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Fatwa CenterHusband Threatens His Wife with Divorce If She Does Not Have Abortion
Question
I would like to send a question to you about children. I'm a 17 year-old revert and married to a man who's 29. Because I'm not "lawful" according to Western tradition I live in my parent's house and I will do that until I turn 18 (very soon). My "problem" is that I got pregnant although I use birth control (my husband didn't want to have children now). My husband got very angry and wants me to have an abortion, but I don't want to because I think it's Haram or at least Maqrouh. He says it's allowed before 4 months, but I don't think we have strong reasons, because I'm not sick or anything. Now my husband says that he will divorce me if I don't have an abortion because he thinks I disobey him by wanting to keep my baby. He claims I tricked him and don't want him, just a baby. He also say that I will get Ziyaat if I have a baby in a Kafir country, but I want to move away just after the delivery, Insha Allah. What can I do? A sister in desperate need of help.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
Abortion can be in two cases and each case has a special ruling.
The first case: having an abortion after the soul is breathed into the fetus. Abortion in this case is absolutely forbidden without any difference of opinion among the scholars of Islam, except in the following two situations:
1) If the pregnancy, according to trustworthy doctors, will cause a certain harm to the mother.
2) If the fetus, according to trustworthy doctors, died in the mother's womb.
The second case: having an abortion before the soul is breathed into the fetus. There are also two situations in this case:
1) According to the majority of Muslim scholars, it is forbidden to induce an abortion during the first forty days of the fetus' life. Some scholars legalize such an action. But, the first opinion is the preponderant one, since this action constitutes a form of wiping out progeny.
2) Scholars of Islam differ greatly in case of inducing an abortion after the forty days of the fetus's life; very few of them legalize abortion after such a period.
In the light of the above, you should know that having abortion is not permissible for you. Your husbands' anger and disapproval are not a justification for you to have an abortion. Because abortion after the soul is breathed into the fetus is considered as killing a living being, which is also forbidden. Know that no creature is to be obeyed in disobedience to Allah. So, you should try your best to convince your husband to be satisfied with what Allah has predetermined for him. This child may be goodness in the future and benefit him in this worldly life and in the Hereafter, as he may supplicate for mercy for his father, and Allah will forgive him as a result.
For more benefit on abortion, please refer to Fataawa 278191, 276748, 87649, 128586, 87467, and 90398.
Allah knows best.
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