Bianet continues keeping the tally on developments pertaining to the struggle on issues of violence, sexual harassment, rape and murder against women, the penalties incurred on the offenders and favorable and unfavorable court verdicts.

*ABORTION-CESAREAN SECTION DEBATE

Women's struggle for their right to abortion and the statements delivered by government officials against the practice marked the month of June.

"My Body My Decision" Campaign

Bianet launched a campaign to allow all individuals who oppose any restrictions on abortion and the possibility of an outright ban to openly voice their concerns in a convenient manner. Thousands of people who wrote their messages over their bodies or on a piece of paper participated in the campaign to avert the efforts to muffle their voices.

The "Abortion is a Right, the Choice Belongs to Women" Platform

The "Abortion is a Right, the Choice Belongs to Women" Platform consisting of 44 women's organizations held sit-in protests and demonstrations.

The "Abortion Cannot Be Banned" Petition

Women sent a petition signed by 55,000 individuals to President Abdullah Gül, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Health Minister Recep Akdağ and Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Şahin.

"We demand the immediate termination of the [legal] process to ban and further restrict abortion," read the petition.

The signatures in the campaign were collected through the website kurtajyasaklanamaz.com within a single week. 372 women's organizations and 308 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) signed the text, along with 221 organizations from 50 other countries.

*Who said what?

Health Minister: "I find the 'My Decision' campaign unconscientious"

Health Minister Recep Akdağ said he found bianet's "My Body, My Decision" campaign unconscientious while speaking to the broadcasting station NTV.

"We are going to strive to render [the practice of] abortion as rare as possible. We would not support banning abortion [as it would encourage] illicit [alternatives,] he said.

"The issue of abortion is no longer on the agenda. No proposals will come to Parliament on this matter," Nurettin Canikli, the group deputy president of the incumbent Justice and Development Party (AKP,) also said on the issue.

"Abortion is religiously impermissible and amounts to murder"

"Aborting children and intentional miscarriages do not count as measures to prevent pregnancies. Aborting a child is tantamount to murder," said Mehmet Görmez, the head of the Religious Affairs Directorate.

*What happened?

International Domestic Workers Day

Domestic workers poured onto the streets on the International Domestic Workers Day to say "Domestic work is work, and domestic workers are workers." The İmece Women's Union also made an appearance at Istanbul's Bakırköy Square as part of the initiative.

Clues on new regulations concerning abortion

The new regulations prepared by the Ministries of Health and Justice and the Ministry of Family and Social Policies stipulated no changes with respect to the 10 week limit to legally get an abortion but imposed restrictions on places where abortion could legally be performed.

"Pregnancy test notice" debates

Lawyer Hülya Gülbahar said the Health Ministry had sent a notice to all medical analysis laboratories for them to declare the results of all pregnancy tests and other personal information pertaining to the test-takers to the ministry in an interview she gave to Ayşe Arman from the daily Hürriyet.

The family doctor of a young woman who took a pregnancy test then sent the test results to her father's cell phone via an SMS message.

Women subsequently hit the streets to protest against such efforts to label them based on the results of pregnancy tests.

Despite the ministry's denial, Dr. Fethi Bozçalı from the Istanbul Medical Chamber's management board also announced they had come in possession of the ministry's notice.

The notice contains no special reference to pregnancy tests, but it does require findings from all clinical tests to be loaded on the Health Ministry's electronic system along with personal information about the test-takers.

*Regulations, Parliamentary questions, legislation

Life long measures against child abusers

Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Şahin ordered the preparation of a draft law which stipulates the prevention of the employment of individuals convicted of charges of sexualt assault and abuse against minors in jobs involving children for their entire lives.

The draft law excludes such measures as treating such convicts with chemical agents to reduce their testosterone levels either permanently or temporarily, however.

Grant program to help in the struggle against violence toward women

A grant program has been introduced to strengthen the capacity of local and national NGOs to combat violence toward women. The program aims to improve services provided to the victims and to create social awareness regarding gender-based violence.

Violence Monitoring Center

Preparations have kicked off for the establishment of Violence Prevention and Monitoring Centers (ŞÖNİM,) as stipulated in the Law on the Protection of the Family and the Prevention of Violence Toward Women.

The Ministry of Family and Social Policies will oversee the execution of efforts to prevent violence toward women in 14 provinces. The centers will remain open for seven days a week and 24 hours a day.

*Court Verdicts

*A court sentenced deputy bailiff H.S., 60, to eight years and four months of penal servitude for sexually harassing lawyer A.Ö., 27 in Ankara.

*A suit filed against Staff Sergeant T.P. for sexually harassing police officer F.U. who had come to visit her fiancee who was performing his military service in the northwestern province of Balıkesir was passed on from a court martial of the Air Training Command to a civilian court on the grounds that the offense in question was not of a martial quality.

*T.K., the former director of the Natural and Cultural Assets Conservation Council of the Çanakkale Culture and Tourism Directorate, received a sentence of three years in prison after he verbally and physically harassed N.K. who was employed in the same institution in the northwestern province of Çanakkale.

*The prosecutor's office requested a sentence of between nine to 17 years in prison for İ.K., who raped and battered his wife in Istanbul, on charges of sexual assault and causing injury.

*The prosecution requested five years of imprisonment for S.K. who bit 25 year old E.C.'s lip after he attempted to rape her in Istanbul in March. The prosecution also requested 22 years behind bars for E.C.

*A court sentenced H.B., 40, to 16 years and 8 months in prison after he murdered his wife Yeşim Baytar in the Aegean province of İzmir. H.B., who had also tortured his wife before, stabbed his victim to death after she refused to withdraw the divorce suit she had filed. Yeşim Baytar had earlier been placed in a shelter home, after her husband subjected her to violence, while her children were also placed in an orphanage.

*A court ruled to release G.G. and A.Y. after they stood trial for two years in İzmir for allegedly raping college student E.E.

*The prosecution requested a higher sentence for Fevziye Cengiz on the grounds that she had threatened the police, after police officers beat her at the Karabağlar Police Station in İzmir. The event had created a public stir when footages of the beating surfaced in the media, while authorities re-assigned the police officers in question to Istanbul. The İzmir 15th Criminal Court of Peace ruled for lack of jurisdiction and passed the file onto a criminal court of first instance, arguing that the case involved threat, insult and resisting an officer on duty.

*The First High Criminal Court in the northwestern province of Sakarya sentenced M.N., 18, to 18 years and one month in prison after he issued his testimony following a suicide attempt by his 18 year old sister whom he had sexually abused for five years.

*A court in the Black Sea province of Samsun sentenced B.K. to 11 years and eight months in prison after a DNA test confirmed that he was the biological father of a child begotten by M.Ş., whom he had raped and impregnated in 2008. (EZA/ÇT)