Repugs' Favorite Nation Now Has Free Abortion

Now we'll get to see if U.S. conservatives hate women having reproductive rights more than they love Palestinians being tortured, murdered and occupied right off their own land.

Think Progress:

Beginning in 2014, Israel may cover the cost of elective abortions for women in between the ages of 20 and 33. Health officials in the country recommended the new policy on Monday, and indicated they eventually intend to expand it to offer abortion funding to women of all ages. It now heads to country’s Health Ministry for approval.

In Israel, a health committee determines which treatments will be funded through government dollars by approving some medical services for inclusion in a state-subsidized “heath basket,” and sends their recommendations to the entire Health Ministry for official approval. Before the proposed update to this basket, women under the age of 20 or over the age of 40 could receive subsidized abortion services for personal reasons — but women in between those age groups could only get abortion funding if they were suffering a medical emergency, or if their pregnancy resulted from rape or incest.

If the policy is updated in line with the new recommendations, an additional 6,300 women may be eligible to seek state funding for abortion care.

In a press conference on Monday, the committee members explained that the rule change is necessary because not every women can afford the reproductive care she needs without state assistance. “It was brought to our attention that there is a large group of women between 20 and 40 who for various reasons — financial or reasons of secrecy — do not terminate pregnancies,” Prof. Jonathan Halevy, who heads the panel that makes the final recommendations for the health basket, explained.

Halevy indicated that the committee is waiting for more funding to be able to expand the health basket to include elective abortions for all age groups. State-subsidized contraceptives are not currently available because of limited funds; the committee was allowed to use the equivalent of $86 million USD to expand the services offered in the basket.

snipy at wonkette nails it :

You can tell it is propagandatastic because of how they call it a fancy soothing name like a “health basket” when really they should call it a big basket of blood and murder and murder and blood. Oh Israel, you are our little lost lamb, our prodigal son. Come back to the soothing arms of a particularly idiotic and rapacious wing of the American GOP, and they will teach you nonsense words like “pre-born” and “snowflake baby” and how to unthinkingly use Holocaust metaphors and you will dump out that satanic health basket and move forward, proudly with no social safety net whatsoever, just like God intended.

Meanwhile, here in Dominionist America:

Over the past three years, state legislatures enacted a staggering 205 restrictions on reproductive rights, according to a new report from the Guttmacher Institute. That figure, spurred by record-breaking numbers of restrictions each year since 2011, already exceeds the number of restrictions that were enacted during the entire previous decade. Between 2001 and 2010, states passed just 189 abortion restrictions.

Sure as fuck if this happened today, the guy would never get out of solitary confinement.

I’m not too big on the idea of hero, but there is something about the person persecuted for making others’ lives better that gets to me. One of the greats passed away yesterday. Dr. Kenneth Edelin, absurdly convicted in 1975 of manslaughter for conducting an entirely legal abortion, has died. In Boston, an all-white jury convicted this black doctor on such flimsy grounds that his conviction was soon overturned. He continued in his advocacy for reproductive rights and especially for the poor. A great man.