Can the Welfare of Existing Children and the Mother’s Capacity to Care Constitute a Valid Excuse for Abortion Before 120 Days?

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

We follow the Hanafi madhhab and urgently need a case-specific ruling regarding abortion. Conception was approximately ——–, so the pregnancy is currently approximately 50 days from conception.

This would be our third child. Our existing children are 4 years old and 10 months old. The younger child was therefore only around 8 months old when this pregnancy was conceived and is still breastfeeding normally.

Our principal concern is the mother’s capacity to adequately manage three very young children. She already struggles considerably with two children. She has difficulty maintaining consistent routines and homeschooling for the 4-year-old, needs frequent reminders and encouragement from the father to maintain educational structure, sometimes loses patience, and does not always respond with sufficient empathy when the children are hurt or distressed. There have also been concerns about supervision and accidents, although we do not want to exaggerate this: the children are properly fed, their basic needs are being met, and there has been no established serious neglect or major injury.

The mother performs essentially all physical childcare and household chores, because the father is physically unable to provide substantial practical help in the home. She will also have to return to work shortly. The 10-month-old would likely need to attend crèche/daycare while the 4-year-old remains at home with the father and continues homeschooling. The father is concerned that pregnancy, followed by another newborn, could further reduce the mother’s patience, supervision, emotional availability and ability to provide consistent care to the existing children, and could also seriously strain the marital relationship.

Our financial circumstances are also difficult. We currently live with the two children in a one-bedroom apartment, and substantial paid childcare or domestic assistance is not realistically affordable.

In addition, the father has significant ongoing family responsibilities in his country————. He financially supports his widowed mother, who is dependent on him. He also provides significant financial assistance to his three married sisters and their three children, because their husbands do not adequately provide for them. We understand that under Hanafi fiqh the married sisters’ maintenance may primarily be the responsibility of their own husbands, so we do not wish to incorrectly claim that all of this assistance constitutes obligatory nafaqah. However, in practical terms these seven family members depend significantly on his financial assistance, particularly his widowed mother. This further limits our ability to obtain larger accommodation, domestic assistance or additional childcare.

There is currently no known serious medical danger to the mother’s life or health, and the existing children are receiving food and their essential care. Our concern is therefore the cumulative situation: two very young existing children, only an 8-month interval between childbirth and conception, continued breastfeeding, the mother’s existing difficulty managing two children consistently, essentially all physical childcare and housework falling upon her, her imminent return to work, the father’s physical inability to assist substantially at home, inadequate housing, financial pressure, responsibility toward dependent relatives, and the father’s concern that a third child could significantly worsen the care and supervision of the existing children and the stability of the marriage.

We are not asking merely because we prefer two children or because raising another child will be inconvenient.

According to the Hanafi madhhab, do these circumstances cumulatively constitute a valid shar’i ʿudhr permitting abortion at approximately 50 days after conception, or would abortion remain impermissible?

We would particularly appreciate clarification as to whether the welfare of the two existing young children and the mother’s realistic capacity to care for them can constitute a valid ʿudhr before 120 days when there is no established medical danger to the mother’s life.

Jazakum Allahu khayran.