Nurse looking after women who undergo voluntary abortion

5-12-2017 | IslamWeb

Question:

I am a nurse, and I look after patients in hospitals. This includes patients who terminate their pregnancy. I am not involved in giving any medication to trigger the abortions, but I do check their blood pressure, fill forms, give them painkillers, and discharge them. I just want to know whether this is haram.

---

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, sallallahu ʻalayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

Filling the forms of a woman who wants to terminate her pregnancy (have an abortion), checking her blood pressure, and giving her painkillers is a kind of cooperation in carrying out the abortion. It is prohibited to abort the pregnancy at any of its stages, even before the fetus is forty days old, according to the view which we adopt at Islamweb. Please, refer to fatwa 87467.

Hence, it is impermissible for you, dear Sister, to help others have an abortion in any way. Allah, the Exalted, says (what means): {And cooperate in righteousness and piety, but do not cooperate in sin and aggression. And fear Allah; indeed, Allah is severe in penalty.} [Quran 5:2]

Even if the country or hospital you work in do not consider abortion to be a sin, or even if the pregnant woman herself does not consider it a sin, it is impermissible for you to assist in the process of abortion in any way. Shaykh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said, “It is prohibited for the Muslim to help others commit a sin, even if the assisted person does not believe that it is a sin, such as helping a disbeliever to drink alcohol or eat pork...”

Allah knows best.