The Knesset plenum on Thursday approved in a preliminary reading a bill amending the Equal Rights for Women Act, provision of service without waiting in line for pregnant women, 5727 – 2017, submitted by MK Yousef Jabareen (Joint Arab List) and a group of Knesset members.
42 MKs supported with non objecting, and the proposal was submitted to the Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women.
The bill proposes to determine that wherever the public is being served by waiting in line, service provider will provide the service to pregnant women without waiting in line.
The service provider may request to see a medical document for proof of pregnancy.
The explanatory notes accompanying the bill read: “Pregnant women often have to wait a long time in long lines in supermarkets, shops, pharmacies, post offices, and other places that serve the public. In order to give pregnant women the proper respect and to ease their discomfort, it is proposed to amend the Women’s Equal Rights Law, 5711-1951 and to determine that in a situation whereby a pregnant woman requests it, she will be given the right to receive public service without waiting in line.”
MK Jabareen said his bill was an ideological extension of an already existing legislation that allowed the elderly to receive service in banks and the post office without having to wait in line.
