Patriarchal pronatalism: Islam, secularism and the conjugal confines of Turkey’s IVF boom

This article constructs an explanatory history of the introduction, growth and social regulation of IVF in Turkey, labelling it a form of ‘patriarchal pronatalism’. Based on sociological research between 2006 and 2010, including analysis of regulatory and media materials as well as an in-depth clinical ethnography and interviews with IVF patients and practitioners, the paper contextualizes Turkey’s ‘IVF boom’ within the wider and governmental contexts of reproductive politics. Examining both the legal framework and the surrounding rhetoric, it highlights how the nationally pertinent tensions between Islam and secularism unfold in this particular field, and traces how the rise of neo-conservatism and the expansion of the role of religious organizations and discourses has led to the promotion and development of assisted reproduction, but only within strictly enforced conjugal confines. This work contributes not only to the significant sociological and anthropological scholarship on the globalization, localization and repro-national character of assisted reproductive technologies around the world, but also to the growing scholarship examining the contours of reproductive citizenship, gender relations and family formation in contemporary Turkey.