»The medical reasons, as you all know, are highly subjective«. Abortions, Doctors and the Nation-Building Process in Israel

Abstract

The Israeli nation building process, which took place at the beginning of the last century, aimed to re-create the Jewish nation by relocating it in the promised land in one hand, and by establishing a new native Jew, on the other. This ideological theme was shared by national leaders and doctors as well, demanded of mothers to have a lot of children and to raise them according to specific rules and orders. Doctors and national leaders praised birth and its national benefits, and glorified motherhood. But they were quiet worried because of the low birth rates in the urban and educated strata, and from the high birth rates of the poor and uneducated – both Jewish Immigrants and poor Arab residence of the country. The doctors wrote in Israeli women magazines of the 30s and 40s about an anti-reproduction social sentiment and about the fear from bearing children. Using content analysis, articles from the Israeli women magazines will be discussed in order to conceptualize the significance of abortions in the Israeli nation building Process.