Turkish court gives green light to law to regulate C-sections

ANKARA

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Turkey’s Constitutional Court has rejected the main opposition’s request to cancel a piece of legislation that would only allow Caesarean section births with medical permission.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) had made a plea to the court to annul the regulation that says C-sections would only be permitted in the event of “medical necessity.” But after reviewing the law that was passed in July 2012, the high court ruled that it complied with the Constitution.

The government had moved to regulate abortion and C-section births by making them far more difficult to obtain than before. The government said its policy was designed to encourage families to have more children and prevent doctors from pushing women into unnecessary surgery with potentially serious consequences, although women’s groups excoriated the government for its perceived interference in citizens’ reproduction rights.