Israeli hostages impregnated by Hamas rapists will face abortion choice

Any Israeli hostages who have gotten pregnant from being raped by their Hamas captors in Gaza will have to decide whether to keep their baby or terminate the pregnancy upon their release, according to a new report.

Officials with Israel’s Ministries of Welfare and Health are drawing up detailed plans to deal with the possibility of unwanted pregnancies in women who were kidnapped by terrorists after the deadly Oct. 7 attacks, reported the local news outlet Walla!.

In Israel, a pregnancy termination committee typically determines whether to grant an abortion request — but officials are considering bypassing that step to reduce the red tape in the cases of any pregnant former captives.

More than 130 Israelis still remain in the clutches of Hamas after nearly four months, including young women and teenage girls, with preliminary information suggesting that some have been subjected to sexual abuse, both during the initial onslaught — as seen in gruesome videos circulating online — and in captivity.

Civilian authorities, assisted by the Israel Defense Forces, are creating a program that will coordinate all available resources for treating sexually abused hostages — including women at different stages of pregnancy — who will receive medical and psychological help.

The Wolfson hospital in the city of Holon has already prepared infrastructure and laid out protocols for receiving freed captives.

As part of the first stage, medical staff will examine each patient for injuries and, if she is found to be pregnant, assess the development of the fetus.

In the second stage, former Hamas hostages will be offered assistance with processing their trauma.

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At that point, they will have to decide whether to terminate their pregnancy, if it is still possible in a manner that is safe for the mother, or bring it to term.

Women who decide to keep their babies will receive financial, legal and mental health support from the government, the outlet reported.

During a discussion in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, on Tuesday, Chen Almog-Goldstein, 49, who was released from captivity after more than 50 days in Gaza, revealed that some of the younger female hostages have stopped menstruating.

“There are girls who have not gotten their period in a long time. Perhaps we all have to pray that their bodies protect them and they won’t get pregnant from rape,” she said.

In pressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and foreign leaders to act swiftly to free the remaining hostages, relatives of female captives stressed that the longer their loved ones remain in captivity, the higher the risk they would end up pregnant.

The main concern is that if the women are not released for another few months, it will be too late to end their pregnancies.

“I am uncertain how they will cope, but we must prepare now for this terrible theoretical possibility of a woman conceiving or raising such a child. Thus, we must stop this atrocity, not allow the captives to perish there, bring them back, and provide them with care,” Professor Tal Biron-Shental, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba, recently told the Israel publication Maariv.

Harrowing accounts shared by former hostages are fueling fears that sexual violence in the Gaza tunnels, where the Israelis are believed to be kept, is rampant.

Ex-captive Aviva Siegel has recently told Israeli lawmakers that she witnessed members of the terror group bringing female captives “inappropriate clothing, dolls clothes.”

The female hostages have been turned into “puppets with whom they could do what they wanted, when they wanted, and it’s beyond belief that they’re still there,’’ Siegel said.

Eli Albag, the father of 18-year-Liri Albag, who was snatched from her bed by Hamas attackers on Oct. 7 and has not been seen or heard from in more than 50 days, told reporters in London this week that when he asked a released captive whether women were being raped, she averted her eyes.

“She was silent but she moved her face so I understood that something happened there,” he recalled. “The hostage saw something, but she didn’t want to tell us.”

“We know that some of the girls — it’s very difficult to say this — [the terrorists] attacked them, sexually, and we are worried,” the heartbroken dad added.