Turkish 'Abortion Tourism' Agency Lost its Licence

The Office of the Counsellor for Cultural Affairs of the Turkish embassy in Bosnia issued a statement saying that the Barracuda Tours has been closed by the authorities because it was promoting the so-called 'abortion tourism', Anadolu Agency reported.

Bosnian media reported recently that the Barracuda Tour Company started two weeks ago to organise the ‘abortion city breaks’ in different places including Cyprus and the UK.

Bosnia and Herzegovina was amongst the more popular destinations where the agency offered a “city tour, three nights stay and an abortion” for 600 US dollars.

The Turkish cultural attaché in Bosnia, Cengiz Aydin, said that his country's Ministry of Culture and Tourism started investigating the tour operator ten days ago.

“Turkey has made a lot of effort to develop tourism. This unfortunate case is damaging Turkey’s reputation. It is not in accordance with our ethics and goals of tourism in general,” Aydin said.

“The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism has decided to revoke the agency’s licence,” he added.

Previously, Cem Polatoglu, the owner of the agency, told the media that for years his company has been specialising in medical tourism.

“Women have abortions outside of the country because they do not want their families or friends to judge them,” Polatoglu said.