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What is the ruling on intentionally aborting a six-week-old fetus for social reasons, and what is the expiation required for that?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

It is forbidden to intentionally abort a fetus at any stage of its development. Whoever aborts it without a legitimate Shar'i (Islamic legal) excuse must repent. If the abortion occurs after six weeks, there is a difference of opinion regarding what entails. The blood money (diyah) is different from the expiation (kaffarah). Assuming the obligation of blood money due to the fetus's formation, expiation is obligatory according to some scholars and recommended according to others, while some do not consider it obligatory. However, if blood money is not obligatory because the fetus has not formed, then there is no expiation.

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

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