User talk:Merhawk/sandbox

Article Evaluation
Abortion in Israel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Israel

Evaluating Content: All information in this article appears to be directly relevant to the topic of abortion in Israel. The only bit of information I see as perhaps not crucial to the understanding of the topic is the discussion of the structure of abortion committees. Even so, knowing the requirements for the types of people who conduct these abortions, and details like the fact that one person has to be a woman and one has to be a social worker, is helpful to understand the way the government views abortion and what the experience is like for women undergoing the procedure. The article was updated as recently as August 4, 2018 and most statistics are from 2014, only 4 years ago. However, the article also relies on some perceivably out-of-date statistics, such as a report on the rate of granted abortions in Israel from 2004- over a decade ago. Another piece of information I think is important to this topic and therefore should have a more recent date, is the overall number of abortions that take place within Israel. The dates cited for this information in the article are 2007 and 2011, dates long enough ago that they should require updating.

Evaluating Tone: The tone of this articles comes across as very neutral. There are very few words or phrases used that portray any sort of opinion or bias. One sentence used in the article does state that the abortion debate was "sidelined by more publicized and controversial issues". This sentence does allude to the idea that the author of this article sees other issues within Israeli society as more important. One viewpoint that I think is underrepresented in this article is the experience of Israeli women who have had abortions. This article relies heavily on statistics and studies but a segment on the public perception of abortion and the women who undergo one may provide a greater understanding to the topic.

Evaluating Sources: Almost all of the links in this article work and support the claims made. 2 of the links listed under the "References" tab however do not. The link to source #13 and #16 lead to a page that says "Page Not Found". These links should be removed from the article. The sources listed for this article would be difficult for many non-Hebrew speaking people to understand because a majority of them are, understandably, from Israeli websites. The translation feature for these websites is not 100% reliable and therefore it is hard to confirm whether or not these sources are reliable.

Talk Page: On the talk page for the article "Abortion in Israel", the author of the article explains that it was difficult to find good sources written in English on the topic and that they are still looking/seeking recommendations. The author also made a note a few years later stating that they had modified some sources under references to take a reader to a better link. The only other comment on the talk page is from a person in Israel studying to be a social worker. This reader commented that they would like permission to add to the page with updated information because they believe "the information in the article is lacking a bit".

Article Selection
Topic: Recognition of Same-Sex Unions in Israel

Article to add to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recognition_of_same-sex_unions_in_Israel

Possible Sources:
 * http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1066480714565107
 * https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10464-014-9693-8
 * http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0192513X15617798
 * https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-why-the-battle-for-gay-rights-in-israel-passes-through-parenthood-1.6294801

Final Article
Surrogacy/Adoption Options for Same-Sex Couples

In July of 2018, a new surrogacy bill was introduced to the Knesset (Israel’s legislative committee) proposing to expand the definition on who is eligible for surrogacy as a route to parenthood. Up until this point, the only people to which surrogacy was an option was “a man and a woman who are a couple”. The new legislation opened the option of surrogacy up to single women and women unable to become pregnant, but denied single fathers, and by extension gay couples, this same right. This denial of rights sparked action from the LGBT community in Israel and even a widespread protest where thousands of Israeli citizens walked out of their workplace to express their disapproval of the decision.

The issue of having children for same-sex couples is especially hot within Israeli society due to the large cultural emphasis on the importance of family. Currently, an aim of the LGBTQ community within Israeli is to expand people’s definition of “family” beyond a heterosexual marriage with children. While the denial of the proposed surrogacy law was undeniably a setback toward this goal, the LGBT community remains optimistic about gaining equality through parenthood. Recent statistics tell us that “between 89.6% and 98.8% of social workers deem any living arrangement involving children to count as a family”.