My name is Muhammed Arif and i am from India. Alhamdulillah I am happily married from past 13 years. We by the grace of Allah have 2 children both are boys (12 and 8 years respectively). My second son had undergone kidney transplant surgery 1 and half years back, now Alhamdulillah he is doing fine. Now Allah has again blessed us with third pregnancy. There is now a disagreement between me and my wife, she wants to terminate it and i want to continue with it, we need your humble guidance in the light of Quran and Hadith to take the right decision. I will list down all the medical conditions of my wife below.
1. Her age is 37 years now
2. She is diabetic
3. She has multiple large and small uterine fibroids (but the current pregnancy is away from fibroids)
4. She had previous two pregnancies as C-Section
5. We have already done 2 abortions
6. So far all the tests of the unborn baby have come normal except in a detailed sonography it was revealed that he may have a possibility of Down Syndrome which was eventually ruled out by a more detailed blood examination
7. My wife is now 91 days into her pregnancy, it was an unplanned pregnancy.
8. The unborn babies all organs have developed and we could see the baby moving in the womb during the scans.
My Wife’s reasons for termination
1. She feels that she would be overburdened with responsibilities of three kids
2. Her health issues and her previous experiences of taking insulin during second baby pregnancy
3. My second sons care taking as he has undergone Kidney Transplant and needs focused attention for food and medication
4. Her Uterine fibroids she is scared them troubling her as the pregnancy progresses
5. The doctors have termed it as High Risk Pregnancy due to Diabetes and Uterine Fibroids
and my only take on continuing with pregnancy is everything is in Allah’s will if HE has given us this gift and he is enough to take care of everything.
Please give me your valuable advise on how to proceed.
Jazakallahu Khair.
Muhammed Arif
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.
In specific cases it is permissible to abort before 120 days provided there is a valid excuse such as danger to the health of the mother or the child.
From your inquiry it seems that Alhamdulillah, the health of the foetus is normal and tests for illnesses such as down’s syndrome have been negative.
The five reasons cited are not sufficient grounds to abort the pregnancy. [i][ii]
And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best
Mufti Sohail ibn Arif,
Assistant Mufti, Darul Iftaa
Chicago, USA
Checked and Approved by,
Mufti Ebrahim Desai.
امداد الفتاوى، ٤/ ٢٠٢ – ٢٠٥ [i]
أحسن الفتاوى، ٨/ ٣٤٧ – ٣٤٨ [ii]