Turkey’s Health Ministry has fined more than 100 obstetrician-gynaecologists for performing Caesarean sections, suspended some from practice and ordered them to undergo retraining, BirGun newspaper reported on Saturday.
The move comes as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government intensifies efforts to reduce the country’s high rate of C-section births under its “Decade of the Family” initiative.
According to the latest available data from 2023, Turkey recorded the highest Caesarean section rate among the 38 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with about 615 procedures per 1,000 live births.
Medical professionals told AFP that many doctors favour C-sections because they are significantly more time-efficient than vaginal deliveries—typically taking about 30 minutes compared with up to 12 hours—and reduce the risk of legal disputes arising from delivery complications, while offering greater predictability for both physicians and patients.
As part of its campaign to reverse declining birth rates, the Turkish government has increasingly sought to influence childbirth practices. In April 2025, it banned elective Caesarean sections at private healthcare facilities unless medically justified.
Citing figures from medical associations across the country, BirGun reported that more than 100 doctors have been sanctioned for performing Caesarean deliveries, prompting criticism from healthcare professionals.
In a statement posted on its website, the Antalya Chamber of Physicians said obstetricians had been “issued with warnings, subjected to disciplinary investigations, temporarily suspended from practising, and compelled to attend antenatal training courses” because of the country’s high Caesarean section rates.
The Diken news website reported the case of an obstetrician at a private hospital in Sakarya, near Istanbul, who was dismissed at the Health Ministry’s request over a high number of C-section deliveries and subsequently suspended from practice for six months.
During the suspension, the doctor is required to undergo training at a state hospital and pass a competency examination before being allowed to resume medical practice, the report said.
Dr Ayse Gultekingil, a senior official of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), argued that penalising doctors would not address the underlying causes of the country’s high Caesarean rate.
“Turkey’s Caesarean birth rate exceeds 60 percent. But the method of delivery reflects various structural problems within Turkey’s healthcare system,” she said.
AFP
