The press release of the Platform is as follows;
We won’t vote for the parties which ban on abortion
We are calling for all the women: We are going to dress ourselves in purple and go out into the streets on Friday, 28th of March in order to declare “no vote for the parties that ban on abortion!”
The press release of the Platform is as follows;
We won’t vote for the parties which ban on abortion
We are calling for all the women: We are going to dress ourselves in purple and go out into the streets on Friday, 28th of March in order to declare “no vote for the parties that ban on abortion!”
For several days before the elections, we once again remind the government of the fact that we will not give up our right to an abortion.
We will not give up our right to an abortion, we will not vote for the parties which ban on abortion!
Justice and Development Party (AKP) failed to prevent our right to an abortion legally. AKP couldn’t intervene the laws, however; it has continued to impose de facto bans and preventions during this period. Before 2012, the number of the hospitals that carried out an abortion highly fell. After 2012, AKP gradually narrowed the areas in which women could have abortion. Firstly, the government aimed to establish “persuasion rooms”. Then AKP didn’t require implementing it and announced the ban on abortion. AKP tried to intimidate women into exposing their pregnancies.In Medical Enforcement Declaration which was released on 1 May 2013, the abortion-medical evacuation section was removed and abortion wasn’t accepted as a service the prices of which should be paid by the government, which accelerated the omission of limited hospitals having made abortion service available. Therefore, the hospital administrations started to declare that abortion was banned.
Since AK Party’s government avoided the reaction of women after the news that the abortion was illegally banned spreaded over public opinion, it once again included the abortion into a free medical service. As soon as Minister of Health said that he accepted an abortion as “not even a medical service” two days ago, the government had to include the abortion into Medical Enforcement Declaration (SUT).
We are asking what the payment for an abortion that isn’t even carried out means. Since there is not even one hospital left to carry out an abortion, the right to a free abortion is nothing but a lie, isn’t it?
You can’t deceive us! How will we use our right to an abortion if the hospitals scarcely carry out an abortion and thereby women have to return their home without doing an abortion in the hospital?
The amount that women have to pay for an abortion service in the university and private hospitals is 382 TL which is half of a minimum wage. If we allow for additional item bill, it means that you can do an abortion if you have enough money, isn’t it true? Doesn’it it lead women to do an abortion in inappropriate circumstances? Our problem hasn’t been resolved. The number of the public hospitals that carry out an abortion has gradually diminished. There is just only one hospital left to carry out an abortion in Istanbul, a so-called megacity with 17 million inhabitants. It is only in Halkalı! Since an abortion is actually limited to 8-week although it is legitimized to be carried out within 10 weeks, which makes women’s access to an abortion impossible during this period. Therefore, an abortion is required to be done in a hospital which instantly delivers a child. An abortion should be considered and applied as an accessible, medical and free right.
From the legal right to the obligation to have 3 children and then…
In this country, abortion has been legal since 1983. Moreover, both abortion and contraception were actually free. AKP’s government has converted a free medical service into a paid service, on the other hand; the government has curtailed the needs of women and closed Family Planning and Maternal and Child Health Care Centres that women could reach for abortion and contraception services. Firstly, the government didn’t completely do away with the medicines and methods for contraception, nevertheless; it has reduced them to the degree in which women’s needs couldn’t actually be satisfied.
Stating “the condoms are run out of”or “birth control pills will be brought next week” family health centres cause most women to go away empty-handed today. From now on, The Prime Minister will be consulted about how many children women have to give birth and which methods they have to apply to. Women are forced to give birth due to the presentation of contraception as insufficient, pressures and bans, “reproductive health” policies.
In the event of rape, it should be necessary for women to request an abortion. Nevin Yıldırım who had got pregnant as a result of rape was forced to give birth to a child though she didn’t want to do it. The statement of Recep Akdağ, the former Minister of Health, regarding the issue is striking enough to indicate how the government considers over the subjection women are kept in: “Women who was raped have to give birth so that the state is able to take care of them.”
Another incident that has recently happened concerns with a pregnancy of a 16-year-old girl who was raped. When F.T applied for an abortion to a public prosecutor in Anatolia, the trial refused her request and justified its judgement by stating “The incident doesn’t trouble mother and she doesn’t remain under any circumstances to require her to have an abortion”. Women’s Rights Center of Istanbul Bar Association has declared that they have recently received the applications of women who couldn’t have an abortion due to the reasons “the abortion is banned” or “husband’s consent is sufficient”.
According to a survey on the media, the ban has led the news to spread like “The abortion is banned” in some hospitals and “All women including single pregnant women are required to receive husband’s consent” in other hospitals.
Although nothing constitutes a legal obstacle for single pregnant women, they are victimized and forced to receive husband’s consent. Announcing that abortion is secretly banned, Turkish Society of Obstetric and Gynaecology states “the state has omitted ‘medical evacuation code’ which is used for an abortion in the records system of the public hospitals. The gynaecologists couldn’t carry out an abortion in the system. Abortion service couldn’t be provided with pregnant women for 10-month when an abortion is legally accepted, though.”
Women have the right to access to free methods of contraception which comprise the 1st stage of medical services.
However, the state doesn’t stop its attempts to ban on abortion. The abortion is being prevented. For the abortions that are forced to be even carried out in the circumstances which are hazardous to women’s health, being gradually severed, the oppressive methods ranging from the obligation to get 3 medical reports to receiving Ministry’s consent are conducted. Women’s lives are under the threat of Ministry of Health. Women who couldn’t have an abortion in the public hospitals have had to do an abortion under unhealthy and unqualified situations in which their lives are underestimated.
Ministry of Health has ignored the studies having been conducted since 2000 for medical abortion which is a very effective and less arduous method for women all over the world. Furthermore, it has removed the pills from the market. However, the same pills are crucial during the period in which women are giving birth.
AKP’s policy to control women’s body and sexuality, shaped by its politics on family has prevented women’s capability to decide whether they will give birth or not, they will become a mother or not. W
omen have been pursued as soon as they’ve got their pregnancy tests. They have been subjected to the psychological pressure for the continuity of their pregnancies. Their sexual lives have been watched by the government.
Ignoring women and doctors’ decision, Ministry has been authorized to judge whether women has to have a caesarean section. Women will be on the brink of death as long as a free, healthy, secure contraception and abortion services aren’t granted, abortion is banned and women are only considered to be responsible for contraception.
The state’s mission is to enable the methods of contraception to be easily accessible, free and commonplace. The state is supposed to provide contraception service. We are calling for the state to obey international conventions that it has ratified.
For 10 years, AKP has illegally banned on abortion in the public hospitals. As women, we request abortion service to be accessible for women in the public hospitals as well as the service should be taken effect.
We demand that abortion services should be restarted.
We request that the state should obey a 10-week legal period for an abortion in the public and private hospitals, the legal period has to be raised by 12 weeks and husband’s consent that the state comes up with towards married women’s intention to terminate their pregnancy has to be removed. The units should be established to provide contraception and abortion service in all medical institutions. All women should have a qualified, healthy and free abortion as well as medical abortion without facing psychological and physical problems. The government has to make an end to its policy through which the pressures are imposed on women, women are watched by their pregnancy reports and the right to privacy is violated.
A caesarean section is a childbirth method to be applied when needed. The decision to have a caesarean section shouldn’t belong to The Prime Minister but women and doctors.
Women’s statement should be fundamental for the pregnancy caused by rape and the pregnancy should be terminated if they wish to have an abortion. We will file a criminal complaint about the officials who prevent women from having an abortion and request that they should be punished for performing illegal acts. Before mourning for women who would be killed by AKP’s politics, we are exclaimig today:
We won’t vote for the parties which ban on abortion! We’re calling for all the women: We are going to dress ourselves in purple and go out into the street on Friday, 28th of March in order to declare “no vote for the parties which ban on abortion.” For several days before the elections, we once again remind the government of the fact that we will not give up our right to an abortion.
Our bodies are ours, our lives are ours, our decision is ours.
Kürtaj Haktır Karar Kadınların Platformu