Population politics, reproductive governance and access to abortion in Turkey

Abstract

Turkey currently pursues an aggressive pronatalist population politics which has created wide-reaching reproductive governance regulating reproductive health care and family planning choices. One aspect of this orientation centres on restricting access to abortion services despite the fact that abortion is legal through ten weeks of pregnancy. This article uses nationwide data collected from mystery patient surveys administered to all public (in 2016 and 2020), and all private (2021) hospitals in the country to determine the availability of abortion services in Turkey. Less than half of all hospitals responding provided abortions to the full extent provided by law. Abortion without restriction as to reason was largely unavailable at public hospitals and the cost of care at private hospitals remained prohibitive for many. Among those hospitals we reached, in four provinces, there was no public or private hospital providing any type of abortion care. The most frequent explanation for the lack of abortion services was that abortion is illegal. This was particularly the case for public hospitals. Despite a 10-week cutoff for abortions, 39% of private hospitals responding to the survey invoked even earlier time limits creating further restrictions. The extreme pronatal orientation of the reproductive governance currently in place has created a state of reproductive injustice that makes enhanced access to abortion of vital importance.

Keywords:

• abortion
• access
• Turkey
• reproductive governance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of the research, and for ethical and security reasons, supporting data are not available.

Notes

1 The law on abortion in Turkey refers to isteğe bağlı kurtaj, which can be translated as abortion on demand, or abortion on request. Following the recommendations of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, we have chosen to use the term abortion without restriction for a reason. We see this terminology as less judgemental while at the same time capturing the meaning elicited by the law.

2 We have chosen to use the inclusive term pregnant person unless the reference or data specifically uses the term woman.

3 Inflation for this same period was 113.5% (Türkiye Cumhuriyet Merkez Bankası 2023).

4 In 2020, when price data was collected the average exchange rate was 1USD = 7TL.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by the GenderEX: Gender for Excellence in Research project funded by the European Union under Grant 952432. Amrutha Ramaswamy was supported by a Fullbright Research Grant during her time on the project.