Turkish Laws Fail to Protect Women’s Right to Choose
On March 4 in Adana province, a 22-year-old woman attempted to commit suicide because she had been unexpectedly denied an abortion at a government hospital
On March 11, a peculiar headline appeared in the press and on social media: “Turkish Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology: Abortion is banned covertly.” Things get a bit tricky here, because the law has not changed. The head of the OB/GYN association, Dr. Cansun Demir, told Al-Monitor, “The option to click on ‘Abortion’ is removed from our Web page.” Hence, his doctors can no longer approve this procedure, and the government will not cover the expense.
Demir explained, “The right to choose to terminate a pregnancy based on the woman’s decision is legal, but we cannot provide the service. What is left to medical doctors is either classifying any abortion as a medical necessity or redirecting the woman to seek private care to terminate the pregnancy.” Demir said they cannot comprehend or explain the legal basis of this change to the patients, because it appears to be arbitrary.
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