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What is the religious ruling concerning a woman who aborted her fetus 20 years ago out of ignorance that it was forbidden, and now feels remorse?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Abortion is forbidden by Islamic law because it is an assault on a soul. Its prohibition intensifies after the ensoulment, as it is then considered taking a life. It is not permissible to abort a pregnancy after 120 days unless the mother's life is in imminent danger or if the fetus has died inside its mother's womb. Before this period, scholars have differed on its permissibility, but the preponderant fatwa is that it is absolutely impermissible except for a reliable medical necessity that threatens the mother's life, because it is a corruption of offspring. The sin increases if the abortion is performed to get rid of the disgrace of fornication. Ignorance of the prohibition only removes the sin.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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