By Jonathan Head
BBC News, Istanbul
**A new law passed in Turkey has made it a criminal offence for a woman to go abroad and get pregnant via artificial insemination.**Artificial insemination is already illegal, but women have until now been able to go overseas to seek sperm donors.
Now they will face punishment of one to three years in prison for doing so.
Doctors and lawyers say they are trying to find out how the government plans to enforce the law.
The list of activities which are illegal in Turkey is a very long one. Now that list has one more bizarre addition.
The new regulation just published by the health ministry is apparently covered by an article in the criminal code that forbids Turkish citizens from concealing the paternity of their children.
Sperm donation has long been illegal in Turkey, so women who want to get pregnant by a donor have gone overseas to do it.
The number is small, estimated to be fewer than 100 every year, but one gynaecologist described the law as “a huge step backwards”.
He accused the conservative Muslims of the governing party of failing to understand the need to adapt Turkish law to the choices now available to women who were unable or unwilling to become pregnant through conventional means.