Abortion which midwives usually worked were relatively safe. In addition, some commentators have written that, despite improved medical procedures, the period from the 1930s until legalization also saw more zealous enforcement of anti-abortion laws, and concomitantly an increasing control of abortion providers by organized crime. Soviet Russia (1919), Iceland (1935) and Sweden (1938) were among the first countries to legalize certain or all forms of abortion. In 1935 Nazi Germany, a law was passed permitting abortions for those deemed "hereditarily ill", while women considered of German stock were specifically prohibited from having abortions. Beginning in the second half of the twentieth
Abortion in Israel recognized medical facilities that are specifically and publicly recognized as a provider of abortions. However, the Israeli Cabinet updated the 1977 law in 2014 to allow abortion on demand for nearly every woman in the country seeking an abortion. Under a 1977 abortion law, a termination committee can approve an abortion, under sub-section 316a, in the following circumstances: Previously, cases where the woman is between the ages of 20-33, and/or was granted an abortion due to the baby having been conceived under illegal circumstances or incest, the fetus had a serious physical or mental defect, the mother was unmarried, or