This article is the fourth of a six-part series of testimonies from women saved by Efrat (the Committee for the Rescue of Israel's Babies) from undergoing unnecessary abortions. For Part Three see here.
"After a long period of deliberation, my husband and I decided to leave Israel. My husband lost his job and found himself unemployed for a long time. Our financial situation continued to worsen until a friend suggested that we move to the U.S.
"The decision was not easy; for a family with three children a move to another country is difficult in so many ways.
"After a few months of acclimatization in California I found out I was pregnant. I told my husband immediately, and without hesitation he told me that I had to have an abortion. The reason was clear to both of us. I had given birth to our three children by Caesarean section, so I would be facing a fourth c-section.
"In the U.S. we had no national health insurance; there it’s every man for himself. You have to have private healthcare. Cesareans and hospitalization can cost thousands of dollars, which was money that we just didn’t have.
"We were just beginning to settle in, everything was new to us and it would take us time to be able to stand on our own feet financially. And the absurd truth was that for us an abortion would be 'better value' because it would cost a lot less.
"Personally I was afraid of an abortion. I never thought I would be in a position where I would have to make that kind of choice. I went online and typed the word ‘abortion’ into Google, and I came across one line, 'You're pregnant and considering abortion? Efrat is here for you.' That’s how I found Efrat.
"I didn’t know if they could even help in cases like mine, but I had nothing to lose so I sent them an email. The following day I already received a reply from Efrat’s social worker.
"She wrote, to my surprise, that they have a volunteer who lives in New York who knows all the ins and outs of health insurance and she would be in contact with me. I sent her my phone number and again to my surprise, Ruthie, the social worker, replied that the volunteer from New York would be coming to California on vacation.
"I was totally floored. It would have been great just to get a call from that volunteer to explain what I needed to know about health insurance, but just the mere coincidence that she would be coming to California was a sign from heaven.
"I so looked forward to my meeting with her and it was worth it. I hadn’t been comfortable with the decision to have an abortion but had just tried to justify it to myself by our lack of funds. But it turns out that the world is smaller than we think and we’re not the ones who decide who is born and who lives."