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Introduction: Abortion in Turkey has been legal since 1983 and remains so today. Despite this in 2012 the Prime Minister declared that in his opinion abortion was murder. Since then there has been growing evidence that abortion access particularly in state hospitals is being restricted although no new legislation has been offered. Objectives: The study aimed to determine the number of state hospitals in Turkey that provide abortions. Study design: The study employed a telephone survey in 2015-2016 where 431 state hospitals were contacted and asked a set of questions by a mystery patient. If possible information was obtained directly from the obstetrics/gynecology department. I removed specialist hospitals from the data set and the remaining data were analyzed for frequency and cross-tabulations were performed. Results: Only 7.8% of state hospitals provide abortion services without regard to reason which is provided for by the current law while 78% provide abortions when there is a medical necessity. Of the 58 teaching and research hospitals in Turkey 9 (15.5%) provide abortion care without restriction to reason 38 (65.5%) will do the procedure if there is a medical necessity and 11 (11.4%) of these hospitals refuse to provide abortion services under any circumstances. There are two regions encompassing 1.5 million women of childbearing age where no state hospital provides for abortion without restriction as to reason. Conclusion: The vast majority of state hospitals only provide abortions in the narrow context of a medical necessity and thus are not implementing the law to its full extent. It is clear that although no new legislation restricting abortion has been enacted state hospitals are reducing the provision of abortion services without restriction as to reason. Implications: This is the only nationwide study to focus on abortion provision at state hospitals. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Emergency contraception (EC) has been and remains available in Turkey without prescription since 2002. This study attempted to determine the availability of emergency contraception from pharmacies in Istanbul, Turkey and whether the identity of the purchaser had any impact on availability. More specifically, we sought to understand if young women feel shamed or denied access to EC. This study employed a mystery patient/shopper approach where mystery patients attempted to purchase emergency contraception from a random sample of 352 pharmacies in Istanbul. Mystery shoppers, ages 18-22, were trained and provided a standard scenario and identity. The identities included: conservative/ religious female; secular/modern female; and male. After each pharmacy visit, the mystery patients recorded the details of their attempts to purchase EC. In 95.4% of visits mystery shoppers were able to purchase EC. Despite the availability of several types of EC, little choice was given to shoppers. Male mystery shoppers were given more choice of EC than their female counterparts and were more often able to purchase the less expensive form of EC. In the majority of transactions, pharmacists offered no medical instructions or recommendations. EC is widely available from pharmacies in Istanbul but lack of choice and information from pharmacists result in a less than ideal health care experience.

AbstractThis article uses a comparative approach to discuss women's access to property using evidence collected from field research conducted on two distinct communities of Istanbul: one secular and one Islamic. The two groups of women possess distinctly different views of the world and how it is organized. This is particularly the case concerning gender where secular women put forth a view rooted in the sameness of the genders where the Islamic women were clear in their commitment to the idea of difference. These attitudes toward the equality and difference of the genders structures the relations of these women to property and the process of inheritance.

Introduction: In 1983 abortion without restriction as to reason was legalized in Turkey. However at an international conference in 2012 the Prime Minister condemned abortion and announced his intent to draft restrictive abortion legislation. As a result of public outcry and protests the law was not enacted but media reports suggest that barriers to abortion access have since worsened. Objectives: We aimed to conduct a qualitative study exploring women's recent abortion experiences in Istanbul Turkey. Study design: In 2015 we conducted 14 semi-structured in-depth interviews with women aged 18 or older who had obtained abortion care in Istanbul on/after January 1 2009. We employed a multimodal recruitment strategy and analyzed these interviews for content and themes using deductive and inductive techniques. Results: Women reported on a total of 19 abortions. Although abortion care is available in private facilities only one public hospital provides abortion services without restriction as to reason. Women who had multiple abortions in different facility types described quality of care more positively in the private sector. Unmarried women considered their marital status when making the decision to seek an abortion and reported challenges obtaining comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services. All participants were familiar with the Turkish government's antiabortion discourse and believed that this was reflective of an overarching desire to restrict women's rights. Conclusion: Public abortion services in Istanbul are currently limited and private abortion services are accessible but relatively expensive to obtain. Recent antiabortion political rhetoric appears to have negatively impacted access and service quality. Implications: This is the first qualitative study exploring women's experiences obtaining abortion services in Turkey since the proposed abortion restriction in 2012. Further research exploring the experiences of unmarried women and abortion accessibility in other regions of the country is warranted. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Turkey has maintained liberal contraception and abortion policies since the 1980s. In 2012 the government proposed to restrict abortion ; a bill limiting abortion was later drafted but never passed into law. Since the proposed restriction women have reported difficulty accessing abortion services across Turkey. We aimed to better understand the current availability of abortion and reproductive health services in Istanbul and explore whether access to services has changed since 2012. In 2015 we completed 14 in-depth interviews with women and 11 semi-structured interviews with key informants. We transcribed all interviews and completed content and thematic analyses of the data. Key informants had good knowledge about the political discourse and the current abortion law. In contrast women were familiar with the political discourse but had mixed information about the current status of abortion and were unsure about the legality of their own abortions. There was consensus that access to services has become more limited in the last five years due to the political climate thus advocacy to prioritize reproductive health services and abortion care in particular in the public health system are needed. (C) 2016 Reproductive Health Matters. Published by Elsevier BV. All rights reserved.