Consider This from NPR - Some Muslim Americans Turn To Faith For Guidance On Abortion

Episode Date: January 24, 2023

Since the Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to an abortion, some Muslims in America have sought a better understanding of what their faith says about abortion.NPR's Linah Mohammad reports on the diversity of views within Islam about the issue.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University is committed to moving the world forward, working to tackle some of society's biggest challenges. Nine campuses, one purpose. Creating tomorrow, today. More at iu.edu. When it comes to the debate over abortion, which side you fall on can depend on a lot of factors, and a big factor for a lot of people is their faith. Jewish, Buddhist, Unitarian, and non-religious Americans express some of the strongest support for abortion rights in surveys, while some of the strongest support for measures that limit access to abortion tends to come from Americans who identify as evangelicals. Still, within any

faith, there can be a wide variety of views regarding this issue. Maryam Mona Lisa Garavi is Muslim, and she lives in New York City. After the Supreme Court decision last year that ended the constitutional right to an abortion, she was struck by some of the news coverage that she saw. I saw footage in the news, notably in Florida and Texas, where Jewish women at protests were openly saying that this decision hinders our right to practice as our faith allows us to. Garavi went to see her local imam, wanting to start a conversation. And, you know, we talked about personal things and I said,

you know, my heart is really heavy right now. Where are the conversations happening around SCOTUS? And he mentioned to me that's very important and very relevant and it should happen. And I never heard back and I didn't really press the issue. Gauravi says a lot of people in her community seem to be avoiding the conversation. And that's one reason I myself started, you know, provoking conversations in my own circles, you know, in my family even, you know, throwing darts against the wall and saying,

hey, do Muslims even know their own faith? Consider this. Within Islam, there is a great diversity of thought about abortion. We'll hear more about some of those views just ahead. From NPR, I'm Elsa Chang. It's Tuesday, January 24th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees.

Download the WISE app today, or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. It's Consider This from NPR. Since the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision last year, which ended the constitutional right to an abortion, some Muslims in America have turned to their faith to gain a better understanding of this key question. What exactly does Islam say about abortion? NPR's Lina Mohamed reports. Iman Abdelhadi had a lot going on in 2015.

Professionally, she was studying sociology in grad school. Personally, she was at the beginning of a serious relationship. She was switching birth control methods when she got pregnant. I didn't have the resources to have a baby at that moment in my life. I needed to finish my PhD. I was too soon into this relationship. I didn't have the money on a grad student salary and I simply didn't want to have a baby. It was a tearful decision, but Abdelhadi says her partner wasn't ready either. Within a week of finding out that I was pregnant, I decided to get an abortion. Abdelhadi is now an assistant professor in the University of Chicago's Division of Social Sciences.

She studies people's relationships with Muslim communities. I am very happy with my life, and I know that I wouldn't have led the life that I lead now if I hadn't made the decision to stay pregnant. And she says she's secure in her choice to get an abortion because of her upbringing in a devout Muslim community in the Midwest. I learned a lot about the Muslim tradition in the sense that, you know, first of all, the mother's life is the most important thing. Polls show opinions on abortion, like in other faith groups, are deeply divided. According to a survey conducted last March by the Institute for Social

Policy and Understanding, 56% of Muslim Americans think abortion should actually be legal in all or most cases. You might find that number surprising if you look at some non-Muslim perceptions of abortion in Islam. A simple Twitter search unveils hundreds of comments, spinning the Supreme Court's moves to overturn Roe v. Wade as the Christian version of Sharia law. Here's former Daily Show host Trevor Noah. After all these years of the right screaming about the threats of Sharia law, it turns out they were just jealous. Now, to be clear... Critiques range from attempts at humor to downright Islamophobic takes. One meme that made the rounds on social media was a photoshopped image of Supreme Court justices in beards, turbans, and burqas.

Experts on Sharia law say those assumptions come from a place of ignorance, because Islam can actually be very permissive of abortion. Some of the most conservative, so-called most conservative countries in the world, like if you say like Iran or Saudi Arabia, are more permissive of abortion than many American states are. That's Zahra Ayyubi, a professor of Islamic ethics at Dartmouth College. She says key Islamic texts don't mention abortion outright, so rulings in the faith lean on verses that mention fetal development. Based on the verses of the Quran and the hadith and the prior discussions that jurists have had, we can say that 120 days is really the point at which ensoulment occurs, is the point at which we can consider the fetus a legal person. And so prior to that, abortion is permissible under certain circumstances.

Ayubi also says the faith's ruling on abortion depends on which madhab or school of thought you choose to follow. Some are more liberal, but no matter what, there's always an exception for the pregnant person's well-being in Islam. The most conservative opinion is that abortion is permissible only in cases of mortal danger to the mother at any point. Ayubi also notes that some of the conservatism over abortion is tied to outside influences. Muslims have historically had abortions since the beginning of Islam. and many laws were set up to criminalize what were very legal actions that women took with respect to pregnancy and abortion and so on. And it's still difficult to talk openly about abortion in Muslim spaces.

We're going to be recording today. And that's why HART, a sexual health group that serves Muslims, has been co-hosting virtual workshops like this one. At times, the content that we will be covering will be upsetting. To offer practical guidance and space for collective prayer. I mean, that was so beautiful. Seher Perzada is a manager at HEART and says prayer has been key in her own reproductive decisions. As she held her three-month-old son on another Zoom call, she told me about her first pregnancy in 2018. We had gone to several ultrasounds, had heard the heartbeat, had seen the fetus moving. Prezada and her husband

had been overjoyed, but later tests showed the fetus had trisomy 18, a rare genetic condition that almost always ends in miscarriage or stillbirth. Nothing prepares you for that moment when you get the actual diagnosis. I did pray. I did make the, I did, you know, turn to God as I was making this decision. And I felt more at peace and ease than kind of I thought I would have. She talked it over with her husband, her therapist, and multiple Islamic scholars and decided to terminate the pregnancy. I think it's just ultimately knowing that I, as a person who is carrying the fetus, I am important too, right? And my well-being is important. And that really comes from my understanding of Islam as well.

An understanding that Perzada says she's grateful to share through her work. That was NPR's Lina Mohamed reporting. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Ilsa Chang. This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University is committed to moving the world forward, working to tackle some of society's biggest challenges. Nine campuses, one purpose. Creating tomorrow, today. More at iu.edu.