The abortion situation in Türkiye is unique. We have a fairly liberal law on paper, but in reality, access to abortion is severely restricted.
Abortion is legal on request up to 10 weeks. When you compare this to other countries in the region, Türkiye can look more egalitarian. But in practice, because of the government’s pro-natalist policies, access to abortion is not possible in state hospitals. We have a huge gap between law and practice.
Women’s bodies and sexualities have always been under the control of the state.
Abortion was prohibited until 1983. This was a time when Türkiye went through a military coup. All the democratic institutions were shut down, and activists, professors and journalists were being arrested.
After the military took charge, they introduced some legal reforms to give the impression to the rest of the world that democracy was intact. For example, they signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the Convention Against Torture. They also legalised abortion and the ability for trans people have their gender legally recognised around this time. These laws didn’t necessarily come about because of a commitment to human rights, but to present the country as progressive to the international community.
Abortion has been highly stigmatised by the country’s leaders.
In 2012 President Erdoğan caused huge protests by comparing abortion to a massacre and suggesting the law should be amended to only allow procedures up to four weeks of pregnancy. Again, on International Women’s Day he said, “I consider abortion to be murder” and even denounced cesarean births as “unnatural”. The mayor of the capital city Ankara said on live TV that a woman considering abortion should “kill her herself instead and not let the child bear the brunt of her mistake”.
These shocking pronouncements led to thousands of women taking to the streets to affirm our reproductive rights and reject the proposal to reduce the legal time limit for abortion. While the rejection of the legal change was successful, the government made various changes to the healthcare system to make abortion de facto impossible to obtain.
Since the early 2000s, the government has introduced barriers to abortion access.
Sexual and reproductive health services are no longer available in local health care centres, only state-run hospitals. These large hospitals are usually in big cities and much less accessible for many. We have also found that doctors are regularly misinforming and refusing care to those who request abortion services.
Our research shows that only about 4% of public hospitals in Türkiye actually provide abortion services. And the cost in private hospitals is almost as much as the minimum wage.
Parental consent is required for anyone under 18, and married women must obtain their husband’s permission to have an abortion.
Despite research approving the safety and efficacy of medical abortion use in Türkiye, Misoprostol is not available. In fact, medical abortion is not understood by medical health professionals, or the women we interviewed, who had many concerns about it being ‘risky’. Türkiye is the only country where the Women on Web site has been blocked despite a legal right to abortion on request.
We want to change the conversation about abortion, and let women know their rights.
Despite facing a difficult political environment we are determined to improve access to reproductive rights. Through our research we found that the women we interviewed were in favour of abortion being legally accessible as a right. Even those from conservative backgrounds. We are working to improve the knowledge and values of health care providers and medical students, to ensure they are encouraged to provide abortion services as legally required.
We have created a comprehensive website, which for the first time gathers evidence-based information about abortion in the Turkish language, and supports those denied reproductive care to advocate for their rights.
We hope to see a change in the understanding of abortion as a right, and for safe abortion care to be available for everyone who needs it.
By Ezel Buse Sönmezocak and İrem Gerkuş at Women for Women’s Human Rights (WWHR), a SAAF grantee partner in Türkiye.