JINHA

ISTANBUL – The international abortion rights group Women on Waves (WOW) has announced that it is coming to Turkey in solidarity with women's right to abortion.

The group will be providing reproductive health services and safe abortions to women facing poor medical conditions, especially the 300,000 Syrian refugee women in Turkey. They are also planning actions to protest the fact that pregnancy-ending medication has been removed from circulation in Turkey.

International nonprofit Women on Waves was founded in 1999 by Dutch doctor Rebecca Gomperts. The group provides contraceptives and abortion services outside territorial waters in countries where abortion is illegal.WOW has previously traveled to Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Morocco.

WOWalso provides the service "Women on Web," which explains to women how to safely use pills to perform an early-term abortion in electronic consultation with a doctor. In Turkey, since 2012 the pills women can use to safely give themselves abortions have disappeared from circulation in Turkey's pharmacies. The group will be protesting this situation while in Turkey.

WOW will be working with local women's groups to reach Syrian women both in and outside of refugee camps to provide information and services on family planning, reproductive health, contraception, and safe abortions. Statistics say that of the more than two million Syrian refugees in Turkey, around half are women and children. 30,000 Syrian women in Turkey have given birth since 2011, many in unsafe conditions. The group noted that some refugees have been pregnant from rape, and that as a signatory to the Geneva Convention, Turkey recognizes forced pregnancy as a war crime and should ensure women's reproductive health.

(fk/cm)