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In a major new regulation, Turkey’s health ministry has banned all elective cesarean section (C-section) births at private health facilities unless there is a clear medical need. The announcement, published in the official gazette on April 19, is now making headlines nationwide.
The specific wording is clear: “Planned cesarean sections cannot be performed in a medical center.” This effectively eliminates the option for women to choose a C-section in private hospitals unless it is deemed necessary for health reasons.
A political and cultural flashpoint
The decision has sparked a storm of criticism from opposition parties, medical professionals, and women’s rights groups. At the heart of the controversy is President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s long-standing campaign to promote so-called “natural births.” Critics say it is not just a public health issue but a political attempt to regulate women’s bodies.
The firestorm erupted on the football field.
The debate recently took centre stage at a Super Lig football match between Fenerbahçe and Sivasspor. Sivasspor players took to the field carrying a banner that read: “Natural birth is natural,” an endorsement of the health ministry’s awareness campaign.
The act sparked outrage!
As if the country had no other problems, male football players are telling women how to have babies. Keep your hands off women’s bodies.
Gökçe Gökçen, Deputy Head of the Opposition CHP Party
A sentiment echoed by countless activists and public figures.
Erdoğan fires back
President Erdoğan defended the campaign, insisting that the banner was respectable and the outrage unfounded. He said there was no insult, no criticism, no disrespect to anyone on the banner.
One of our football clubs took to the field with a banner to support an awareness campaign by the health ministry. 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? President Erdoğan.
Tayyip Erdoğan’, President of Turkey
He pushed it as a national necessity, highlighting Turkey’s declining fertility rate, now at a historic low of 1.51 in 2023. "We have no time for such nonsense at a time when our fertility rate and population growth rate are causing alarm." he said, "a threat much more significant than war,", Erdoğan warned.
What's at stake?
Though the government frames the ban as a public health initiative, critics view it as a dangerous interference in personal decision of women. They contend that limiting access to electoral processes without adequate public discussion or input establishes a disconcerting precedent.
With 2025 being declared Turkey's "Year of the Family," the fight over reproductive rights is sure to heat up, and the war over methods of birth will become a hot point in Turkey's struggle between modernity and tradition.
(Input from various sources)
(Rehash/Muhammad Faisal Arshad/MSM)
