Initiated abortion (abortion) is performed in Israel according to law, but it requires the approval of an abortion committee. The authority to perform abortions is enshrined in law and penal regulations. Nearly 100% of applications for termination of pregnancy in Israel are approved.
According to the “Every Right” website, according to the guidelines, the committee can approve an abortion when the woman is under 18 or over 40, when the woman is not married or the pregnancy is not from the marriage, when the pregnancy is due to a prohibited relationship under criminal law or incest, when the child may have a physical defect. Or mental, and in the event that continued pregnancy may endanger the woman’s life or cause the woman physical or mental harm.
In addition, abortion committees may only consider applications where the gestational age does not exceed a full 24 weeks. Beyond that time, the treatment goes to a special committee.
A woman who wishes to terminate her pregnancy may apply to any committee in the country, at one of the hospitals or surgical clinics, regardless of her place of residence.
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Termination of pregnancy with public funding is done in a large number of cases. However, for those who are not eligible for public funding, opening a case, summoning the abortion committee and carrying out the abortion are subject to a fee, depending on the Ministry of Health tariff or presenting a financial commitment from the HMO. In any case, the payment, including a committee and the actual termination of the pregnancy, amounts to a maximum of NIS 3,500.
In 2020, 16,492 abortion applications were submitted in Israel, about 99.6% of which were approved. This is according to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics. The rate of referrals to abortion committees was about 0.77% of all women aged 15-49. The highest referral rates were between the ages of 20 and 34, and the lowest were between the ages of 40 and over.
According to data previously published by the Ministry of Health, between 1990 and 2016, the number of abortions per year decreased by about 34%, from 150 per 1,000 births to 97 per 1,000 births. The number of applications submitted to abortion committees fell in those years by about 42%.
The number of applications submitted to abortion committees per 1,000 women of childbearing age has dropped from 13.6 per 1,000 to 9 per 1,000. The main decrease in the number of abortions – about 27%, has been recorded since 2000.