His Justice and Development Party, or AKP, also made a number of overtures toward the Kurds, relaxing bans on Kurdish language education, appearing to apologize for past discriminatory policies and launching a state Kurdish-language TV station.

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After Erdogan's comment, Turkish Health Minister Recep Akdag issued a statement indicating that he would be submitting a proposal to lawmakers in the upcoming month, raising fears that the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, was preparing to introduce legislation to curb, if not fully block, access to abortion.

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