Reproductive citizenship in Turkey: abortion chronicles

Date
2013
Authors
Unal, D.
Cindoglu, D.
Editor(s)
Advisor
Supervisor
Co-Advisor
Co-Supervisor
Instructor
Source Title
Women's Studies International Forum
Print ISSN
0277-5395
Electronic ISSN
Publisher
Elsevier
Volume
38
Issue
Pages
21 - 31
Language
English
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Series
Abstract

This paper discusses the gendered nature of reproductive citizenship in contemporary Turkey through reading the abortion chronicles and exposes the utilization of women's bodies and subjection of women to demographic state policies. To this end, we focus on recent abortion debates originating from Prime Minister Erdoğan's statement on May 25, 2012 that suggested that “every abortion is a murder”. Our paper is a qualitative analysis of the arguments of the members of the parliament following PM's statement on abortion. We documented and contextualized the recurrent themes; (1) abortion as a rhetorical tool, (2) trivialization of abortion, (3) medicalization of abortion, (4) abortion in the cases of rape, (5) abortion as an economic imperative. As a result, we unravel the gendered discursive limits of “pro-abortion” arguments in Turkey and reveal the frameworks within which the political debates are shaped when women's bodies, sexualities and reproductive capacities are at stake.

Course
Other identifiers
Book Title
Citation
Published Version (Please cite this version)