Turkey’s Health Minister Recep Akdağ has said his ministry does not conduct any work on birth control, which he described as a “primitive” method, the Bianet news portal reported on Tuesday.
Responding to a parliamentary inquiry submitted by pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Meral Danış Bektaş, who asked the minister whether President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has given orders to the Health Ministry regarding birth control methods, Akdağ said: “Our ministry does not deal with a primitive practice called birth control. Our ministry conducts its work within the framework of the concept of contemporary fertility health.”
President Erdoğan is notorious for making comments about the importance of motherhood and telling women they should have at least three children and have a vaginal birth instead of a C-section.
“Women’s position in business life should not prevent her from being a mother. Women who refrain from becoming mothers due to their jobs are rejecting their femininity. If a woman refuses to be a mother or manage her household, she is incomplete, no matter how successful she is in her job,” Erdoğan said in a speech in June, attracting widespread criticism from women’s organizations.