A banner displayed by players before a Turkish Super League match on Sunday promoting natural childbirth as part of a Health Ministry campaign has sparked outrage among women and rights groups, who condemned it as a sexist intrusion into women’s reproductive choices, Deutsche Welle Turkish edition reported.
Before Sunday’s game between Sivasspor and Fenerbahçe, the Sivasspor players walked onto the field holding a banner that read, “What’s natural is normal birth.” Beneath it, a secondary message added, “Unless medically necessary, a Caesarean section is not natural.”
The display quickly drew widespread backlash on social media, with opposition figures and women’s rights groups condemning the message. They argued that the decision over how to give birth lies solely with women and their doctors.
“Alright then, you go ahead and give ‘natural’ birth,” the We Will Stop Femicide Platform (KCDP) on Sunday said on X, sharing a photo of the players with the banner.
The Women’s Coalition, a prominent gender rights group in Turkey, also condemned the banner on X, using the hashtag #BenimBedenimBenimKararım, which translates to “My body, my choice.”
“Don’t meddle in women’s lives with your football boots on. We’re not asking you,” the group wrote.
Ayça Kara Sığırcı, legal coordinator for the children’s rights group UCİM, sarcastically addressed the players: “Hopefully you’ll have a vaginal birth soon, dear football players. … Otherwise, you wouldn’t be carrying a banner about something that doesn’t concern you in the slightest, right?”
Umarım tez zamanda normal doğum yaparsınız sevgili futbolcular. Çünkü bu pankartla çıktığınıza göre sizin doğuruyor olmanız gerek. Yoksa sizi zerre ilgilendirmeyen bi konuda pankart taşımazdınız değil mi?
Sağlıklı doğumlar @Fenerbahce @Sivasspor #SVSvFB pic.twitter.com/UomeHc8Ka3
— Ayça Kara Sığırcı (@aycakarasigirci) April 13, 2025
In addition to the banner, Deniz Akbıyık, a national swimmer and lawyer, criticized the players’ use of the term “normal birth” to describe vaginal delivery.
“First of all, it’s not called ‘normal,’ it’s vaginal birth. Since you’re hesitant even to say the word ‘vagina,’ I suggest you refrain from expressing opinions about vaginas you don’t have,” she said.
The Women’s Platform for Equality (EŞİK), an umbrella organization of over 340 women’s and LGBTQ organizations, described the display as a “mansplaining show organized by the ministry.”
Mansplaining is a term used to describe a situation where a man explains something to a woman in a condescending, patronizing or overly simplistic manner, often about a subject the woman already understands, with the assumption that she lacks knowledge or insight.
“The ‘normal birth’ propaganda presented by the players is a sexist and intrusive intervention into women’s bodies and reproductive rights. How women give birth, what they consider ‘natural,’ or what they choose to do with their bodies is only for women to decide,” the platform said in a tweet.
Bakanlık tarafından organize edilen mansplaining gösterisi!
Sivasspor-Fenerbahçe maçında, tamamı erkek futbolculardan oluşan iki takım, Sağlık Bakanlığı'nın kampanyası kapsamında “Doğal olan normal doğumdur” yazılı bir pankartla sahaya çıktı. Seyircilerin %95’inin erkek… pic.twitter.com/MwGLQScRLn
— esikplatformu (@esikplatformu) April 13, 2025
Opposition lawmakers such as Ayça Çağlar, provincial chair of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) Ankara women’s branch, and Perihan Koca, an MP from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), also expressed their criticism of the banner, condemning it “inappropriate” and “patriarchal.”
When asked about the backlash and whether it was normal for the football players to give a message about childbirth, Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu defended the campaign. “[This is] normal, normal. Do only men attend football matches?” he said.
Amid concerns about Turkey’s declining birth rate, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who advises families to have at least three children to boost the country’s population, also advises Muslim families not to use birth control or family planning and opposes C-sections as well.
He has attracted widespread criticism for interfering in people’s reproductive choices. The Health Ministry also runs campaigns promoting natural childbirth over C-sections in line with Erdoğan’s suggestions.