JINHA

ANKARA – The Women's Medicine and Women's Health arm of the Union of Turkish Doctors (TTB)called for respect for patients' rights in the case of Ayşe Kocaoğlu, who has been denied medical treatment because she is pregnant.

Ayşe Kocaoğlu was two months pregnant when her ex-boyfriend assaulted and seriously wounded her. She would need an abortion to receive treatment for her wounds and was within the 10-week legal limit for voluntary abortions at the woman's request under Turkish law, yet the state hospital delayed her treatment. Ayşe is now facing amputation of both arms due to the delay in treatment. Women's organizations have condemned the hospital administrators and some doctors for causing harm to women to implement theAKP's anti-abortion party line.

The TTB wrote that the case constituted a violation of a range of constitutional rights and international agreements to which Turkey is a signatory, including the Council of Europe's 1997 Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine; the World Medical Association's 1983 proclamation on patients' rights; the 1998 Patient's Bill of Rights; and the medical professional ethical guidelines released in 1998.

The TTB said that although affordable birth control methods have been available to women in Turkey since 2007, many women do not know how to use them. They said the responsibility for ensuring birth control methods fell disproportionately on women, and women paid the price for issues with birth control.

"Women… must be able to make all decisions about their bodies. This isn't open for debate," said the statement.

The doctors called on their colleagues to respect the constitutional and legal rights of patients and to implement the principle of their profession to put the wellbeing of the patient above all, including by performing abortions up to 10 weeks into the pregnancy as required by Turkish law.

They also called for the implementation of Family Planning Centers in every province as required by law and for steps to be taken to allow both women and men to easily access free birth control methods.

(fk/cm)