(RNS1-JUN04) Ruth Tidhar, standing in a warehouse where the Efrat anti-abortion agency prepares supplies for new mothers, says the “pro-choice” group aims to help women who “choose” not to have abortions. “They feel like they have no choice. Our aim is to give the woman a choice.” For use with RNS-ISRAEL-ABORTION, transmitted June 4, 2010. RNS photo by Jason Ma.

JERUSALEM (RNS) Inside an office about the size of a three-bedroom apartment, the walls are covered with pictures of babies and letters from grateful mothers.

In a warehouse a few blocks away, three workers pack boxes with essentials — diapers, baby wipes, formula, matzo for Passover in the spring — alongside stacks of pint-sized mattresses and rows of strollers.

Meet the unlikely face of Israel’s “pro-choice,” anti-abortion movement: Efrat, a no-frills effort to dissuade Israeli women from having an abortion.

There are no religious arguments or political lobbying at Efrat, where volunteers offer a year’s worth of services and supplies to women who choose — that’s the “pro-choice” part — to carry their children to term.

“Women on the whole, they don’t want to do this abortion,” said Ruth Tidhar, an assistant director at Efrat. “They feel like they have no choice. Our aim is to give the woman a choice.”

For a country obsessed with demographics, abortion in Israel is a surprisingly uncontroversial topic. Unlike in the United States, where it’s a perennial wedge issue, there is a consensus in Israel on making abortion accessible, if rare.

Efrat isn’t trying to change abortion laws. Instead, it hopes women will seek its support rather than have an abortion for economic reasons.

“We’re not against abortions,” Tidhar said. “We’re for women.”

Efrat President Dr. Eli Schussheim said the organization is built around former clients who, having seen that it’s possible to have a child in spite of harsh economic realities, will then counsel other women against abortion.

“This is the unique approach,” he said. “We don’t need to change laws because we don’t believe that laws can educate people.”

Like much of Israeli life, abortion has been subsumed by political realities and religious arguments. Politicians and rabbis who argue against abortion say continuing Judaism — Jewishness is always transmitted through the mother — is vital for the country’s long-term security.

The fertility rate for Israeli women averages 2.72 children, according to the CIA World Factbook, compared to 3.12 for Palestinian women in the West Bank, and 4.9 for women in Hamas-controlled Gaza. It’s what prompted the late Yasir Arafat to once declare, “The womb of the Arab woman is my greatest weapon.”

The West Bank is home to some 4 million Palestinians, compared to 7.2 million Israelis — only 5.5 million of whom are Jewish. Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger told The Jerusalem Post last December that it was important to encourage fertility and discourage abortions, in part, to fight a demographic war.

“I am sorry to say that our enemies are multiplying,” he said.

A year after Israel’s founding in 1948, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion offered a cash reward to women who had 10 children. But it was discontinued when it was obvious more Arab than Jewish women would qualify.

Tidhar, who was born in Baltimore and immigrated to Israel as a teenager, said “it’s complicated” when asked how much demographics are a factor in her work. She said she “never, ever, ever, ever” brings it up when counseling pregnant women.

“They call it their secret weapon: the Palestinian womb and things like that,” she said. “And the truth is Palestinian women have a whole lot more babies than Israeli women do. That’s all I can say about that.

“Look,” she continued, “we’re the only Jewish state in the world. … This is the first time in recent history that the Jews have had a real haven. And that’s very precious to us. Anything that we can do to ensure that haven for the generations to come is extremely important.”

Demographics have, at times, played a role in Efrat’s fund-raising plan.A framed fundraising letter that hangs on the office walls quotes a donor whose infant son was killed in a 2003 bus bombing.

“If the Arab terrorists believe that killing one Jewish baby boy will help their cause,” it says, “we will bring 1,000 more Jewish children into the world in his stead …”

The Israeli national health system pays for abortions, but only after a woman meets certain criteria and goes before a review committee. About 20,000 women obtain state-sanctioned abortions that way each year, although the number has been on the decline in the last 15 years.

Under Israeli law, abortions are permissible if a woman is younger than 17 or older than 40; the pregnancy was conceived under illegal circumstances such as rape, incest, or out of wedlock; the fetus has a physical or mental birth defect; or if the pregnancy threatens a woman’s life, health or mental well-being.

In part because of those restrictions, an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 go outside the state health system to get “illegal” abortions through private doctors each year.

Abortion-rights advocates in Israel say getting permission for a state-sanctioned abortion from a review panel is humiliating. Many women who don’t have the money get a state-sanctioned abortion have to lie about cheating on their husbands, said Danya Cohen, a resource developer with the advocacy group New Family.

That process can promote dishonesty, and the need to get government permission “indicates a lack of trust in a woman’s ability to make her own reproductive choices,” Cohen said.

Like much of Israeli life, government policies are shaped by the influential Chief Rabbinate, which has been explicit about its opposition to abortion. Last December, the rabbis said abortion should be discouraged from the pulpit, claiming most abortions are unnecessary and “forbidden by Jewish law.”

Jewish law, in fact, permits abortion when pregnancy or birth threatens the mother’s health. Some rabbis also consider abortion justified if a fetus has a serious illness or in cases of rape and incest.

Schussheim said he doesn’t have a religious motivation for his work but feels that, as a doctor, he is charged with saving lives.

“The moment that I heard that it’s written to save one life is equal to saving the world — there was nothing more important,” he said.

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Almost six years ago, Mali Aharon found herself pregnant by a man who she says was “really, really an ass” when told he would be a father. Aharon’s religious father turned his unmarried daughter away, and she had trouble finding an employer who would hire a pregnant woman.

An Efrat volunteer counseled her to keep the baby. She gave birth to a daughter and reconciled with the girl’s father. Efrat provided diapers, baby wipes and food for the baby and her.

“They didn’t take care of just the baby,” Aharon said. “They took care of me.”

Now she counsels women who find themselves in similar circumstances, and can relate to their frustration and fear of the unknown. Despite what people assume about Efrat, she doesn’t have a religious message.

“We’re not God,” she said, “and we’re not going to decide who’s going to live and who’s going to die.”