prime Minister stated the following at the Third Congress of the Women’s Wing of his party: “I am addressing those that are against my statement and the media. They talk about nothing but Uludere. Each abortion is a case of Uludere. I am asking you. What is the difference between killing a baby in its mother’s womb and after its birth? We must fight for this. We need to know that this a stealthy plan to erase this nation from the world stage. We should not allow these games to materialize”.
25 May 2012 / Friday
Prime Minister: “I see abortion as a murder.”
Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a speech that he delivered on 25 May 2012 at the closing session of 2012 International Parliamentarians’ Conference on the Implementation of the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action (IPCI/ICPD) paved the way for a public debate that seems to be leading up to the prohibition of abortion in Turkey.
The Prime Minister said: “As Turkey, we are sensible towards children. I love children very much. I want at least three children [in each household]. Because I know that we need a young and dynamic population and we are continuously working on this. Turkey is among the first states to sign the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Moreover, we have also adopted the Child Protection Law and came a long way in meeting the legal deficiencies. Frankly, I am a Prime Minister who is against births by cesarean section and I see this as a murder. I see abortion as a murder. Nobody should have the right to interfere with [the fetus]. You kill a child either in the mother’s womb or after it is born. There is no difference. We have to be much more sensitive about this. We have to cooperate against this”.