Abortion and Islam: Policies and Practice in the Middle East and North Africa (original) (raw)
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Abortion in Islamic countries--legal and religious aspects
Medicine and law, 2004
The debate over abortion is still controversial as ever. As one of every four people in the world is of the Muslim religion, it is important to learn more about the Islamic point of view toward this dilemma in medical ethics. The first part of this paper gives a general view of the sources of Islamic law and discusses modern developments in Islamic medical ethics regarding abortion. The second part focuses on the legal aspects of abortion in different Islamic states, dealing with the need to supply solutions to women who for different reasons wish to abort and at the same time enact laws that would not contradict Islamic principles. A study of three Muslim states (Egypt, Kuwait and Tunisia) demonstrates three different approaches toward legalizing abortion--a conservative approach, a more lenient approach, and a liberal one--all within Islamic oriented states. This leads to a conclusion that a more liberal attitude regarding abortion is possible in Islamic states, as long as traditi...
The Limits of the Law: Abortion in the Middle East and North Africa
Health and Human Rights, 2019
In Sudan’s Islamist state, abortion is politicized through its association with illegal pregnancy. Fornication is a crime against God punishable with 100 lashes, and pregnancy outside a marriage contract constitutes sufficient evidence of a woman’s immorality. This enables a strong link between the crime of fornication and the crime of illegal abortion, to the extent that our interviewees often conflate the two in the term “illegal pregnancy.” While abortion does not appear in the domestic political debate on women’s reproductive and maternal health and is not on the agenda of the national women’s movement, it has become politicized in the implementation of the law. A number of bureaucratic barriers, in addition to a strong police presence outside maternity wards in public hospitals, make it difficult for unmarried women to access emergency care after complications of an illegal abortion. These women put themselves at risk of arrest for fornication and illegal abortion. However, man...
2013
A lack of access to safe abortions is a major cause of maternal mortality across the world. Looking at Islamic sources and relevant literature, Gilla Shapiro investigates the Islamic discourse and the diversity of laws across Muslim-majority countries. She finds that the remarkable variability is largely dependent on the point of gestational development and the grounds for abortion. For more permissive abortion laws to be achieved in Muslim-majority countries, she recommends that the more lenient interpretations should be highlighted, using a country-specific approach that takes into account local social and cultural factors.
Journal of Womens Health Care, 2015
Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the perception regarding induced abortion. Method: This descriptive study was conducted in 1-15 October 2011. A questionnaire was applied to 419 married women by educated midwives/nurses. Results: The mean age of the women was 34.0 ± 7.7 years. 45.3% of them stated that the ideal number of children for a family as three. 80.7% believe that induced abortion is a sin and 74.9% had stated that it was a kind of murder, therefore was forbidden by religion. Also the irreversible modern methods of contraception, such as tubal ligation (24.1% of the women, and 17.2% of the spouses), and vasectomy (25.5% of the women, and 17.4% of the spouses) were perceived as a sin. 31.3% thought "induced abortion was not a sin in the case of a handicapped fetus", 53.5% thought "it wasn't a sin if the pregnancy was endangering maternal health" and 41.8% thought "it wasn't a sin if the pregnancy was the result of rape". Out of 419 women 58 (12.7%) had an induced abortion. Conclusion: One woman out of four thinks that irreversible contraceptive methods are a sin.
This research study discusses how religion plays a significant role in determining whether any particular abortion is permissible. It also compares the laws, both statutory and customary, with respect to the permissibility of abortion and recognition of the basic human rights of women. However, both the Islamic and the Catholic teachings allow termination of pregnancy under a common circumstance where the fetus poses a threat to the life of the mother. The Islamic laws permits abortion within 120 days of conception or before the ensoulment of the fetus and abortion after the expiry of the four months entitles the woman to pay blood money to the relatives of the fetus. According to the Catholic beliefs, the killing of a fetus is a sin and no condition is sufficient enough to justify the killing of the fetus. This study also reflects the viewpoint of the human rights committee which prioritizes the life of the mother before the child as it believes that the source of life of the fetus is the mother. Hence, it is the basic human right of the mother to decide whether to continue with the pregnancy. In this research paper, the researcher has focused on the abortion process in the Sharia law where it is legal and the religion gives the power to abort any fetus before it processes. The different four schools of abortion in Sharia Law also defined in this research paper. The legal obstacles and legal rights of the fetus where it makes the conflicts with the human rights in the Sharia Law also discussed in this research paper. However, in the research paper the researcher has briefly analysed the importance, advantages and disadvantages of the Sharia Law. The researcher has also researched on the legislations of the Sharia Law on the human rights where the abortion has legalized in those Muslim countries.
Abortion: An Infringement of the Foetus’ Right to Life in Islamic Law
IIUM Law Journal, 2015
Under Islamic law, the life of a human being is sacred and as such, no one is allowed to kill or bring an end to the life of another except in accordance with the law. Whether a foetus under Islamic law is entitled to enjoy this protection or not is a subject that is hotly debated by Muslim scholars. Abortion has a direct link to the right to life because when abortion is done, it simply brings an end to the life of the human being in the womb that is in the process of development. Abortion is generally prohibited under Islamic law because it is tantamount to killing a human being that has not fully developed. Muslim jurists are not unanimous on the stage and conditions that can warrant the permissibility of abortion. This study therefore intends to employ a doctrinal analysis in its methodology to examine the respective views of jurists on abortion. The study examines the definition of abortion from the juristic and medical perspectives, the concept of abortion under Islamic law an...
Abortion for a Young Single Female: A Cultural and Islamic Perspective
Journal of Clinical Research & Bioethics, 2016
Induced abortion is an ethically charged issue that has been continuously discussed in the ethics literature. There are many ethical issues and cultural views and laws related to induced-abortion. In this article, I discuss an Islamic perspective on induced abortion using an actual case that I encountered as a family physician. I first present the case, provide an overview on the sociocultural context of the case, and finally present an overview of an Islamic approach to the presented case. My emphasis is on how family physicians can ethically approach such cases.
Abortion from an Islamic Perspective: Permission and Prohibition Positions
International Journal of Innovative Research in Medical Science,, 2020
Abortion is a common controversial ethical issue among humanists, feminists, liberals, and religious groups worldwide. Many countries permit induced abortion, or the deliberate termination of pregnancy, for various reasons e.g., as a means of contraception, as part of a woman's right to autonomy, or as part of a woman's right to determine the number of children she will bear. Even in Islamic countries, which hold strong religious laws and beliefs, it has been announced that abortion may be permissible before or after the period of "ensoulment" in certain circumstances and on medical grounds, so as to safeguard women from serious problems that might put their lives at risk. However, some religious groups do not support abortion. Therefore, it is critical to explore Islam's position on the prohibition or allowance of induced abortion.