Studying the abortion from religious jurisprudence perspective

Abortion is the termination of pregnancy before the twentieth week. About 80 thousand abortions are annually performed in Iran. Many social issues such as having many children، asymmetry in sex، unintended pregnancy، or being illegitimate child have provided appropriate ground for abortion. Different schools have offered a variety of views and ideas. The conception phase and the stage before the soul is inspirited are of value to Islam due to the dignity of man. This study investigated the issue of abortion from the perspective of Islam especially Shi''a jurisprudence. The religious verdicts of jurisconsult and Shia contemporary scholars، the religious jurisprudence ideas of Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the author''s perspective on human abortion were discussed and evaluated in this study. The traditions of Muhammad and the signs of Quran were also cited in the present study. The approach of different schools of Sunni، Judaism، the teachings of Zoroaster and Christian theologians were considered. The ideas of non-divine schools like feminists، the science view of medical specialists and the intellectual and common language reasons were addressed in this study. The majority of Islamic jurisconsults believes that the abortion at any stage of the live is prohibited and is considered non-religious if there is no good reason for it. Abortion sanctity in some circumstances is prohibited according to the negation of hardship and sin rules and it should be prevented from the greater loss based on importance and priority rule. There is no strong reason to abort the pregnancy because of its harassment in the womb. Abortion is permissible for mother if the life of mother is at risk. The sanctity of the rule is removed by the negation of sin rule. The negation of sin rule is dominant on all provisions like dissimulation. The sanctity of abortion is not absolute and has exception from the perspective of the majority of Islamic jurisconsults. The sanctity of abortion is removed according to the negation of hardship and sin rules. The harassment of pregnancy in the womb، which leads to danger of mother’s life، can be licensed for abortion. The religious teachings and Shia jurisprudence determine the right way.