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These views toward abortion are still referenced and used by several modern Islamic theologians and scholars. [1] According to religious studies scholar Zahra Ayubi, historically, Muslim thought was more concerned with the topic of preservation of human life and safeguarding of the mother's life than with determining when life begins. [11]
Abortion is perceived as murder by many religious conservatives. [4] Anti-abortion advocates believe that legalized abortion is a threat to social, moral, and religious values. [4] Religious people who advocate abortion rights generally believe that life starts later in the pregnancy, for instance at quickening, after the first trimester. [5]
The Second Great Awakening exercised a profound impact on American religious history. By 1859 evangelicalism emerged as a kind of national church or national religion and was the grand absorbing theme of American religious life. The greatest gains were made by the very well organized Methodists.
After ensoulment, all schools of Islam allow abortion to save the life of the mother, and in the case of an intrauterine death (miscarriage), but on little other grounds. However, there is a growing movement to allow abortion for malformed foetuses whose deaths are inevitable shortly after birth. [ 15 ]
In the earliest texts, it can be difficult to discern to what extent a particular religious injunction held force as secular law. In later texts, the rationale for abortion laws may be sought in a wide variety of fields including philosophy, religion, and jurisprudence. These rationales were not always included in the wording of the actual laws.
Bas relief at Angkor Wat, c. 1150, depicting a demon performing an abortion upon a woman who has been sent to the underworld. The Vedic and smrti laws of India reflected a concern with preserving the male seed of the three upper castes; and the religious courts imposed various penances for the woman or excommunication for a priest who provided an abortion. [3]
The issue poses larger social, legal, medical, religious, philosophical, and political ramifications because some people, such as Concerned Women for America, identify the beginning of a pregnancy as the beginning of an individual human being's life. [1] Many of these arguments are related to the anti-abortion movement.
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. [nb 1] [2] An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of all pregnancies.