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Although abortion is legal in Türkiye, women are increasingly prevented from exercising this right. Access to abortion has become more difficult amid controversial debates following President Tayyip Erdoğan’s declaration of 2025 as the “Year of the Family.”
While elective abortion is legal in Türkiye up to the tenth week of pregnancy, for the past ten years, women have faced growing difficulties accessing hospitals and obstetricians willing to perform the procedure. Most women believe this is the result of the ruling AK Party’s policies.
Erdoğan’s anti-abortion rhetoric
“We designate 2026 to 2035 as the Decade of Family and Population,” said the Turkish President during his speech at the International Family Forum held in Istanbul in May 2025, under the theme “Safeguarding and Strengthening Family in the Face of Global Challenges.”
“During these ten years, we will take strong steps centered on the family, from work life to education, from culture to urban planning, from technology to social policies,” he said.
President Erdoğan’s remarks sparked anger among women’s organizations, which argue that the AKP—a right-wing conservative party that came to power in 2002—has long pursued policies that limit women’s ability to make decisions about their own bodies and lives. Although abortion remains legal, they say it has been effectively banned since Erdoğan began describing it as “murder.”
Erdoğan has used similar language before, as far back as 2012, when he was Prime Minister. He stated at the International Parliamentarians’ Conference that “Abortion is murder.”
Since that speech, abortion has increasingly been treated not as a right but as a moral crime. Although the law guarantees equal and effective access to abortion, in practice it has become difficult, conditional, or nearly impossible in Türkiye.
Legal right, practical barriers
Under Turkish law, abortion is available on request up to the tenth week of pregnancy. Pregnancies resulting from rape crimes can be terminated up to the 20th week, provided the procedure is performed in a hospital by a qualified doctor.
Yet in practice, only a handful of state hospitals across the country provide abortions. Women face arbitrary refusals from doctors in public hospitals, while private hospitals charge prohibitively high fees. Those unable to afford them are forced either to continue unwanted pregnancies or risk their lives in unhygienic “back-alley” clinics.
Widespread anti-abortion rhetoric and increasing conservatism have also restricted access to sexual and reproductive health services. Unmarried women, fearing family pressure and social stigma, try to keep abortion procedures secret, but their requests are often denied. Married women must obtain their husbands’ consent, which prevents them from making independent decisions about their own bodies.
“The government’s discourse has become not only a political statement but also a form of social control that permeates daily life.”
DAKAHDER: “The government’s pronatalist statements have a profound impact”
The Women’s State of Solidarity Association (DAKAHDER) provides education on sexual health, abortion rights, and gender-based violence, especially for university students.
Cansel Talay, one of the association’s lawyers, believes that the government’s pronatalist discourse and policies have encouraged women to have multiple children, imposing motherhood as their primary “social role.”
“Such statements not only suppress women’s life choices but also reduce resources allocated to sexual health and birth control services,” Talay said. “Women experience guilt and pressure when making decisions about their own bodies. The government’s discourse—'have at least three children’—has become not only a political statement but also a form of social control that permeates daily life.”
Talay summarized the challenges faced by women and the strategies they have developed in response. “Secretly using methods such as birth control pills, finding alternative ways to access health information, or relying on women’s solidarity networks are among these strategies. Despite all forms of oppression, this reflects women’s determination to protect their sexuality. The feminist movement defines the right to abortion not merely as a medical issue but as a matter of freedom and subjectivity. By saying ‘our bodies, our choice,’ women emphasize that this right belongs to them. Not to the state, or to men.”
Women’s organizations argue that obstacles to abortion have worsened due to the government’s anti-abortion stance. Erdoğan’s statements have influenced both the Ministry of Family and Social Services and the Ministry of Health, whose programs increasingly glorify marriage, family, and large households, launching campaigns to encourage women to have more children.
Erdoğan’s key anti-abortion statements:
- “Every abortion is an Uludere (referring to the 2011 Uludere incident, in which 34 people, 17 of them children, were killed by Turkish airstrikes while smuggling goods across the Iraq border). We must protect this nation from such a threat. If legal regulation is needed, we will do it.” (2012)
- “We will increase our generation. No Muslim family can accept birth control or population planning.” (2016)
- “Abortion is murder. At least three children.” (2025)
Talay notes that these statements oppress not only women but also physicians who perform abortions. “Due to cultural and religious taboos, abortion has become stigmatized,” she said. “We cannot say we receive many applications. Only a few women have reached out to report such problems. In the coming period, just as in our Digital Solidarity project, we plan to reach more women by preparing both Turkish- and Kurdish-language content, guides explaining women’s legal and health rights, and also by continuing awareness campaigns. We provide free legal support, direct women to safe health institutions, and activate solidarity networks.”
Packages encouraging marriage
Erdoğan has stated that boosting fertility “is now a priority of population policy.” One of the measures he highlighted was the expansion of the Family and Youth Fund—initially established for earthquake survivors after the February 6 earthquakes—to the entire country. Newly married couples can apply for an interest-free loan of 150,000 TL, repayable over 48 months with a two-year grace period.
All these initiatives aim to increase fertility rates rather than support women’s welfare.
International conference on abortion rights
As part of the “My Right to Abortion” project conducted by Women for Women’s Human Rights (WWHR), the Purple Roof Women’s Shelter Foundation, and Women on Web, the International Conference on Abortion Struggles was held on October 11, marking the first feminist conference on abortion rights in Türkiye.
“The experiences of women with abortion differ across the Middle East and around the world,” said Esra Çiçek, a member of the Rosa Women’s Association.
“A state policy”
“One of the reasons women in Türkiye cannot access abortion is religion. Another is government policy. The state has been enforcing population planning practices that effectively prevent abortion.”
Çiçek recalled a 2012 case in Van, where a woman who became pregnant after rape sought an abortion at ten weeks. She was told she needed the prosecutor’s permission, but as she had not reported the rape for fear of being killed, she couldn’t get the necessary permission. Hospital staff told her they couldn’t give her such permission—“but we can put you under protection. If you do not want the baby after birth, the state will take care of your baby.”
“In the following years,” Çiçek continued, “we received more applications from women unable to end unwanted pregnancies after exceeding the legal limit by just a week. If unmarried women visit gynecologists, text messages are sent to their fathers when they make appointments. This system deters many women from seeking care.”
“The import of abortion pills is banned in Türkiye”
“Women are forced to seek alternative ways to end pregnancies,” Çiçek continued. “There are medications approved by the World Health Organization that are 97% effective for medical abortion. These can be ordered online and shipped to most countries—but in Türkiye, they are banned. Women are deprived of even that option.”
She added, “A woman whose pregnancy exceeded eight weeks was told she couldn’t have an abortion, and she was forced to give birth. In such a conservative society, it’s difficult even to talk about abortion. The government’s statements, such as ‘every abortion is an Uludere,’ deeply affect people. Doctors also avoid performing abortions out of fear, because the law is not effectively implemented.”
Çiçek emphasized that the Turkish government’s policies are misogynistic and deny women the right to live freely. She expressed concern that both the “Year of the Family” initiative and the debate over vaginal births will intensify oppression against women. “Encouraging marriage without democratizing family structures only increases gender-based violence. These state-led projects will create new obstacles to abortion. Abortion is a human right, and we will do our best to ensure that women can have access to it.”
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash.
This article was carried out with the support of the Tunis Office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.
