Biopolitics and women's health in Turkey: An analysis within the framework of May 14, 2023 election declarations

The concept of biopolitics is a field where the concepts of life and living beings are manifested as "body politics" and in this context, the health of the body is a priority issue. Societies built with healthy individuals, which is one of the indicators of the welfare level of modern societies, is of great importance in the management of governments. Women's health is one of the critical elements that determine the welfare level of the society and it is one of the areas where the governments dominate over the female body within the framework of population policies. The ideologies of political parties significantly affect their biopolitical perspectives and thus their policies on women's health. The government's life and death domination over the body, its views on mortality and birth rates, infectious diseases, birth policies, family planning, abortion policies, and gender issues, which fall within the scope of biopolitics, can be deciphered through the discourses they construct in the declarations they publish before elections. In this study, the election manifestos published in the elections of 14 May 2023 in Turkey are analysed through critical discourse analysis method. The aim is to reveal the effects of the ideological orientations of the parties on women's health and thus public health.