Abortion
Although it has been talked about recently, especially with the decision taken in the USA, "abortion" has always been a controversial issue. Abortion, which the USA no longer recognizes as a constitutional right, is a human right issue with many sociological, economic and political dimensions.
We have compiled and concentrated the most basic abortion headlines that we need to be informed about, together with the restrictions on the right to abortion, which are reacted to all over the world.
What is Abortion?
Abortion is the medical termination of pregnancy. Although it is expressed as "abortion" among the people, it does not only mean the termination of unwanted pregnancies. Abortion may also be required in cases of pregnancy-related anomalies and situations that endanger the mother's health.
In its simplest form; Abortion is the process of cleaning the inside of the uterus.
How is it done?
The most common method of abortion today is vacuum abortion. During abortion, using thin plastic pipes called cannula, the pregnancy is vacuumed together with the intrauterine tissue and the procedure is terminated in 5-10 minutes.
Statistics from the World
According to the research results of the World Health Organization; About 210 million pregnancies occur each year around the world.
70 million of these are unintended pregnancies.
46 million people voluntarily end their pregnancy with a miscarriage.
19 million of miscarriages occur by unsafe means.
One person dies every 8 minutes due to unsafe abortions.
Today, approximately 15% of women in Turkey state that they have had an abortion at least once in their lifetime.
Enactment Process in Turkey
Abortion falls under the scope of medical necessity with the Law No. 557 on Population Planning, which was first enacted in 1965 in Turkey.
In 1983, with the Law No. 2827 on Population Planning, the right to safe abortion becomes legal until the end of the 10th week of pregnancy.
Legal; but its accessibility is a "huge" question mark…
Access to birth control methods is getting harder.
The more difficult it is for women to terminate a pregnancy, the more difficult it is to prevent pregnancy. Due to the policies implemented in Turkey since 2012, most birth control methods are no longer available for free.
Spirals, condoms, birth control pills and needles are less procured than before. This situation increases pregnancy as well as brings unwanted pregnancies. Women and other pregnant individuals who want to have an abortion either have to turn to under-the-counter solutions or get the consent of their spouses and parents and go to hospitals.
The number of public hospitals providing on-demand abortion services in Turkey is gradually decreasing.
While illegal attitudes towards the right to abortion are exhibited in most of the existing hospitals, arbitrary decisions taken as "doctor's initiative", "forbidden or illegal", "applicable to married individuals" are putting women's lives at risk every day.
Exorbitant prices are applied in public hospitals.
Women who cannot receive service in public hospitals face economic barriers when they are directed to the private sector.
Let's remember together the "Reproductive Health Strategic Action Plan" published by the Ministry of Health in 2005. In the plan, it was emphasized that it was necessary to reduce the need for abortion in order to reduce abortions and deaths due to miscarriages, and the necessary steps were listed as follows;
We wanted to end the closing with these goals and we left the decision to you.
Where do you think we are in these goals?
