Comparative Politics of Abortion in Poland and Turkey

Although Poland and Turkey show parallelism in terms of the factors explaining the legal/illegal status of abortion in the literature, such as religion's influence in policymaking, pious population, authoritarian populism, the feminist movement, and anti-global exclusive nationalism, abortion banned in Poland, which is more democratic, better in terms of women empowerment and gender equality, and is a member of the EU. In contrast, the government could not ban, or impose legal restrictions, on abortion in Turkey, although there was a legal attempt to outlaw it. By employing the Most Similar Systems Design (MSSD), this study aims to answer why the Turkish government could not ban abortion despite trying, but why Poland could ban abortion despite being in a better position on gender equality. I argue that the role of religion in nation-building would account for the difference. Although religious mobilization played an essential role in making Poland and Turkey, the Catholic church's influence has continued. Nevertheless, Turkey's political elite initiated a secular modernization path that divided society along secular and religious lines. Despite the ever-increasing power of religion in politics and society, contrary to Poland, the entire society does not embrace religion as the nation's savior. Therefore, the capacity of religion to regulate social life and politics is less in Turkey than in Poland.