In a monumental decision, the U.S. Supreme Court officially reversed Roe V. Wade, declaring that the constitutional right to abortion, upheld for almost half a century, no longer exists. This means that abortion rights will be reversed in nearly half of the states immediately, with more restrictions very likely to follow soon. Days after the decision was announced, Israel eases access to abortion.
The Knesset Labor Welfare and Health Committee approved new regulations to make it easier for women seeking to end pregnancy. Some of the key changes in the decade-long regulations include new rules to allow drug-induced early-term abortions at clinics and not just hospitals and end the requirement for in-person approval by committees. Women seeking abortion will still have to pass a committee but will no longer have to appear in person which has often been reported by women to feel invasive and humiliating. They can now apply digitally and do not have to answer certain questions that are not deemed medically relevant.
Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz compared the Israeli developments with the US Supreme Court’s ruling last week reversing the 1973 Roe v. Wade saying that the decision by the US Supreme Court denying women control of their own bodies is a “backward move” that pushes back the advancement of the “free and liberal world by a hundred years.”
