Turkish Women Banned From Undergoing Artificial Insemination Abroad

Ankara, Turkey (AHN) – A new law in Turkey bans women from availing of artificial insemination abroad, according to the country’s health ministry. Violators of the law, including doctor and clinics involved in the procedure, face up to three years of imprisonment and closure of their facility.

Artificial insemination is already illegal in Turkey but Turkish women apparently are still able to conceive using a sperm donor by going abroad, usually to neighboring Greece. Less than 100 women do so every year, according to Ismail Mete Itil, chairman of the Turkish Gynecologists’ and Obstetricians’ Association.

Department of Health spokesman Irfan Sencan defended the new regulation saying it is in consonance with the penal code’s provision making a crime the concealment of the paternity of a child. However, prominent women’s rights campaigner Pinar Ilkkaracan said that law is intended to protect the inheritance rights of children.

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