Women vs. women

Ha’aretz does the religious-single-women-have-children-alone story, a couple of months after the Forward and Post (and a couple of years after the famous Ma’ariv story on the subject). According to the article, the phenomenon, in Israel at least, is beginning to spread from the ‘big cities’ to the sticks. The women in this article -– some of whom are now having second children -- seem more honest than in the other two about the hostility/bemusement they’ve encountered, as well as the enormous support.
Interestingly, the nastiest quote in the piece comes from another woman, Rebbetzin Yehudit Shilat:

"It's a phenomenon of spoiled women who want a doll to play with and don't think about the implications," she says. "Whoever gives a halakhic dispensation doesn't understand the danger this entails to the institution of the family. These single women think that motherhood is their personal right, but they give birth to a child without an identity. This dispensation is being used cynically for the sake of self-fulfillment, and that's not to mention the special permission to give birth from the sperm of a non-Jew."

Shame on her. If she doesn’t think it’s a good idea, the least she can do is show some sympathy to the real plight of many women (and men) who genuinely want children but can’t find a mate. As Rina Aharonov, one of the women raising a child alone, points out, “all those who preach against it are married with children.”
Well, perhaps not all. But point taken.
Incidentally, Shilat’s point – that these women are deemed ‘unacceptable’ because they threaten the institution of the family, and not necessarily for halachic reasons – is one I’ve argued elsewhere. But trying to shut them out, ignoring them or blasting them is simply not the answer. The fact is, more and more Orthodox people are marrying later in life, and others not at all; still others are bringing up children alone, because of divorce, or because they have chosen to become single parents. The institution of the family is changing around the world, and this is inevitably impacting the Orthodox world as well. We must start discussing how to accommodate such ‘alternative’ families – or risk losing good people.