Neoliberal Body Politics: Feminist Resistance and the Abortion Law in Turkey

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the anti-abortion biopolitics of the ruling AKP and counter discursive practices of activist groups taking place within the women’s movement in Turkey in recent years.1 It focuses on the debate that emerged with the attempt of the AKP to curb abortion in 2012. We use the term biopolitics to describe the hegemonic struggle over life—the life of the population and the life of the body. The chapter examines the neoliberal policies and discursive strategies that the AKP used to establish social legitimation for its attempt to prevent legal abortions, along with the parameters and limits of the activist groups within the women’s movements that tried to counter the law in different ways. We are particularly interested in analyzing the different approaches derived from distinct strategies of counteracting or engaging with the state’s policies and legislation.