In this paper I will look at the latest abortion discourse in Turkey from the view point of the neoliberal economic restructuring and generate a discussion on gender equality at the intersection of feminization of poverty and bodily politics. In recent months, abortion rights suddenly started to constitute the political and public agenda in Turkey, especially after Prime Minister Erdogan infamously declared that he saw abortion as murder. This was the first time the possibilities of an abortion ban were being discussed on a governmental level since 1983 when abortion was legalised. While it seems that the abortion discourse entered the public discourse almost unexpectedly with its shocking effects in media and among the population, I argue that the way the abortion discussion found its place in the political agenda in Turkey should not be seen as a simple coincidental political tactic by politicians that comes out of the blue, but has to be considered in parallel to the bigger picture of neoliberal transformation that has been taking place hand in hand with religious conservatism and state patriarchy for some time. From this perspective, this paper will refer to the new Health Program and the structural changes within the labour market as examples to argue that women’s position in the labour market and in society are increasingly put at stake through these neoliberal reforms combined with an anti-feminist discourse promoted by the Justice and Development Party.
