The Harvard research team is collaborating with the Bahçeşehir University in Istanbul, Turkey to evaluate the Willows Program in Bagcilar, Turkey, a suburb district of Istanbul. The district has a population of approximately 750,000 people, while Istanbul proper has a population of approximately 14.8 million.
While contraceptive prevalence is relatively high in Turkey at 73.5% of all women ages 15 - 49, there is a heavy reliance on traditional methods, as only 47.4% of contraceptive users are using modern methods. There is a stark contrast in total fertility rate among women in the wealthiest quintile who have 1.7 children on average, versus those in the lowest quintile, who have 3.9 children on average, which may be due to inequity in access to family planning counseling and services based on income. A similar trend can be seen in unmet need for family planning for wealthy women (7.5%) versus the poorest women (25.4%)[1].
Despite a nationalized health care system and relatively liberal aboriton laws, restricted access and stringent requirements may limit access for women, especially in rural or impoverished areas. According data from 2013, 14% of all married and fertile women in Turkey have had at least one abortion[2].
From the WHO Global Abortion Policy Database
[1] World Bank Data