JINHA

ISTANBUL – International women's rights group Women on Waves (WOW), which travels around the world providing safe and legal abortions in international waters for women in countries where abortion is illegal, arrived in Istanbul, where they held a press conference yesterday explaining their solidarity actions in Turkey.

The group has come to Turkey in part to provide reproductive health to Syrian refugee women. The world watched for months as war wreaked havoc in Syria, including through the war crime of rape and forced pregnancy, said Dr. MarliesSchellkens, a WOW doctor, speaking at the group's introductory press conference in Istanbul. Now, the women among the two million Syrian refugees in Turkey cannot access safe and hygienic abortions, according to WOW.

Turkey has a longstanding history of abortion being permitted de jure, but blocked de facto, as women's group Purple Roof pointed out in a recent study that found that the majority of state hospitals in Istanbul that in theory provide abortion refused to perform the procedure.

"In Turkey, abortion is legal, but state officials' statements make women think that it's illegal," said WOW member HazalAtay. In 2011, the state had made moves to restrict abortion, but when women resisted immediately and took to the streets in favor of the right to choose, the state simply moved its pressure behind the scenes—for example, by pushing hospitals to arbitrarily refuse abortion.

WOW points out that early-term drug-induced abortions are much safer and easier for women than surgical abortions. In 2012, after a range of medical studies in the country, Turkey permitted the distribution of these drugs, but the Ministry of Health mysteriously pulled them from the shelves.

The group will now be traveling to refugee camps to reach Syrian women, announced Hazal.

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