CHP MP Ali Şeker: 22 Thousand Children Become Mothers in 18 Months

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İstanbul MP of the Republican People's Party (CHP) Ali Şeker has directed a series of questions to the Ministry of Health regarding child motherhood via Presidency Communication Center (CİMER). The questions of Şeker have been answered by the related units of the ministry.

Sharing his evaluations regarding the answers provided by the ministry, CHP MP Şeker has said, "According to the official figures, 21 thousand 957 pregnant children were registered in hospitals across Turkey in 18 months, which means that more than 40 of our children, who were still children themselves, were forced to become mothers a day."

Şeker has stated, "Hiding the child brides and turning a blind eye to abuse mean being a party to this crime."

* The provincial distribution of children registered pregnant across Turkey (While the first column indicates the first six months of 2018, the second column covers 2017 as a whole.)

Some questions of Şeker left unanswered

Reminding an incident in İstanbul in January 2018, when it was detected that two hospitals had not informed the authorities about the pregnancies of children under the age of 18, Ali Şeker has stated that he wrote to the CİMER as a last resort after his parliamentary investigation had been rejected and his parlimentary inquiry had been left unanswered.

Ali Şeker has said, "According to the answers given by the CİMER to the application of information acquisition, throughout 2017 and in the first six months of 2018, 21 thousand 957 pregnant children were registered."

Şeker has also added that his questions as to the age distribution of the children and the age of the youngest pregnant child have been left unanswered. (HA/SD)