Abortion in Turkey
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10796752 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tezcan Tezcan (corresponding author), Sabahat Sabahat, Carol E Carpenter-Yaman, Nusret H Flgek |
| Year | 1981 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 6/7 |
| Pages | 298 |
| Publication date | 1981-06-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Studies in Family Planning (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0039-3665 • E-ISSN: 1728-4465 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1965885 |
| OpenAlex | W2324582388 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
Except for certain eugenic and medical reasons abortion is illegal in Turkey but as documented by this review of the literature it is widely practiced and its use is increasing. 3 types of study were reviewed: hospital based local community based and nationwide. Contributions and limitations of each type are noted. While detailed clinical information was available from the hospital based studies the number of abortions per woman was quite high attributable to the selective nature of the samples. The community based studies were more intensive but lacked generalizability to the whole country. With 1 exception the nationwide studies contained only limited information on abortion but the abortion indices more accurately reflect the abortion situation for all Turkey. These show that the proportion of women undergoing induced abortion increased from 7.6% in 1963 to 13.9% in 1975. In all the surveys the proportion was highest in metropolitan areas and lowest in the villages. In 1975 1 out of every 4 women in the metropolitan area reported an induced abortion as opposed to 1 out of every 20 in the villages. Educational status of the women was found to have an independent direct relationship with abortion practice. Professional women and wives of professionals had the highest abortion indices. Use of private physicians was much greater in metropolitan areas; village women were more likely to resort to traditional midwives or self-induced abortions. Mainly social and economic reasons were given for induced abortion the most frequently given being too many children followed by short pregnancy intervals and economic hardship. Abortion indices were found to increase at parity 3 to 4 consistent with other studies showing that the ideal family size in Turkey is 3.2 children on average. The suthors argue that these findings indicate both the need for more readily available and accessible family planning services and for legalization of abortion. (Authors modified)
Abortion · Biology · Obstetrics · Pregnancy · Ethics and Legal Issues in Pediatric Healthcare · Medicine
| Citations per year | 0.13 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1996 - 2014 (19) |
| Highly cited | No |