Abortion is legal, but women still face multiple barriers. In her article at the Guardian, Lara Villalon discusses the obstacles to free, safe abortions in Turkey.
In an article at the Guardian, Lara Villalon has shown how even though abortion is legal on request in Turkey to all women up to the 10th week of pregnancy, and up to the 20th week for medical reasons, women in Turkey face multiple restrictions.
By building on personal stories, she has shared figures that demonstrate the worrying trend. She wrote: “after the law legalising abortion was introduced in 1983, the number of abortions rose over the next five years to 45 per 1,000 women aged between 15 and 49. Ten years later, it had fallen to 25. A study by Kadir Has university found that by 2020, there was not a single public hospital performing on-demand abortions in Istanbul.
According to the survey, only eight of Turkey’s 81 provinces have at least one public hospital performing on-demand abortions, and only two of them have more than one. From the 295 clinics surveyed, 14% said they would not perform abortions for reasons other than a medical emergency.”
The study she cited also found that some health workers gave women false information by stating that “abortion is forbidden, or legal only for married women. Single women either cannot access the operation or must bring a permit from the local prosecutor’s office.”
The article also underlined that, by building on interviews with Turkish women who had all had abortions in the last three years, women were forced to seek terminations in private clinics, since public hospitals refused to perform the procedure.
You can access the article from this link.