Turkmenistan’s Ban On Abortion Paving The Way For Bribery

The variety of abortions in Turkmenistan has not decreased regardless of a lately enforced ban, as many ladies now pay bribes to terminate their undesirable pregnancies, girls and docs say.

Simply days after the authoritarian nation’s new president — Serdar Berdymukhammedov — succeeded his father and took energy in March, the federal government unveiled a regulation that successfully bans abortion after 5 weeks of being pregnant, besides if it poses severe well being dangers to the mom or youngster.

The regulation — which was initially adopted in 2015 however wasn’t ever made public or enforced — caught everybody unexpectedly, in accordance with the Saglyk (Well being) web site run by Turkmen activists and medics overseas.

The regulation shortens the interval throughout which girls are allowed to terminate an undesirable being pregnant with out well being causes from 12 weeks to 5 weeks.

A Turkmen physician who makes a speciality of reproductive well being points slammed the regulation, saying most ladies don’t even know they’re pregnant within the first 5 weeks.

The regulation permits exemptions for sure well being points, but it surely stipulates that such an exemption can solely be granted by a particular medical fee after present process numerous medical assessments, in the end delaying abortion and growing well being dangers for the mom.

Citing a number of sufferers and medical sources, RFE/RL correspondents in Turkmenistan say the ban has paved the best way for extra corruption in girls’s clinics and hospitals.

The sources mentioned girls who wish to finish a being pregnant pay bribes to obstetricians, who falsely register the affected person’s go to as a preventative checkup or session.

The affected person formally pays a session price after which “individually supplies money bribes for an abortion,” they added.

In Turkmenistan, the place corruption is rife in nearly all spheres, individuals say “each drawback will be resolved with cash,” a supply mentioned.

The quantity of the bribe for an abortion ranges between $100 and $500 relying on how superior the being pregnant is, medical sources within the metropolis of Mary mentioned, including that it’s cheaper when the affected person approaches a health care provider within the early months.

It additionally varies in several cities and areas. At a girls’s well being middle in Lebap Province, one supply mentioned sufferers pay as much as $340 in bribes for an abortion within the later phases of being pregnant.

Restricted Entry To Contraceptives

The ban on abortion comes as a big variety of reproductive-age girls in Turkmenistan don’t have entry to contraceptives, in accordance with the United Nations Inhabitants Fund (UNPFA), which goals to enhance reproductive and maternal well being worldwide.

In response to the UNPFA, there are nonetheless “about 160,000 girls [in Turkmenistan] aged 15-49 who wish to forestall or delay their being pregnant however should not utilizing fashionable contraceptives.”

The explanations are totally different for every girl and vary from a lack of understanding about companies to a scarcity of help from their dad and mom, husband, or communities, in addition to the flexibility to resolve or buy contraceptives by themselves, the company mentioned.

In Turkmenistan’s conservative society, almost 60 p.c of ladies aren’t capable of independently resolve on these elementary points — contraceptives and abortions — that impacts their lives and well being.

Abortion is frowned upon by many older Turkmen, however the youthful technology has a extra liberal view towards it. Turkmen often have massive households, however youthful, city Turkmen are having fewer youngsters, with some blaming shrinking household sizes on financial hardship.

Turkmenistan’s digital ban on abortions has gone largely unnoticed by the media, because it was revealed concurrently many different restrictions affecting girls’s lives.

Ladies have been barred from the entrance seats of autos in every thing from non-public automobiles to public transport. Police throughout the nation have stopped and fined drivers who defied the ban, even when the feminine passenger was a member of the family.

Authorities have additionally banned girls from sporting heavy make-up and utilizing eyelash extensions or faux nails. Breast implants and lip augmentation have additionally been banned, together with eyebrow tinting — one thing that turned fashionable amongst Turkmen girls lately.

Moreover, working girls are pressured to submit a written pledge to administration that they will not put on tight-fitting garments or use heavy make-up.

The bans got here with none official announcement or clarification from the federal government. Ladies discovered in regards to the measures from their employers or from police, who started imposing the ban in late March and early April.