Abortion
Praise be to Allaah.
Firstly
The Council of Senior Scholars issued the following statement:
1 – It is not permissible to abort a pregnancy at any stage unless
there is a legitimate reason, and within very precise limits.
2 – If the pregnancy is in the first stage, which is a period of forty
days, and aborting it serves a legitimate purpose or will ward off
harm, then it is permissible to abort it. But aborting it at this stage
for fear of the difficulty of raising children or of being unable to
bear the costs of maintaining and educating them, or for fear for their
future or because the couple feel that they have enough children – this
is not permissible.
3 – It is not permissible to abort a pregnancy when it is an ‘alaqah
(clot) or mudghah (chewed lump of flesh) (which are the second and
third periods of forty days each) until a trustworthy medical committee
has decided that continuing the pregnancy poses a threat to the
mother’s wellbeing, in that there is the fear that she will die if the
pregnancy continues. It is permissible to abort it once all means of
warding off that danger have been exhausted.
4 – After the third stage, and after four months have passed, it is not
permissible to abort the pregnancy unless a group of trustworthy
medical specialists decide that keeping the foetus in his mother’s womb
will cause her death, and that should only be done after all means of
keeping the foetus alive have been exhausted. A concession is made
allowing abortion in this case so as to ward off the greater of two
evils and to serve the greater of two interests.
Al-Fataawa al-Jaami’ah, 3/1056
Secondly:
With regard to the rulings following an abortion, they vary according
to the time of the abortion, and fall into four categories, as follows:
1 – If the pregnancy is aborted within the first two stages (the nutfah
(drop) stage which results from the mixing of the “two waters” which is
the first forty days after the embryo attaches itself in the womb, and
the ‘alaqah (clot) stage where it turns into solid blood during the
second forty days), which add up to a total of eighty days, then in
this case if it is aborted as a nutfah or ‘alaqah, there are no rulings
to be followed, and there is no scholarly dispute on this point. The
woman should continue to fast and pray as if she had not had an
abortion, but she has to do wudoo’ for each prayer if she has any
bleeding, as in the case of a woman suffering from istihaadah
(non-menstrual vaginal bleeding).
2 – If the pregnancy is aborted in the third stage, the mudghah (chewed
piece of flesh) stage, when the embryo looks like a piece of meat with
the limbs and features beginning to appear, which lasts for forty days
from the eighty-first to the one hundred and twentieth day, then there
are two scenarios:
(i) This embryo does not have any human features and the
midwives or other attendants did not testify that this was the
beginning of a human being. In this case the ruling on abortion of this
mudghah is the same as the ruling on abortion in the first two stages,
and there are no rulings to be followed.
(ii) The embryo has complete human features or some human
features such as a hand or foot, etc, or there are features but they
are indistinct, or the midwives or other attendants testified that this
was the beginning of a human being. In this case the rulings on nifaas
are to be followed, and this signals the end of ‘iddah (waiting period
following divorce or death of the husband, if applicable).
3 – If the pregnancy is aborted in the fourth stage, i.e., after the
soul has been breathed into the foetus, which is after the beginning of
the fifth month or after one hundred and twenty days of pregnancy have
passed. Here there are two scenarios:
(i) If the foetus did not cry after birth, then the
rulings mentioned with regard to the second stage of the mudghah are to
be followed, but in addition the foetus should be washed, shrouded and
the funeral prayer offered for him; he should be given a name and the
‘aqeeqah offered for him.
(ii) If the foetus cried after birth, then the rulings
concerning a full-term baby apply, as mentioned above; in addition the
child may take possession of wealth bequeathed or inherited; he may
inherit or be inherited from, etc.
Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah, 21/434-438.
In case you need more information, please contact me. Salam
Sheikh Ramadan, Imam of Masjid Fresno, sheikhramadan@gmail.com, sheikhramadan@masjidfresno.com
