In most societies, the decision to end a pregnancy is more influenced by tradition, patriarchy, and the dominant religion of the community than the pregnant person’s own wishes – who carries the embryo in their body. Most Abrahamic religions do not consider women as having an independent identity, and instead, the law and then the husband are the main decision-makers for their bodies.

After the emergence of modern governments in Iran, the formation of parliament and legislation, the decision-making power regarding pregnancy and its continuation or termination was entrusted to the woman. Articles 180 to 182 of the Iranian Penal Code not only considered punishment for those who performed or facilitated abortion, but also the mother would face one to three years of imprisonment if she voluntarily ended her pregnancy. However, the legislator had also specified: “If this action is the result of the husband’s order, the woman will be exempt from punishment and the husband will be sentenced to the aforementioned punishment.”

After that, Article 17 of the Medical Regulations, which was approved in 1339, had specified conditions for abortion.

The 1357 Revolution and the limited achievements of women.

With the occurrence of the 1357 revolution, the page turned once again; this time towards making laws more Islamic. The efforts of women’s rights activists, which had begun during the Constitutional era, reached their peak in the late Pahlavi era. The Family Protection Law, passed in 1346 and amended in 1353, had made some progress towards gender equality in areas such as marriage, divorce, and increasing the minimum age for marriage. However, with the victory of the revolution, the Family Protection Law was cancelled as the first law by the office of Ayatollah Khomeini.

Regarding the laws related to the end of pregnancy, the Guardian Council deemed Article 17 of the Medical Regulations against Sharia and declared the appropriate time frame for abortion as “the arrival of the soul in the fetus”. Ultimately, what is now recognized by the Legal Medical Organization as legal abortion must meet two conditions: endangering the mother’s life if the pregnancy continues or the fetus’s illness in a way that would cause severe hardship and suffering for the mother after birth.

Increase in population at any cost

After the revolution and a period of explosive population growth, gradual population control policies were implemented and health centers once again taught methods of pregnancy prevention. However, this delay did not last long and in recent years, with the government’s concern about what is called population aging, the tide turned and instead, incentive policies and benefits for childbearing – which is also a precedent in other countries – were adopted; policies that generally boil down to imposing more restrictions on women’s bodies. These policies also resulted in the discontinuation of free provision of pregnancy prevention methods such as condoms. This method not only increases the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, but also increases the rate of unintended pregnancies. In addition, strictness in the area of abortion has also doubled.

Every unwanted pregnancy and terminating it in underground conditions is not only an insult to the dignity and honor of the pregnant person, but it can also result in bitter experiences for many of them. Furthermore, it can lead to dangerous abortions that put the pregnant person’s life at risk or permanently affect their health.

Such methods cannot have any effect on the slope of population growth in the long run. A user named “Radiozan” wrote about this on the social network X (former Twitter): “Today I saw my friend. She said she had become pregnant and because they couldn’t have a second child, she had an abortion. She got the pills from an online seller and said they were everywhere that if they were fake, you would die. Nevertheless, she did it. If it was fake, now her first child would also not have a mother. The ban on abortion is not a deterrent, it is a crime.”

Embryo, an independent or partial entity of the pregnant person’s body.

Devoid of religious views on abortion and using the preservation of life as an excuse to impose more restrictions on a woman’s right to make a decision about ending a pregnancy, what is common in all of these approaches is the concept of an independent life for the being growing inside the pregnant woman’s body. This is despite the fact that nutrition, respiration, waste disposal, hormonal communication, and, in short, the continuation of life and fetal development can only occur with the support of the mother’s body. However, the patriarchal and paternalistic view of a woman’s body assumes from the very beginning that the embryo has an independent life and even considers it to be a hypothetical child. This was recently exemplified by an image shared on social media by supporters of population growth policies, equating the termination of pregnancy or abortion with the killing of children in Gaza during Israel’s attack on the city.

Monsterization and inducing torment of conscience

These psychological games and inducing guilt in pregnant individuals and accusing them of “killing” a child, have no purpose other than controlling human wombs. There are many women who, after having an abortion, are haunted by guilt for a long time; because they are accused of “murdering” a being that never actually existed.

This is regardless of the judgmental looks that accuse women of indulging in sexual pleasure, and the various forms of sexual insults that many women have experienced during underground abortions, even from doctors and midwives; it seems that men/fathers have been observers in all stages of pregnancy. Even traditionally, the burden of using contraception methods – including chemical ones – and their side effects falls solely on women. It’s not strange; because the physical and mental pressure of pregnancy or abortion is mainly on women.

Your body, my kingdom.

The body of a woman in this society belongs only to herself. Religion and law, derived from it, hand in hand, promote this same policy to remind women that they are merely fields for men (Verse 223, Surah Al-Baqarah). This is to the extent that the legislator has stipulated in Article 718 of the Islamic Penal Code: “If a woman intentionally, semi-intentionally, or mistakenly causes the death of her own fetus at any stage, the blood money for the fetus shall be paid by the perpetrator or her guardian, as applicable.”

Although as mentioned before, controlling women’s bodies and interfering in their decision to end a pregnancy is not limited to Iran and Islamic countries, but it is a common issue in all societies struggling with the issue of dominance and patriarchy.