Abortion in Turkey: Legal But Banned in Public Hospitals
A telephone inquiry research on 37 public hospitals realized by Mor Çatı Women Shelter Foundation revealed that only 3 public hospitals in Istanbul perform abortions by request. The foundation asked the hospitals the following question: “Do you perform abortions?”
Some of the highlights from inquiry results are as follows:
* Only 3 publics in Istanbul perform abortions by request.
* 12 hospitals don’t perform abortions under any condition.
* 17 hospital perform abortions only when the fetus is dead inside the womb, or it would harm the mother, or the baby would have disabilities, or the mother would have bleeding, or she would risk miscarriage. In those cases, the decision is taken by a council.
* Only 1 of the hospitals that allow abortions by request confirmed that they could perform abortion until the Week 10. Other said that they do so until Week 8.
* No clear information has been retrieved from two public hospitals as their gynecology services were not reachable.
* 3 public hospitals declined to provide information over the phone, saying that it was not allowed.
What do laws say?
Implemented on 27/5/1983 Law No 2827 on Population Planning cites the following on Article 5:
“Until the 10th week of abortion, the fetus can be evicted in the case that it would medically not harm the mother.”
According to this article, public hospitals are entitled to end pregnancies until the Week 10 by the request of women. However, the majority of hospitals express that they take the government’s opinion as reference instead of respecting the laws.
What did statesmen say?
On 15 May 2012, then-PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had a keynote speech at an international conference on population, saying that he was against caesarean section. “Every abortion is a murder,” he said.
The following day, then-PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended his party’s women organization wing conference, saying that “every abortion was an Uludere [referring to Roboski Massacre] and claiming that “abortion was a sly plan to annihilate the Turkish nation from the world”.
“Abortion and miscarriage are not contraception. Aborting a child is murder,” Mehmet Görmez, Turkey’s Religious Directorate (Diyanet), said.
“If the mother doesn’t want to bring up the child, the state can,” Parliament’s Human Rights Commission Chairman and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Sakarya deputy Ayhan Sefer Üstün said.
On the other hand, then-Health Minister Recep Akdağ claimed that abortion had “something to do with morality”: “Politicians will decide on the matter by looking at both scientific and moral aspects. People sometimes ask what if something bad would to the mother. If necessary, the state can take care of the baby.” (ÇT/BM)
* Click here to read the article in Turkish.