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Is expiation required for someone who assisted in aborting a fetus that was two months old or slightly more, and is this considered killing or saving, and does the fetus have a soul at this stage?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The crime of adultery does not justify the crime of abortion. The questioner must repent to Allah for having aided in it. If the abortion occurs after forty days of pregnancy, the blood money (diyya) for the fetus is obligatory. This is a ghurrah (a male or female slave), the value of which is one-tenth of the mother's blood money, or approximately 213 grams of gold. As for expiation (kaffarah), scholars have differed regarding its obligation, but it is more cautious to perform it, which is the freeing of a slave or fasting for two consecutive months. The blood money and expiation are obligatory upon the woman who directly performed the abortion, not upon the one who aided in it. The rule is: "If cause and direct action, or deception and direct action, are combined, direct action takes precedence."

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

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