In Turkey, voluntary pregnancy termination has been legal under certain conditions since 1984: women can terminate a pregnancy in public or private health institutions. Women in Turkey have only been able to have an abortion legally for 41 years. But many women are not even aware of this right.
The basic law regulating the right to abortion is the Population Planning Law, but there are also relevant articles in other laws such as the Turkish Penal Code (TCK). The TCK states that “being 18 years old and being within 10 weeks of pregnancy are legal conditions for abortion. If a woman has an unwanted pregnancy as a result of sexual violence, she has the right to have a legal abortion up to 20 weeks. In pregnancies under the age of 18, the consent of a guardian is required, and in cases of marriage, the consent of the spouse is required.
Deniz Altuntaş, a researcher working in the field of Gender Equality, defines the right to abortion as “the right of a woman to make her own decisions about her own body.” Altuntaş, who says, “Of course, some people may not find this religiously or ethically correct, and this may lead to the idea of being against abortion,” emphasizes that what is meant by the right to abortion is “not that everyone should have an abortion,” but rather “that those who need it should have access to this right.”
Altuntaş also reminds us that legal regulations in Turkey are basically to prevent the deaths and injuries of women and to reduce maternal and infant mortality as a result of “non-medical, harmful and even lethal methods used by women to terminate unwanted pregnancies.”
The point that needs to be emphasized is that abortion should be considered safe or unsafe according to the health risk it poses to the woman, rather than its legality .Because there can be “illegal but safe abortion experiences” as well as “legal but unsafe abortion experiences”. For example, abortion with pills is not legal but is a safe method. In other words, “the fact that abortion is prohibited or restricted in a country does not mean that abortion is not performed, on the contrary, it means that it is performed in unhealthy, uncontrolled and even deadly conditions” says Altuntaş.
Access to abortion services is limited in Turkey!
Many studies conducted in recent years have shown that women’s access to this right is increasingly restricted. Yet, despite being regulated by a more flexible law than many countries in the Balkans and the Middle East and despite having three types of abortion methods, why is it still difficult for women to access the right to abortion in Turkey? Why are there “doctors who refuse to perform abortions in public hospitals or people who are forced to perform abortions with pain without anaesthesia?”
Because the experiences of women in Turkey in recent years seem to justify the saying, “If you get pregnant as a result of rape, give birth, the state will take care of you.” Another reason is that “abortion is seen as a right of married women with children” and that these women have relatively easier access. The taboo of virginity, or “having multiple partners” is another reason. In fact, for this reason, “even if the abortion procedure is the same in clinics, different prices can be charged, depending on the person who has had an abortion. If you are married, you can be charged less, but if you are single, you can be charged more.”
Kadir Has University’s “Legal But Not Accessible: Abortion Services in Public Hospitals in Turkey” research shows that elective pregnancy termination services have decreased compared to previous years. The research bases the statement that elective abortion services are not provided in public hospitals on answers such as “doctor’s decision, doctor’s initiative, doctor does not perform”.
According to Deniz Altuntaş, who also took part in the research in question, the most surprising finding is “the restriction of access to abortion in cases of medical necessity.” In other words, doctors who list practical obstacles with various justifications such as “the doctor’s right to conscientious objection, hospital policy”, “regardless of whether or not there is a situation that endangers the woman’s life,” are in the position of “refusing to perform an abortion even in cases of necessity”.
Again, a recent study in this field shows that “even though medical opportunities are various, it is still difficult to have an abortion”.
One of the most striking examples of the violation of the right to abortion was a 16-year-old girl who became pregnant as a result of abuse. She applied for an abortion at 10 weeks of pregnancy but was forced to give birth after 20 weeks because the courts delayed the process. In this case, it was a 16-year-old victimized girl who was deprived of her right to an abortion, but it is proven by the experiences of many women who have difficulty in actually accessing this right: “No matter what year’s statistics you look at, the number of state hospitals that perform abortions in a year does not reach 10. In other words, those who have money and can go to private hospitals benefit from this right. Those who do not have money are left to risk their lives in backroom clinics or have the baby.”
Another obstacle that restricts women’s access to abortion is the “Lack of knowledge and awareness among health workers, especially in the field of medical abortion,” as shown in the research “Women’s Reproductive Health Services and Abortion Experiences” prepared by the Women’s Human Rights Association (KİH) and Mor Çatı. For this reason, it is not widely known that safe abortions are performed with pills in Turkey.
My right to abortion!
There are undoubtedly various reasons why women may want to have an abortion. Therefore, it is necessary to keep in mind “non-consensual relations, sexual assault and violence when developing policies on abortion”: forced pregnancy, restricting or removing access to contraceptive methods are different versions of violence.
According to Selime Büyükgöze from the Mor Çatı Women’s Shelter Foundation, “access to abortion is blocked by both men and the state.”
Therefore, it is necessary to inform women about access to abortion. With this necessity, the KİH, the Purple Roof Women’s Shelter Foundation and Women on Web have prepared a website within the scope of the “My Right to Abortion” project. This site includes information about the rights of women who want to have an abortion, where they can get support, criteria for healthcare professionals regarding abortion and various research reports on abortion.
Protecting the right to abortion / Accessing abortion services
The main point that should not be forgotten is that “everyone who wants to have an abortion should be able to access this health service safely and without any obstacles.”
As Deniz Altuntaş points out, the right to abortion is not a frequently used right like the right to vote. For this reason, many women are not aware of the existence of such a right in the first place. In order to protect the right, beyond knowing it, the obstacles to accessing abortion services must be removed. This requirement can only be achieved by “preparing and implementing public policies on a gender basis.” She reminds us that “it is the responsibility of the state administration” to facilitate access to this service and protect the right.
Undoubtedly, women’s organizations can also contribute to the process in various ways. Altuntaş says, “It is important for women to fight for this right and to protect it, not just for themselves, but for every woman who needs it or may need it.”
Sinem Esengen talks about “creating feminist solidarity networks for abortion” and reminds us that this requires “listening to intergenerational experience and being inclusive.”
SOURCE: Bianet.org, 6 March 2024. Image: kurtajhakkim.org
EDITOR’S NOTE: The lack of access to abortion in Turkey outlined in this article, despite there being no law change imposing the restrictions, has been true for many years. Can members of ICWRSA from Turkey who are aware of this history please share articles from the past showing how long this has been a major problem and try to connect with those who are experiencing it for the first time? Turkey was one of the first countries to be involved in research on acceptability of abortion pills, with researcher Ayse Akin. You can find a whole page of references in Google with her name, as early as 2006 when I published a paper she wrote in Reproductive Health Matters. Marge