Israel has eased its regulations on access to abortion in what the country’s health minister said was a response to last week’s “sad” U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe against Wade.
The new rules, approved Monday by a parliamentary committee, allow women access to abortion pills through the country’s universal health system and eliminate the long-standing requirement that women appear physically before a special committee. before they are allowed to terminate the pregnancy.
The decision came after the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday withdrew women’s constitutional protections for abortion, a fundamental and deeply personal change for the lives of Americans after nearly half a century under Roe v. Wade.
People are attending a protest for abortion rights at the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. (AP)
The decision has sparked protests in the United States and paved the way for a wave of litigation.
Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, who leads the small Liberal party Meretz, said the U.S. decision had pushed back the women’s rights clock.
“A woman has a total right over her body,” he said. “SCOTUS ‘decision to deny women’s right to choose their own bodies is a sad process of repression of women, which placed the leader of the free and liberal world a hundred years ago.”
An explosion of protests erupts in the United States following the ruling on abortion rights
Abortion is widely available in Israel and is much less controversial than in the U.S., but women are not yet automatically entitled to the procedure.
Under the new rules, Israeli women will now have access to abortion pills at their local health clinics. They will also no longer have to physically appear before an abortion approval committee and the application form will be shortened and simplified.
Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz has condemned Roe’s decision against Wade of the United States Supreme Court. (AP)
Abortion approval committees have been heavily criticized in Israel over the years. While most petitions are approved, women have opposed being subjected to bureaucracy and a humiliating and intrusive process. Women can also face long waiting times before being seen by a committee.
Instead, the process will be digitized and the requirement to meet with a social worker will become optional. The new regulations will come into force in three months.
“The reform we passed today will create a simpler, more respectful, advanced process that maintains a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body, a basic human right,” Horowitz said.