Article from: http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/05/28/217063.html

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Erdogan, who also opposed recourse to Caesarean deliveries, sparked the row when he told a population conference on Friday he considered abortion a conspiracy to curb his country’s economic growth.

From: here

Famous Turkish author Elif Şafak writes on the recent abortion debate in Turkey for her column in daily Habertürk.

Don’t ban abortion. Because…

When a man considers the topic of abortion just once, a woman has already thought it over five times, 10 times. She will not be able to talk about it, that’s a fact, but she thinks a lot about it. What is in question is a soul more divine than her own soul. Each baby is a gift of the universe.

A woman would not, out of the blue, just because she wants it or just because the wind of life blows in that direction that day, go and attempt to have an abortion. No woman takes this matter lightly, she cannot. It is a portion of her body, her soul, her future, a part of her most embedded dreams that she is giving away; is it possible for her to take that process lightly?

For women, the topic of abortion is not a public argument or a discussion point; it is an absolutely private and deep matter, as well as an extremely crucial one. It is an issue of life and death. After all, women do not consider having an abortion very easily anyway.

Despite all this, if a woman, indeed within legal boundaries, still opts for abortion, FOR SURE, but for sure, there is a grave and serious reason for it, one she is unable to overcome. In our country, unfortunately, incest, rape, violence against woman and marital despotism occur in worrying proportions. These are our bleeding wounds.

Still, in many places in Turkey, the guy who has caused the rumor washes his hands and walks away. The woman is excluded due to the slightest stain; she is stigmatized. And at the end, she either commits suicide or suffers for a lifetime, or she is killed by her closest kin under the guise of an honor killing.

In a country where all of these things occur, in a culture where it is always but always the women who pays the price, to prohibit abortion does not mean eliminating the action of abortion entirely. Just the opposite, it means pushing abortion underground.

In that case, women who have the financial means would travel abroad, have their abortion there and come back. Our underprivileged women and young girls who do not have any money or support would start visiting places that are unlicensed, unhygienic and illegal.

Women would risk their lives and health. To ban abortion would mean drawing our women away from access to doctors and having them fall into the trap of butchers and dealers.

Please, let us not forget that in our country restrictions on abortion are defined by law. Medical control can be tightened so as to prevent violations of these restrictions. But to ban abortion entirely, which is already restricted and only practiced in the first weeks, or to make it almost impossible, is going to another extreme; and from extremes, only other extremes emerge.

Of course every soul has a right to live. Every drop of the universe is undoubtedly valuable. However, revoking the right to abortion means killing women little by little. Let’s not claim other lives in order to spare one life.

Abortion debate sparks online visual protest campaign

Photo taken from Bianet´s website

An independent news network has launched a photo campaign against government officials’ recent statements against abortion, encouraging concerned citizens to send a message to authorities.  The portal, bianet, invited users to raise their voices against the officials’ comments by submitting a photo of themselves with a sentence encapsulating their feelings. The words are written on paper on some of the photos and on the participants´ bodies on others.  The campaign has been rapidly adopted by web users, becoming a widespread online protest movement within a matter of days.  The motto of the campaign is "My decision, my body!" Male participants have also shown great interest in the campaign, sending photos to the campaign with the words "My wife´s decision, my wife´s body" or "my daughter´s decision, my daughter´s body."   The campaign is open to all people who wish to participate.

From: here

I´m starting to dislike Erdogan more and more.. he´s actually beginning to remind of me Putin.

Catwoman and thehandsom hope you are not reading Zaman anymore. Now you realize why...

According to Zaman, Erdogan is a living saint..

you dont like erdoğan because he speaks against irresponsibility?

Caesarean births used to be very rare, now they are becoming very common. I hope this doesn´t happen in Turkey as well. When a baby is delivered through the birth canal various things happen, one being the baby´s lungs to work better.

The body is marvelously designed for the task of delivering babies the natural way. A good mid-wife can do, what would seem, miracles. To a large extent, it´s about patience