“Our Womb, Our Life, Our Decision”

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a speech at 2012 Parliamentarians' Conference of International Conference on Population and Development on May 25^th and told that he considered abortion as "murder":

"I consider abortion as murder. Nobody should have the right to allow this. You either kill a baby in mother's womb or you kill it after birth. There's no difference."

Istanbul Feminist Collective protested the recent statement of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Women wishing to perform their protest in front of the prime minister's office at Dolmabahçe were blocked by the police, so they staged a sit in the main street. As the policemen warned them and wore their gas masks members of the collective made s press statement at the pavement:

Women carried 'Murder is male violence, abortion is the choice of women', 'Our Womb, Our Life, Our Decision', '5 women are murdered per day, why don't you deal with this Prime Minister?',  'Do not touch my right to abortion, give an explanation for Roboski' banners.

'Women resist the discourses of legitimating the control of women's fertility and physical exploitation that's ongoing through the human history' stated

The Collective and listed the ongoing abuses in abortion in Turkey as follows:

* The legal term for abortion is 12 weeks in many countries, but it's 10 weeks in Turkey. However, health care organizations make it up to 8 weeks. Our legal rights are being violated through the state's health services.

* Being an abortion after rape pregnancies is becoming almost impossible in practice due to the procedure stipulated by the state

* In some cities, there are not even health care organizations to perform abortion operation, so women have to come to big cities and/or they have to risk their life by having abortion under unhealthy conditions.

*High standards of free and easy access to birth control methods should be ensured to all women. The right to abortion should be ensured under healthy and well-qualified conditions for free.

Women called Prime Minister Erdoğan to apologize due to his discriminatory statements and to take action against women murders.

Their statement consisted the following statements:

"A pregnant woman is not a mother!

"The fetus is not a child.

" A woman has the rights to her own body and it does not belong to the state

"This is our body. Abortion is our fundamental right.

"Cesarean is a method for the birth

"Abortion under healthy and safe conditions is our health right, you cannot violate" (ÇT)