Politics of Family Planning in Turkey: Ideological Polarization and Demographic Policies

This chapter focuses on the politics of reproductive health and family planning in Turkey and its interaction with population policies. Special attention is paid to the political polarization and politicization of reproductive health policies which, basically, emerged from the ideologies of the governing parties, religious values, and the dichotomy between conservatism and liberalism. Government programs and party manifestos are inspected as partial evidence of the sharp ideological/ political polarization in the country. The findings underscore that biopolitical interventions in the life and reproductive health of women reflect path dependency since the 19th century Ottoman Empire and its strategies to expand the population. Even though different population policies have been followed, both in the pro- natalist (pre- 1960 and post- 2000) and anti- natalist periods (1960– 2000), biopolitical measures have focused on controlling women’s reproductive rights, with two main types of justification: religiosity and protecting the family.