On May 30, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s remarks recommending restraint on the usage of birth control angered yet again women’s rights activists around the country. In an address he gave to the Service for Youth and Education Foundation of Turkey in Istanbul, President Erdogan stated, “I am saying this clearly: We will increase our posterity and reproduce generations. As for population planning or birth control, no Muslim family can engage in such a mentality. We will follow the road that my God and blessed Prophet [Muhammad] say.”
Opposition party leaders, health associations and activists released statements of disapproval soon after the president’s remarks. Ozgur Ozel, the deputy parliamentary leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), denounced Erdogan’s comments relating to women’s bodies. CHP spokesperson Selin Sayek Boke accused the government’s regime of denigrating women. “We don’t commit to who makes how many children, but to a good future to children who come to the world,” she said. The Turkish Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology emphasized in a statement that reproductive rights are “the most natural right of women in Turkey, which is a democratic country.” Moreover, they pointed to illegal abortions and under-the-counter methods as negative consequences of abandoning birth control. Along similar lines, Turkish Women’s Union head Sema Kendirci expressed her discontent of the president’s usage of religious references, and further objected, “Who on earth could have the right to pressure families into having more children than they can provide for?”
