While access, legislation and economics are often proven barriers to safe abortions, there are several social and anthropological barriers that also exist, such as culture, stigma and social standing. You will notice that my post today is titled “Religion as a barrier”, but you’ll also notice that the word religion is conspicuous by its absence in my sentence above. The reason for this, is, that no religion in the world – show me one religious text to the contrary and I will be willing to correct myself pronto – dictates a prohibition of abortion. Abortion may be conditional, permitted conditionally or prohibited conditionally, but never completely.

In Islam, the perspectives on abortion come from the Hadith. Islam sees that the foetus is believed to become a living soul after four months of gestation and abortion after that point is generally considered impermissible. The relevant Hadith quotes thus:

“The matter of the Creation of a human being is put together in the womb of the mother in forty days, and then he becomes a clot of thick blood for a similar period, and then a piece of flesh for a similar period. Then Allah sends an angel who is ordered to write four things…then the soul is breathed into him” Sahih al-Bukhari, 4:54:430

In addition, abortions are permitted in Islam in three situations:

– Where there is a threat to the woman’s life, because the woman is considered the “original source of life”, while the fetus is only “potential” life.[1]

– Where rape occurs, since Muslim scholarly thinkers regard a child of rape as a legitimate child and thus it would be sinful to kill the child, but permit its abortion only if the foetus is less than four months old, or if it endangers the life of its mother.[2]

– Where the foetus is found having some kind of a deformity, such as where the newborn is sick, or disabled, or is likely to be born in a way that is difficult for the parents to sustain the child and assist the child in continuing with life after being born.

As it stands, Islam is not poised against abortions. In my next post, I will be taking a look at the huge divide between religion and culture, and the unholy interjection of stigma as a huge barrier to abortions.