Turkey has banned elective Caesarian-section births at private healthcare facilities without medical necessity. The new health ministry regulations published in the Official Gazette on Saturday (Apr 19) aim to encourage natural births across the country.
The move, which came following a heated debate in Turkey over how women should give birth, has sparked fury of reactions from opposition politicians and rights groups.
“Planned Caesarean sections cannot be performed in a medical centre,” said an April 19 gazette entry outlining new regulations governing private healthcare institutions. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been pushing hard for women to have natural births.
Among the 38 nations under the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Turkey has the highest rate of C-section births, reported AFP, citing data from 2021. According to data from the World Population Review, out of every 1,000 live births, 584 were C-sections in that year.
‘Hands off’
Gokce Gokcen, deputy chair of the main opposition CHP wrote on X, “As if the country had no other problems, male football players are telling women how to give birth.”
“Don’t interfere in women’s affairs with your ignorance.. Keep your hands off women’s bodies,” she wrote.
In January, Erdogan declared that 2025 would be the “year of the family” in an attempt to address the declining fertility rate in the country, which hit a record low of 1.51 in 2023. He repeatedly suggested women should have at least three children.
Last week, at the start of a Super Lig football clash, Sivassapor players walked onto the pitch carrying a huge banners promoting vaginal births, reading: “Natural birth is natural”. The move sparked a heated reaction from politicians, doctors and women’s rights organisations.
On Saturday (Apr 19), Erdogan slammed those who opposed the football banner.
“One of our football clubs took to the field with a banner to support an awareness campaign by the health ministry,” he said.
“There was no insult, no criticism, no disrespect to anyone on the banner, nothing to offend women… Why does it bother you that our ministry encourages normal birth?
“We have no time for such nonsense at a time when our fertility rate and population growth rate are causing alarm,” he said, adding that the declining population of Turkey was “a threat much more significant than war”.