The decision to have Ben Shapiro light a torch on Independence Day has once again sparked public debate over women's rights to their own bodies, particularly the right to terminate a pregnancy. Shapiro’s uncompromising stance—that women should be denied the option to have an abortion under any circumstances and at any stage—highlighted for many the influence of American anti-abortion lobbying groups on the situation in Israel.
Several Israeli organizations operate with ideological support from pro-life groups in the United States—in some cases even receiving funding from American organizations—with the goal of influencing Israeli public opinion on abortion and changing relevant laws in the Knesset. The most prominent organization in the field is Efrat, which recently launched a large-scale billboard campaign under the slogan “Your Right to Choose,” featuring the model Natali Dadon as spokeswoman.
It’s worth paying attention to Efrat’s rhetoric of a woman’s right to choose and its adoption of liberal and feminist terminology in its public outreach. The organization seems to be attempting to change its public image and routinely uses liberal and secular language. It has abandoned the rhetoric it employed in its early days—language that blamed women who chose to have an abortion or equated abortion with murder—and adapted its messaging to appeal to a broader Israeli audience. For example, a review conducted by the College of Law and Business’s legal clinic found that Efrat’s website describes the organization as a liberal feminist organization.
The organization has also changed its name from “The Association for Encouraging Births Among the Jewish People” to “The Efrat Association for Counseling and Assistance to Pregnant Women in Distress,” though it has not altered its goals. According to its official registration as a nonprofit, the organization is still committed to preventing abortions.
The official documents state that “the organization will work to promote two goals: 1. Encouraging births, 2. Preventing abortions.” The activities it intends to undertake in pursuit of these goals are also listed, including: “Written and oral advocacy on the severity of the prohibition against abortions and the dangers involved,” “Actions to promote legislation that would prohibit abortions contrary to Jewish law,” and “Taking steps to bring those who perform abortions illegally to justice.” These objectives are not mentioned on the organization’s website or Facebook page.
Just like in its current billboard campaign, the organization’s website and Facebook page state that it works to benefit women, but they omit what was written in its 2023 narrative report to the Israeli body governing nonprofits: that its objective for the year 2023 was to provide counseling, assistance, and support aimed at preventing abortions.
Efrat’s campaign and its public conduct on social media may amount to deception. The organization repeatedly emphasizes that it has no particular agenda and presents itself as a knowledgeable body motivated solely by concern for women’s welfare and greater freedom to decide whether to terminate a pregnancy. Yet its official stated goals and reports suggest otherwise.
The campaign almost completely obscures the organization’s true goals and presents it as having no interest or agenda regarding abortion. The public image that Efrat seeks to promote is that its entire purpose is to provide reliable information and support for any decision a woman makes, including financial assistance. In doing so, it engages in misrepresentation and behavior that may contravene public policy and even the provisions of Israeli nonprofit law.
Women who turn to the organization do not and cannot reasonably know that it has an anti-abortion agenda, that it promotes legislation on the issue, that it advocates for the traditional family, and that it regards Jewish law as a guiding principle in opposing abortions.
Israel’s Health Ministry has laid the ground for misleading the public about abortion. Despite abortion being an important health issue, the Ministry of Health provides little accessible, reliable, and available information about abortion and the health implications of choosing to terminate or continue an unwanted pregnancy. These matters are central to women’s health, and the state and Ministry of Health must provide this information in a trustworthy, accessible, and available manner to all women in Israel—especially to marginalized populations that struggle to access reliable information in their own language.
Nonprofits and even commercial entities are stepping into the vacuum left by the Ministry of Health, which is failing to fulfill its obligations. The Ministry must itself provide accessible and available information and operate a help line offering professional, agenda-free guidance about the abortion process.
Keren Shemesh-Perlmutter is a lawyer and a researcher and lecturer at the College of Law and Business. Students Orly Andreyev, Shoval Behesteker, and Alisar Abu Salah contributed to this article.
