The past Sunday saw even more protests in Turkey after the government insisted on a bill that would outlaw abortions only four weeks after conception, a time when many women are still unsure if they are pregnant. The law may also restrict the ability for women to elect for a Caesarian operation when giving birth. Unlike previous protests earlier in June, this protest was a response to the bill from mostly men and was held in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul.

A survey published in the Turkish newspaper HaberTurk showed that 55.5% of those interviewed about the ban were against the newly proposed law. Although the majority seem to oppose the creation of the law Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is still trying to push it through. His party, AKP Party, has at least fifty percent of the votes in the parliament after the most recent parliamentary election in June of 2011.

Previously women have displayed their distaste of the proposed law with large protests. One woman stated, “we are here today because we are against this law that’s forbidding abortion because abortion is a woman’s right and this is not about abortion being a bad thing or anything. It’s about government wants woman to be only wife and mother and we are against it. We are individuals, we have rights.”

Erdogan opposes abortion and c-sections for several reasons. Erdogan is a moral and religious conservative and believes that abortion is murder. Additionally Erdogan believes that c-sections, which can limit how many children a woman can have, and abortions are conspiracies against the demographic growth in Turkey. In order to ensure Turkey’s future as one of the top economies in the world Erdogan wants the population to grow quickly. He also wants the Turkish population to grow faster than the Kurdish, which is currently not happening.

The new group protesting the ban is a group of men called “Irritated Men,” formed in 2008 in response to violence against women. The group gathered in Istanbul on 5 June 2012 to talk about the anti-abortion bill.

After comments made by the mayor of Ankara, “Irritated Men” decided something needed to be done. The Ankara mayor Melih Gökçek said “women kill their babies born out of adultery. Why do babies die because of these so-called mothers? Let mothers kill themselves.”

Orhan Cerav, the spokesman for the group, stated, “our agenda, up until a week ago was the murder of women, now we’re talking about an abortion ban.” The group also recognizes the need for male support. Cerav told Hürriyet Daily News: “public opposition by a male front is badly needed. That’s why we gathered. It’s not just women; men are also irritated by the government’s anti-abortion campaign, but we also should show it.”

The group “Irritated Men” was supposedly formed after the rape and murder of Italian artist Pippa Bacca. Bacca was hitchhiking to the Middle East from Europe in a wedding dress to promote world peace when she went missing in Turkey and was later found dead.

Image Courtesy homeros / Shutterstock.com

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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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