Advocacy Efforts by the Center and Regional Partners Lead to CEDAW Recommendation to Liberalize Turkmenistan Abortion Law

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW Committee) has recommended that Turkmenistan liberalize its abortion laws and policies following advocacy efforts by the Center for Reproductive Rights and its regional partners.  

Turkmenistan currently has the world’s lowest gestational limit for abortion on request: five weeks—before most people know they’re pregnant. 

The advocacy by the Center’s Asia team—along with Turkmenistan-based partners Progres Foundation and Saglyk—included a report submitted to the CEDAW Committee in December for its review of Turkmenistan and a January presentation during the country’s review at the 87th Session of the Committee in Geneva. 

The advocacy efforts marked the first time the Center actively engaged in Turkmenistan’s review. 

The Report submitted by the Center and its partners highlighted the country’s abortion laws and policies, abortion-related data and statistics, and legal and practical barriers to abortion access. It also called on the Committee to urge Turkmenistan to liberalize access to abortion on request without restrictions, fully decriminalize abortion by amending existing laws, remove the five-week gestational limit, and adopt abortion regulations which are in line with the World Health Organization Abortion Guideline.

>> Read the full Report here.

Jihan Jacob Represents the Center at the Committee’s Meeting in Geneva

Presenting at the CEDAW Committee’s meeting in Geneva on January 29, the Center’s Jihan Jacob, Associate Director, Legal Strategies for Asia, spoke about the need for Turkmenistan to liberalize its abortion law and highlighted some of the report’s findings, including that: 

• International organizations have estimated that between 2015 and 2019, an alarming 83% of unintended pregnancies ended in abortion—demonstrating the urgent need for access to abortion services. 
• The state media’s pro-natalist propaganda encourages women to have large families of eight children. 
• The country has no comprehensive sexuality education program, and outdated and harmful gender norms form part of the school curriculum. 

“We therefore urge the Committee to reiterate its recommendations to decriminalize and legalize abortion in Turkmenistan,” Jacob told the Committee. “The state party must also ensure access to comprehensive abortion care aligned with WHO standards; collect and disseminate comprehensive, disaggregated abortion data; and actively combat harmful gender stereotypes, including by ensuring access to science-based and nonbiased comprehensive sexuality education.”  

Watch Jihan Jacob’s remarks below:

Aynabat Yaylymova, Founder and Executive Director of Progres Foundation, also presented at the meeting, highlighting the legal and administrative gaps in addressing the needs of women who survive violence.

CEDAW Committee Recommends Turkmenistan Amend its Laws to Decriminalize Abortion

In its Concluding Observations on the periodic review of Turkmenistan, the CEDAW Committee recommended that the State party, “In line with the guidelines on abortion care of the World Health Organization, amend article 18 of the Criminal Code and article 19 of the 2015 Public Health Care Act to legalize abortion and decriminalize it in all cases and ensure that women and adolescent girls have adequate access to safe abortion and post-abortion services to ensure full realization of the rights of women, their equality and their economic and bodily autonomy to make free choices about their reproductive rights.” 

“The Committee’s observations attest to the positive impact legal advocacy can have in shaping progressive SRHR law and reform,” said Jacob. “The recommendations include full decriminalization of abortion and amending national laws to ensure abortion access to women. What is striking is that the observations are embedded in bodily autonomy language, which is an important recognition of rooting abortion discourse in rights-based language.” 

“The Committee’s detailed recommendations on women’s lack of protection against domestic violence and on reduced access to abortion care in Turkmenistan have been issued at the time of rapidly shrinking rights and public spaces for women and girls in Turkmenistan,” commented Yaylymova. “These recommendations not only help civil society, the public and international community to hold the government accountable, but they also demonstrate solidarity. It is very important to know that there are allies who stand for constructive engagement and progress through their words and actions in Turkmenistan.” 

Abortion in Turkmenistan  

While Turkmenistan’s 2002 Public Health Care Act allowed abortion up to 12 weeks upon the request of the pregnant person, the law was changed in 2015 to allow abortion up to only five weeks. The law allows abortion on medical and social grounds up to 22 weeks—but only upon the medical advisory commission’s approval.   

Abortion obtained outside of the regulatory framework is criminalized.  

The Report relies on studies to demonstrate that the number of unintended pregnancies ending in abortion is substantially higher in Turkmenistan compared to other regions in Central Asia. This highlights the need for women in Turkmenistan to have access to abortion services including comprehensive abortion care.  

Legal and policy barriers to abortion in Turkmenistan include its continued criminalization; the highly restrictive gestational limit; grounds-based approaches and vaguely drafted laws; third-party authorization requirements; lack of accurate public data on abortion; and abortion stigma and discrimination.

Read the full report and observations:  

> Joint Submission to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women: Turkmenistan: Supplementary Report for the Adoption of its Concluding Observations 87th Session on 02.02.24, submitted by the Center for Reproductive Rights, Progres Foundation, and Saglyk, 12.27.23

> CEDAW Committee’s Concluding Observations: Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women Concluding Observations on the Sixth Periodic Report of Turkmenistan, 02.20.24