Is abortion allowed in the Quran?
Question:
Is abortion prohibited even in the case of rape? I know abortion is allowed for medical reasons, but is a woman forced to carry a fetus for 9 months after being raped?
Reply:
The Quranic answer lies in the following verse:
[46:15] We instructed the human being to treat his parents kindly. His mother bore him laboriously and gave birth to him laboriously. Carrying him and weaning him takes thirty months.
1- The verse states that the "carrying" (pregnancy) and weaning takes 30 months. The word "carrying" includes the full 9 months of pregnancy.
2- In the same verse, God speaks about what is carried inside the womb (throughout the carrying stage) as a "human being". In God's words, what is inside the womb does not become a human being after 2 or 3 months, but throughout the carrying period he is called a "human being".
3- God prohibited the killing of any human being in a number of Quranic verses, except in the cause of justice (such as the death penalty to a person convicted of murder).
4- In accordance with the deliberate wording in 46:15, the act of abortion, at any time during the "carrying" period (9 months) kills a "human being" and thus is prohibited by God.
The only justified reason for abortion is if the pregnancy or the delivery endangers the life of the carrying mother. Only in such a case can abortion be justified.
In the case of rape, without any doubt, such a horrific act causes women great suffering and traumatic effects, sometimes throughout her life, but still, this is not sufficient reason to kill another life.
Besides psychiatric counselling which can be of great help, a woman who has been a victim of rape has a choice to make after the baby is born. If she wishes, she can keep the baby as her own, or if that would cause great suffering to her, she can elect to have the baby adopted.
That would relieve the mother of carrying the burden and memory of the horrific event and at the same time, it would allow an innocent human being to be given life.