Turkey fines over 100 doctors for Caesarian deliveries: Report

Turkey's health ministry has fined more than 100 obstetrician-gynaecologists for carrying out Caesarian sections, suspending them from duty and forcing them to undergo training, BirGun newspaper reported on Saturday.

The country has the highest rate of C-section births among the OECD's 38 nations, according to the last available data from 2023, with around 615 such procedures out of every 1,000 live births that year.

Medical professionals have told AFP C-sections were more time-efficient for medical staff -- 30 minutes, versus 12 hours for a traditional delivery -- and lowered the risk of legal action over complications, ensuring a guarantee of safety for both the physician and the women.

Last year, the Turkish government began a campaign to tackle falling birthrates under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's "Decade of the Family" initiative that has seen it move to exert greater control over how women give birth.

Erdogan, a pious Muslim who is pushing for women to have so-called natural births, wants to address Turkey's record number of elective C-section births, with his government in April 2025 banning such procedures at private healthcare facilities without medical justification.

According to BirGun, more than 100 doctors have been fined for performed C-sections, citing figures provided by medical associations across the country, sparking a backlash from heathcare professionals.

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, on the grounds of high caesarean section rates across the country".

The Diken news website cited the case of one obstetrician working at a private hospital in Sakarya near Istanbul, who was dismissed at the request of the health ministry on grounds of a high rate of C-sections, then suspended for six months.

Over that period, the doctor would need to undergo training at a state hospital and would then sit an exam, and only if successful, would be able to resume practising medicine, it said.

Dr Ayse Gultekingil, a top official at the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), told BirGun that penalising doctors would not solve the problem of Turkey's high Caesarian rate, which was "structural".

"Turkey's caesarean birth rate exceeds 60 percent. But the method of delivery reflects various problems within Turkey's healthcare system," she said.