Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Muslim families cannot “understand and accept” birth control and family planning.
Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul Monday that it was women’s responsibility to make sure Turkey’s population — currently more than 78 million — keeps growing, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“We need to increase the number of our descendants,” Erdogan said. “People talk about birth control, about family planning. No Muslim family can understand and accept that! As God and as the great prophet said, we will go this way. And in this respect the first duty belongs to mothers.”
His comments are the latest to anger women’s-rights activists in the country. Erdogan has previously described birth control as “treason,” according to AFP, and in 2012, women activists protested in the streets over the then Prime Minister’s announcement that his ruling party planned to increase restrictions on abortion, which is legal up to the 10th week of pregnancy in Turkey.
[AFP]
- Column: Tyre Nichols' Killing Is The Result of a Diseased Culture
- Without Evusheld, Immunocompromised People Are on Their Own Against COVID-19
- Here Are All the Movies and TV Shows That Make Up the New DCU
- TikTok's 'De-Influencing' Trend Is Here to Tell You What Stuff You Don't Need to Buy
- Column: America Goes About Juvenile Crime Sentencing All Wrong
- Why Your Tax Refund May Be Lower This Year
- Brazil Wants to Abandon a 34,000-Ton Ship at Sea. It Would be an Environmental Disaster
- The 5 Best New TV Shows Our Critic Watched in January 2023