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Abortion, Islam, and the 1994 Cairo Population Conference

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2009

Donna Lee Bowen
Donna Lee Bowen
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602, USA.
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Extract

The International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in September 1994 focused world attention on the interplay of religion, family-planning methods, and women's status. The most hotly debated topic of the conference was abortion. Before the conference convened, newspapers in the West and in the Middle East reported “a growing religious furor” that spurred an alliance between Muslim nations and the Vatican based on a common belief in the prohibition of abortion and concern for Western sexual mores. At the conference, Muslim delegations abandoned their slogans and moved away from the Vatican position by denouncing abortion as a method of family planning but leaving open its use under specific circumstances. Although a majority of Muslims worldwide agree with the stance taken at the population conference, and most would state that Islam forbids abortion, the Muslim theological position on abortion does not approximate the Roman Catholic condemnation of the practice. A full prohibition of abortion represents neither the sophisticated Muslim jurisprudence literature on abortion nor current practices of some Muslim women. Discussion with Muslim women and Muslim religious scholars (ʿulamāʾ) about the intricacies of the issues that abortion raises tells us that the question is not simple, consensus is far from being reached, and political concerns further complicate understanding of the paradoxical issues involved.

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Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , May 1997 , pp. 161 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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References

NOTES

1 Waldman, Peter, “Population Conference Fallout Is Feared,” Wall Street Journal, 2 09 1994Google Scholar; Cowell, Alan, “Despite Abortion Issue, Population Pact Nears,” New York Times, 9 09 1994Google Scholar; Al-Sharq al-Awsaṭ, “Islam Forbids Attack on the Fetus by Abortion,” 8 09 1994Google Scholar; Lancaster, John, “Islamic Leaders: Parts of U.N. Population Document Offensive,” Salt Lake Tribune, 13 08 1994Google Scholar.

2 The position of the Roman Catholic church states that human life is to be respected and protected from the moment of conception: “Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or as a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law” (United States Catholic Conference, Inc., Catechism of the Catholic Church [Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1994], para. 2270–71, 547)Google Scholar. Abortion as a mortal sin carries a penalty of excommunication. Given this teaching, the church holds that one cannot terminate a pregnancy solely to save the mother's life. A mother's health can be protected only if the abortion is an unintended result of the procedure—that is, if a mother has a condition that requires actions that may or may not damage the fetus. “One must hold as licit procedures carried out on the human embryo which respect the life and integrity of the embryo and do not involve disproportionate risks for it, but are directed toward its healing, the improvement of its condition of health, or its individual survival” (Catechism, para. 2275, 549Google Scholar).

3 United Nations, “Statement of Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan,” in “Report of the International Conference on Population and Development: Addendum,” Cairo, 13–15 09 1994, 30Google Scholar.

4 United Nations, “Statement of Benazir Bhutto,” 28.

5 United Nations, “Report of the International Conference on Population and Development,” Cairo, 13–15 09 1994,49Google Scholar.

6 Translation taken from Dawood, N. J., The Koran (New York: Penguin Books, 1974)Google Scholar.

7 Sunni jurisprudence held that if a slave gives birth to the master's child, she may be granted a new status as umm walad (mother of a child); she cannot be sold; and she becomes free upon her master's death. In Shiʿi law, the child of a free parent is free; the other parent's status is not altered. See Brunschwig, R., Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., s.v. “ʿAbd,” (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960), 1:25Google Scholar.

8 A similar passage is found in sūra al-Ghafīr (40), verse 66.

9 al-Ḥajjāj, Muslim ibn, Saḥīḥ Muslim, trans. Siddiqi, Abul Hamid (Lahore, 1981), 4:1391–93Google Scholar.

10 Sahnoun, Ahmad, “Islam's View of Abortion and Sterilization,” in Islam and Family Planning, 2 vols. (Beirut: International Planned Parenthood Federation, 1970), 2:373Google Scholar.

The literature on Islam and abortion owes a great deal to articles written for the 1970 conference on Islam and Family Planning sponsored in Rabat, Morocco, by the International Planned Parenthood Federation under the direction of Dr. Isam Nazer. This conference brought together physicians, ulama, academics, public-health specialists, and representatives of international development agencies to discuss issues related to family planning. The papers presented at the conference and the ensuing discussion have been published in both English and Arabic in a two-volume format. As these materials bring together representative positions of scholars from throughout the Muslim world, they furnish an important source for studies of religion and family planning.

11 In Family Planning and the Legacy of Islam (London: Routledge, 1992), 190–92Google Scholar, Abdel Omran presents a comprehensive summary of the positions of the legal schools on abortion. In a later chapter of the book, he summarizes the positions of various contemporary scholars on abortion.

12 Ibn Sīna, Qanūn, and Abu al-Ḥasan al-Ṭabīb, Khalq al-insān, quoted in Musallam, Basim, in Sex and Society in Islam (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 69–70Google Scholar.

13 Madkur, Muhammad Salam, “Sterilization and Abortion from the Point of View of Islam,” in Islam and Family Planning, 2:280–81Google Scholar.

14 Hines, Norman, Medical History of Contraception (New York: Schocken Books, 1970), 135–59Google Scholar. The jurisprudence literature was written exclusively by men whose knowledge of contraceptive measures was largely confined to coitus interruptus. The medical texts of the period (also written by men), however, also document a variety of measures that were employed by women to prevent pregnancy. The theological implications of their use were never considered, possibly because the jurisprudents were not cognizant of their existence or use.

15 In Sex and Society in Islam, Basim Musallam refers to al-Ghazzālī, , Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn, 2:41Google Scholar. See page 58 for Musallam's discussion.

16 Ewing, Katherine, “Ambiguity and Shariʿat: A Perspective on the Problem of Moral Principles in Tension,” in Shariʿat and Ambiguity in South Asian Islam, ed. Ewing, Katherine P. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 1–22Google Scholar.

17 Ewing, , “Ambiguity,” 2–3Google Scholar.

18 Interview with the grand mufti of Tunisia, 28 May 1975; also interviews with a number of other Tunisian ulama, including Kemal Tarzi, all of whom emphasized that abortion before creation, takwīn, of the fetus is permitted. These scholars emphasized that they did not speak for all Tunisian ulama but that a majority were in agreement with their position.

19 In 1993, I interviewed a number of Moroccan public-health personnel who presented these views. Here I am referring to remarks made by Dr. Tiam Mustafa, director, Division of Family Planning, Rabat, Morocco, in a series of interviews conducted in June 1993.

20 Obermeyer, Carla Makhlouf, “Reproductive Choice in Islam: Gender and State in Iran and Tunisia,” Studies in Family Planning 25, 1 (1994): 41–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 See United Nations, The World's Women 1970–1990: Trends and Statistics (New York: United Nations, 1991)Google Scholar.

22 Stowasser, Barbara F., “Religious Ideology, Women, and the Family: The Islamic Paradigm,” in The Islamic Impulse, ed. Stowasser, Barbara F. (Washington, D.C.: Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University, 1987), 262–96Google Scholar.

23 I prefer not to identify this alim by name.

24 Muntaṣir, Ṣalāḥ, “Qaḍīyat al-Ijhāḍ” (The Issue of Abortion), al-Ahrām, 12 09 1994, 7Google Scholar.

25 Interviews with professor and former minister of Habbous Mekki Naciri, Rabat, Morocco, June 1993.

26 Hathout, Hassan, “Induced Abortion,” in Islam and Family Planning, 2:307Google Scholar.

27 al-Khayyir, ʿAbdul Rahman, “Attitude of Islam towards Abortion and Sterilization,” in Islam and Family Planning, 2:347–48, 360Google Scholar.

28 Sahnoun, , “Islam's View of Abortion and Sterilization,“ 381Google Scholar.

29 United Nations, “Statement of Benazir Bhutto,” 30.

30 “Muslims Protest U.N. Draft on Population,” New York Times, 12 08 1994, A9Google Scholar.

31 Bronner, Ethan, “Western, Muslim Leaders Dispute Abortion, Values,” Boston Globe, 6 09 1994Google Scholar.

32 al-Ḥaqq, Gad al-Ḥaqq ʿAli Gad, “Abortion Is Not Permitted in the Shariʿa Unless to Protect the Life of the Mother,” al-Ahrām, 7 09 1994, 4Google Scholar.

33 Zalt, Al-Qisbi Mahmoud, “Islam Forbids Attacks on the Fetus with Abortion,” al-Ahrām, 8 09 1994, 14Google Scholar.

34 Ṭantawī, Muḥammad Sayyid, “A Word on Family Planning,” al-Ahrām, 19 09 1994, 6Google Scholar.

35 Waldman, “Population Conference Fallout Is Feared”.

36 See Ibid. Also, a representative argument is found in Mernissi, Fatima, Doing Daily Battle, trans. Lakeland, Mary Jo (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1989), 9–12Google Scholar.

37 See Faraj, ʿAbd al-Majīd, “The Conference: The Romances of the North and the Concerns of the South,” al-Ahrām, 18 09 1994, 6Google Scholar, for a more sophisticated statement of the concerns of Egyptian intellectuals on the North–South debate.

38 Giumelli, Guglielmo, “Interruzione della gravidanza e legislazione: Un'Indagine in Tunisia” (Interruption of Pregnancy and Legislation: Research in Tunisia), Rivista di Servizio Sociale 21, 3 (1981): 146–56Google Scholar.

39 “Tunisia 1988: Results from the Demographic and Health Survey,” Studies in Family Planning 22, 1 (1991): 55–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

40 Dervişoǧlu, Ayşe Akin and Ergor, Gül, “Abortions and Stillbirths,” Turkish Demographic and Health Survey, 1993, Ministry of Health, General Directorate of Mother and Child Health and Family Planning, Ankara Turkey, and Demographic and Health Surveys, Macro International Inc., Calverton, Md., (10 1994), 51–58Google Scholar.

41 U.S. Department of Commerce, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1994, 14th ed. (Washington, D.C.: Department of Commerce, 1994), 85Google Scholar.

42 Ryan, Michael, Social Trends in Contemporary Russia (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993), 112CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Most demographers believe that these statistics, which are derived from hospital records, represent an underreporting of abortions, and that many more abortions are performed in homes and thus not reported.

43 Hines, , in Medical History of Contraception, refers on p. 151Google Scholar to recipes for abortifacients collected in Ibn al-Baitar's Treatise but does not list ingredients or amounts.

44 See the longer discussion in Musallam, , Sex and Society in Islam, 68–71Google Scholar; the quotation is taken from page 71. Musallam raises the question of whether conservative physicians attempted to moderate what they saw as the liberal influence of the theologians on social attitudes toward contraception and abortion.

45 Data taken from interviews 1 conducted with a series of Moroccan public-health physicians from 1993–95.

46 Hines, , Medical History of Contraception, 151Google Scholar.

47 Although contraceptive use to space or prevent pregnancies has increased, the prevalence rates for modern types of contraceptives average around 35 percent in North Africa but are lower in countries of the Middle East. See the World Population Data Sheet, Population Reference Bureau, 1995Google Scholar. Greater use of contraception or application of other means of family planning in these cases (sterilization for women finished with childbearing) could prevent recourse to abortion. Neither the public-health services nor national planned-parenthood associations furnish contraceptives to unmarried women, although anyone may purchase oral contraceptives in pharmacies. As a result of the social stigma attached, few utilize contraception even if they are sexually active.

48 The fragmented and anecdotal nature of this data should be emphasized. The study of abortion in the Middle East is an emerging issue, and one in which accurate data on frequency is difficult to gain systematically. Because of the subject's sensitive nature (abortion was illegal in each country in which the women I spoke with reside), the women who confided in me had established a relationship with me before they spoke of abortion. They feared repercussions if the abortion were discovered. The stories I received from third parties all emphasized confidentiality and were anonymous, again in fear of consequences if discovered.

49 Abdul Rehman, mufti of New Delhi, quoted in Dahlburg, John-Thor, “Faiths Disagree on Morality of Abortion,” Los Angeles Times, 24 01 1995, 5Google Scholar.

50 Bowen, Donna Lee, “Islam and Family Planning in Morocco,” Maghreb Review 3, 10 (1980): 26–29Google Scholar. In the past five years, Moroccan family-planning officials have made a concerted effort to communicate the more intricate position of the ulama on contraceptive use to less-educated religious leaders.

51 Cowell, “Despite Abortion Issue, Population Pact Nears.”

52 Ibid.

53 Hedges, Chris, “Key Panel at Cairo Talks Agrees on Population Plan,” New York Times, 13 09 1994Google Scholar.

54 United Nations, “Report,” 49, para. 7.24.

55 Ibid., 61–62, para. 8.25.

56 Ibid., 135.

57 Libya noted that abortions are allowed only if the mother's health is in danger; ibid., 139. The United Arab Emirates noted that they do not consider abortion a means of family planning; ibid., 141. The Yemenis objected to the expression “unsafe abortion” as being unclear and not in accordance with their religious beliefs; ibid. Iran, along with other Muslim-majority states, objected to expressions that could be interpreted as referring to sexual relations outside marriage; ibid., 149.

58 Cowell, Alan, “U.N. Population Meeting Adopts Program of Action,” New York Times, 14 09 1994Google Scholar.

59 See the collection of articles on abortion and the discussion on the conference report in Islam and Family Planning, vol. 2Google Scholar, as well as the proceedings of 1994 Population Conference.

60 Rahman, Fazlur, Health and Medicine in the Islamic Tradition (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1987), 118Google Scholar.

61 Female professionals from Morocco and Jordan suggested this eventuality. This information is taken from interviews I conducted in Morocco and the United States in 1993 and 1994.