Abortions in Israel Continue to Decline, New Data Show

In 2024, Israeli women made 14,608 requests to pregnancy termination committees, a rate of 6.6 per 1,000 women ages 15 to 49, down from 6.9 in 2023. Over the longer term, the decline is sharper, with 7.5 requests for every 100 known pregnancies compared with 15.2 in 1988.

The committees almost never reject applications. They approved 99.8% of requests in 2024, and 92.1% of approved cases were actually carried out. Most applicants were married women, who accounted for 51.2% of requests, followed by single women at 38.2% and divorced women at 10.2%.

The data also show major differences by population group, age, education and religion. Rates were 6.6 per 1,000 among Jewish and other women, versus 5.7 among Arab women. By religion, non-Arab Christian women had the highest rate, at 10.0, followed by women with no religious classification at 7.1, while the lowest rates were among Muslim women, 5.7, and Druze women, 4.8. Teenagers under 19 made up just 5.8% of requests, down from 14.3% in 2006. Among women of Ethiopian origin, including Israel-born women whose fathers were born in Ethiopia, the rate was about 15.5 per 1,000, though it has also fallen sharply over time.

Most requests, 84.9%, came in the first trimester, 13.2% in the second, and 1.9% in the third. The leading legal basis for approval was pregnancy outside marriage, at 43.3% of requests, especially among Jewish and other women. Fetal risk came next at 23.3%, while risk to the woman's health accounted for 21.6% and was the main ground in the Arab sector at 43.2% of approvals. In the third trimester, 95.3% of approvals were for fetal malformation risk. Among those cases, Jewish women more often had chromosomal disorders, 38.4%, while Arab women more often had genetic diseases, 22.3%.

Internationally, Israel's rate is midrange by requests per 1,000 women, below England and Wales, Sweden and France, and above Switzerland and Italy. Poland's rate is close to zero because of its strict abortion laws. By abortions per 100 live births, Israel is much lower than the EU average, 8.0 versus 19.9 in 2024, reflecting Israel's high fertility rate.