Imam Moussé Fall explains Islam's position on medical abortion

He highlighted that the Quran, Hadith, and Islamic law focus on when a fetus acquires a status that makes its interruption particularly serious. The Quran describes human creation in stages, such as "nutfah," "alaqah," and "mudghah," which form the basis for Muslim jurists' reflections on fetal status. Imam Fall spoke on August 18, 2026, at a workshop on medical abortion organized by the Association of Health, Population, and Development Journalists AJSPD in collaboration with Marie Stopes International Reproductive Choices Senegal.

He explained that a Hadith reported by Ibn Mas'ud describes three successive 40-day periods before the soul is insufflated, leading to the 120-day threshold in Islamic jurisprudence. However, he clarified that this threshold does not automatically permit abortion before this time, stating that Islam opposes abortion without constraint. He noted that voluntary termination simply because a pregnancy is undesired is not generally authorized.

The reasoning changes when a serious constraint is established, such as rape, incest, or a serious threat to the mother's life. The Islamic position on medical abortion thus depends on an assessment of circumstances, the stage of pregnancy, and the severity of the situation, with interpretations varying among Muslim legal s