Anti-abortion politics and changes in abortion, miscarriage, and stillbirth across time and social strata in Turkey

Abortion has been legal without restriction in Turkey since 1983. However, the government’s anti-abortion campaign in 2012 has resulted in significant restrictions on abortion services, particularly in public hospitals. Using six waves of the Turkish Demographic and Health Survey (TDHS), which was administered every five years from 1993 to 2018 (n=32,990), we investigated the trends in abortion, miscarriage, and stillbirth rates among ever-married women. We found that, compared to wave 2008, women in wave 2013 were seven percentage points less likely to report an abortion, while they were three percentage points more likely to report an experience of a miscarriage. This pattern continued largely also in the 2018 wave. This unprecedented decline in abortion was observed across all socioeconomic groups, with the strongest decline among lower educated and poorer women. Moreover, the increase in miscarriages was primarily driven by lower educated women and those outside of the richest wealth quintile. Our findings suggest that the government’s anti-abortion campaign led to reduced access to abortion services, and potential misreporting of abortions as miscarriages by reinforcing stigma towards both abortion seekers and providers. The findings underscore how an anti-abortion political climate can exacerbate existing social inequalities, even when abortion remains legal.