The reshaping of abortion politics in Turkey: Understanding Islamic right-wing populism through the differing experiences of three groups of gynaecologists

• Applicant: Dr. Melehat Kutun, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 529722630

Abortion politics has transformed dramatically in the last decade as we have witnessed a global rise of right-wing populist governments and neoliberal authoritarian politics. As in Turkey through its Islamic version of right-wing populism, many other countries have seen similar shifts, albeit within differing flavours of right-wing populism. This transformation has been the focus of many studies in political, social and women’s health sciences. They draw attention variously to the threats to fundamental rights and freedoms of the anti-abortion politics of right-wing populism and its methods and means of restricting, prohibiting and criminalizing abortion services, and to the differences from previous governments. However, there is a necessity to go further, significant questions remaining unaddressed: 1) how has neoliberal authoritarianism reshaped abortion politics by assimilating Islamic right-wing populism, utilizing and abusing abortion politics to impose authoritarian neoliberal views on everyday life; 2) what are the economic, social, political and ideological objectives of the Islamic right-wing populist government for instigating anti-abortion policies; 3) how does Islamic right-wing politics create exclusion and inclusion mechanisms acting upon gynaecologists towards the social reorganization of abortion in Turkey; and 4) what are the transnational effects of these abortion politics on and in connection with gynaecologists who have recently migrated to Germany? The research project is a theory-driven interdisciplinary critical case study, which will be delivered through field research employing a qualitative method with 1) content analysis to interpret existing documental sources; 2) semi-structured expert interviews with three groups of gynaecologists to analyse their experiences; and 3) focus-group interviews with the representatives of professional associations and women’s organizations. I will focus on the period post-2010, defined as the “neoliberal authoritarian turn” by numerous scholars who have identified the main character of this turn as Islamic right-wing populism. With this turn, which has shaped social relations in their entirety, abortion politics started to become a more central topic on the government’s political agenda, reinforced by religious, national and family resources. Hence, it is necessary to focus on the link between the neoliberal authoritarian political regime and a right-wing politics supporting a purportedly Islamic ideology in the context of recent abortion politics. The proposed research, from a political science stance, will derive its innovation from its theoretical intervention, methodological broadening and filling of an empirical gap in ongoing debates on right-wing populism within feminist studies. It will contribute to a number of interdisciplinary fields of study with its feminist-critical state theory perspective: debates on right-wing populism, gender studies and women’s health politics.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants