"You can't forbid a person from being a parent," Cohen said. "It's outrageous. It's inhumane. It's unthinkable."

His committee summoned Interior Minister Avraham Poraz to the meeting, which will take place next week.

But Sabine Haddad, spokeswomen for the Ministry's Population Registry, said the new policy was actually devised for "humanitarian" reasons.

She said it has always been the case that foreign workers who give birth have a three-month grace period to decide what to do with their children, who are considered illegal. Staying on with the children can be grounds for the mothers' visas not to be renewed.

The regulations have also stated, she said, that legal workers – men and women – who become unemployed have one month to find a new employer. If they are unsuccessful, they must leave the country.

According to Haddad, the modification in the rules, which went into effect two weeks ago, pertains to women six months pregnant or more who find themselves without employers. Instead of having only one month to find a new job, they will be able to stay until they give birth, plus three months afterwards.

"It's a positive thing," Haddad said of the change.

Shevy Korzen, executive director of the Hot Line for Migrant Workers, agreed that the new policy is an improvement but said the fundamental problem remains. "The fact that a woman has to choose between her baby and providing for her baby is horrifying."

She said there's a contradiction between the Interior Ministry's approach, in which pregnancy leads to becoming illegal, and Israeli labor law, in which it's forbidden to fire a women for becoming pregnant.