Around 3000 women marched in Kadikoy Square in Ankara, Turkey June 3 2012 after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan announced that members of his party, the AK Party, are drafting an anti-abortion bill. Some women were accompanied by husbands, boyfriends, and fathers. Many individuals held signs that held statements such as “my body, my choice” and “I am a woman not a mother, don’t touch my body.”

The protests were prompted after Erdogan delivered several speeches in which he called abortion “murder” and claimed that abortion and caesarean births are plots to halt Turkey’s economic growth.

Abortion of a fetus up to ten weeks after conception has been legal since 1983. This new law would require that women would only be able to get an abortion up to four weeks after conception except for emergencies.

Health Minister Recep Akdag is also planning to penalize hospitals that allow for women to get elective caesarean sections because, as he claims, it is “unnatural.” C-sections can also limit the number of children a woman can have to two, which is too little in the government’s opinion.

Caesarean birth rates are high in Turkey with forty percent of live births in 2009 being born by c-section. However, their abortion rates are already significantly lower than the rest of the world’s. In Turkey there are 14.8 abortions for every 1000 women whereas the UN world average is 28 abortions per 1000 women and 27 abortions per 1000 women in Europe.

Akdag has also stated that the government is willing to look after the babies of rape victims if necessary, but later clarified that they would not deny rape victims the right to an abortion.

According to Fusun Sirkeci, a London-based obstetrician and gynecologist, most women do not know they are pregnant until after the first four weeks of conception. Sirkeci also warns that limiting abortions may force “some women to terminate themselves which could potentially be fatal or disabling.”

Erdogan’s motivation is not only because he is a social and religious conservative. The prime minister wants to make Turkey’s economy enter the world’s top ten by 2023, but in order to do this he wants the population to grow at a faster rate. Erdogan has advocated for Turkish families having at least three children and has even pushed for five at times.

Erdogan is also trying to increase the Turkish population because of the high birth rate of the Kurds in southeast Turkey. The Kurds have been trying to break away from Turkey and form their own autonomous government. Deniz Ulke Aribogan, a professor at Bilgi University in Istanbul, claims “the problem is the rapid rise of population in eastern regions, while it has almost come to a standstill in western regions.”

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In North Carolina, lawmakers in the House voted to override the governor’s veto of a controversial legislation that mandate an ultrasound before an abortion. The legislation would also require physicians to follow a script before performing an abortion.

The Abortion-Woman’s Right to Know Act was vetoed by Governor Bev Perdue in June. The act stated that doctors give a woman an ultrasound prior to the abortion procedure. The abortion physician must also describe the fetus in detail, including the size of the organs and limbs whether the patient wants to hear the description or not.

If the patient refuses to view the ultrasound image or listen to the fetal heartbeat, the doctor must record the patient’s name and keeps it on file for seven years. So much for patient privacy, eh? The bill also requires patients to wait 24 hours before getting an abortion.

“Physicians must be free to advise and treat their patients based on their medical knowledge and expertise and not have their advice overridden by elected officials seeking to impose their own ideological agenda on others,” wrote Gov. Perdue in her June 27 veto note.

Proponents of the bill state that the legislation could potentially save thousands of unborn lives each year by making a woman aware of the consequences of her abortion. But Dr. Amy Bryant, a North Carolina gynecologist who provides abortions on a weekly basis, says the law’s only function would be to place an undue emotional burden on patients.

“I’ve never heard of the ultrasound actually changing someone’s mind,” she said. “Once they’ve made the decision that this is the right thing for them and their families, that’s what they’re gonna do. If you try to coerce women to hear these things or see the ultrasound or hear that there are fetal abnormalities, it’s only going to be more distressing for them. I can’t imagine how it would help.”

After intense floor debates, the North Carolina House of Representatives overrode Perdue’s veto by a vote of 72-47 on Tuesday.

“I’m not supportive of it and I don’t envision myself changing that position,” said Sen. Stan Bingham (R-Davidson), the one Republican who voted against the measure (the other, Sen. Richard Stevens (R-Wake), didn’t vote). “I just really am troubled by the fact that the government is involved in something as directly related to someone’s personal life as abortion, and I feel hypocritical in voting to support this because I’ve always raised my four daughters to make these kinds of decisions on their own.”

Bingham also stated that he questioned some of the information that Republicans have been using about abortions during the debates.  “There’s a lot of non-facts in some of the things that have been said — they make it sound like you go in to get a hamburger and you have an abortion, without any medical exams, no check-ups, no discussion,” he said. “But the medical society strongly disagrees with this, and my daughter is a physician and she strongly disagrees with this too. So I’m trying to be open-minded.”

The senate narrowly passed the override on Thursday. Sen. Bingham was not present to vote. Because of a procedural move, Bingham was allowed to walk away from the vote.  Sen. Stevens also had an excused absence for the entire week of the special session.

Unlike Stevens, Bingham was in his seat when the Senate convened on Thursday morning. Less than an hour later, after a GOP caucus meeting, he was granted an excused absence and left the building.

Bingham’s departure left the Senate with 48 members present instead of 50, a change that allowed Senate Republicans to override the governor’s veto of H854 with the 29 votes they could muster, instead of the usual 30.

“I did not ask him not to be here,” Senate Leader Phil Berger said. “Senator Bingham has been very clear as to his position on that particular issue. I respect his view on that, and based on the views of the members of the caucus as a whole, other than him, he made a decision.”

“My understanding is that he had some business that needed to be taken care of elsewhere as well,” Berger added.

Bingham’s departure left the Senate with 48 members present instead of 50, a change that allowed Senate Republicans to override the governor’s veto of H854 with the 29 votes they could muster, instead of the usual 30.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bev-Perdue/11552180685

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