Introduction
Abortion was legalized in Turkey in 1983 as per the Population Planning
Law 2827 (1). The law allows abortion on request to be performed until
the end of the tenth week of gestation. However, it requires spousal
consent for married women (1). The
Turkish Penal Code further allows abortion up to the twentieth week of
gestation if the conception occurred as a result of a criminal act (2).
Despite the legal framework, abortion has been highly contested in the
Turkish political landscape in the last decade. Many studies have shown
that abortion services have been gradually discarded by hospitals and
the number of medical doctors who are willing to provide abortion
services has decreased in recent years (3,4).
Moreover, medical abortion with pills combining mifepristone and
misoprostol is still not available in Turkey (5). While misoprostol is
registered for gastrointestinal indications, it has been withdrawn from
outpatient pharmacies in 2012 due to alleged “misuse” (6). Insofar, no
studies analysed the use of misoprostol outside the formal healthcare
and the potential demand for medical abortion in the Turkish context. In
this article, we analysed the consultation surveys and email
correspondences that Women on Web (WoW) received from women in Turkey to
construe perceived barriers to formal abortion services and the demand
for medical abortion in Turkey.