The High Court of Justice this week heard a petition from women’s and civil rights groups over alleged discrimination against single women seeking to become pregnant through artificial means.
The petitions presented Monday stemmed from claims by single women that, unlike their married counterparts, they were required to undergo psychiatric examinations if they wished to be artificially impregnated.
The representative for the state at the court hearing said that even though the exams were part of Health Ministry regulations, during the past three months, all single women wishing to undergo impregnation procedures were granted approval on a case-by-case basis.
“We don’t want to have a situation where special permission is necessary for each case,” said attorney Rachel Benziman of the Israel Women’s Network.
“We want the policy to be universal,” she told Israel Television.
The justices delayed discussion of the petition for three months in order to give the Health Ministry time to formulate and clarify its position in the matter.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
