Israel Eases Abortion Process in Response to ‘Oppressive’ Roe v. Wade Ruling

Israel on Monday approved new regulations aimed at making access to abortions easier, in what the country’s health minister said was in response to last week’s “oppressive” Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.

The changes include giving women abortion pills as well as the option to carry out drug-induced terminations at their local healthcare clinics instead of hospitals, a revision of invasive paperwork, and nixing a requirement to see a social worker in person ahead of the procedure.

Women will also no longer be required to face a pregnancy termination committee in person.

However, the controversial committees, which decide whether a woman can have an abortion, will not be abolished entirely as such a move would require a legislative change that would likely draw ire from Israeli’s conservative lawmakers, both from Israel’s Arab and ultra-Orthodox parties.

According to Health Ministry data, there were 17,548 requests made in 2021 to pregnancy termination committees, with 74 percent of the abortions carried out by the ninth week. The committees grant the overwhelming majority of requests and abortions are subsidized by the state.

Questions that are considered invasive, including number of children a woman has and reasons she did not use contraceptives, will be dropped from the application form. The form, which dates back to 1977, was deemed “ridiculously outdated” and “chauvinistic” by Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz (pictured).

“The choice to have an abortion must be in the hands of the woman. This is my simple stance and the principle that guides me,” Horowitz said.

“The move by the U.S. Supreme Court to deny women control of their bodies is a backwards one that oppresses women and sets the leader of the free and liberal world by a hundred years back,” Horowitz said.

“The reforms we approved today will mean a simpler process, that is more respectful, advanced, and maintains a woman’s right to have control over her own body – a basic human right,” Horowitz said.