The Center for Egyptian Women's Legal Assistance (CEWLA) is pushing for a legal proposal on safe abortion in rape-related pregnancies, as women rights advocates call for an urgent overhaul of the national penal code.
The draft bill stipulates that a pregnant woman should not be penalized for the act of abortion if the pregnancy was the result of rape,” according to a copy seen by Al Manassa.
While the current Egyptian law criminalizes rape and punishes the perpetrator, Nora Mohamed, director of the Anti-Violence Against Women program at CEWLA argued it simultaneously victimizes survivors by denying them the right to bodily autonomy.
“By prohibiting access to safe abortion, the law effectively compels the victim to endure the lifelong consequences of the crime through forced pregnancy and birth, requiring her to raise a child she did not choose to conceive,” Mohamed told Al Manassa.
CEWLA has intensified its long-standing demands for legislation that would grant women and girls access to legal and safe abortion in cases of rape and incest, and is pushing for this provision to be part of a broader “Unified Law to Combat Violence Against Women”. The draft framework remains under discussion and has not yet been enacted, despite constitutional provisions obliging the state to protect women from violence and ensure their dignity.
“Forcing survivors to continue a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest is a form of psychological and physical torture. It reinforces the control of society and law over women’s bodies instead of providing them with protection,” it said in a Tuesday statement on Facebook.
In November, the organization called for an explicit legal provision allowing abortion in cases of rape or incest within the first 120 days of pregnancy, in a comprehensive set of recommendations to state institutions.
Pointing out to a recent case involving two young girls who became pregnant as a result of alleged incest rape, CEWLA said it was a stark illustration of the “failure of the legal and social system to provide protection and justice.”
“The enactment of legislation permitting abortion in such cases is no longer a matter of choice, but an urgent necessity to ensure justice and break the cycle of violence. It is essential to empower survivors to reclaim autonomy over their bodies and their lives,” CEWLA stated.
CEWLA had further proposed the establishment of specialized departments within public hospitals to care for rape survivors, with training for healthcare professionals to ensure the delivery of “safe and dignified abortion care,” moving away from the stigma often associated with the procedure in public clinical settings.
Rejecting the argument that continuing the pregnancy is necessary to secure evidence or identify the perpetrator, Mohamed described it as “a true word in bad faith.”
“Why do we not turn to modern medicine, which is capable of conducting fetal DNA testing to identify the perpetrator without forcing the survivor to carry the pregnancy to term?” Mohamed said.
Incestuous rape is also becoming a growing concern among rights advocates amid repeated reports on such cases sparking public controversy.
Mohamed warned of the grave repercussions arising from incestuous assault, specifically the practice of families resorting to the fraudulent registration of children born from such violence, attributing paternity to the grandfather or another male relative, to mitigate social stigma.
“This creates complex Sharia-based and legal crises regarding the mixing of lineages,” she said, referring to the strict religious prohibitions against the mixing of lineages (nasab) under the Sharia principles governing Egyptian law, and the resulting complications for inheritance rights.
With regards to potential pushback from religious hardliners, Mohamed said: “We need Sharia with a tolerant spirit; religions were revealed to preserve human dignity and rights, not to assist parties that violate the rights of others,” highlighting the need for a solution.
Abdel Basset Heikal, a researcher specialized in religious discourse at Al-Azhar University, supports the move, noting that there were precedents, such as a fatwa allowing abortion for rape victims issued by the late Azhar’s grand imam Mohammed Sayyid Tantawy in 2007.
“Tantawy’s fatwa was grounded in the recognition of the profound psychological harm inflicted upon the survivor,” Heikal said in comments to Al Manasssa. “While classical jurists primarily focused on physical harm, the psychological and social damages have become undeniable in a modern context.”
Heikal argued that terminating a rape-related pregnancy is permissible provided it does not endanger the mother’s life, particularly given the jurisprudential consensus that the fetus is not considered a “vested life” before the 120-day mark (four months).
His argument is rooted in the religious concept of jurisprudence of aggression, which treats rape as both sexual violation and unjust assault, framing the permissibility of removing the consequences of that aggression—including pregnancy—as a way of repelling harm and restoring dignity.
“This reasoning is further grounded in Quranic principles of justice, protection from harm, and human dignity,” he said, also pointing to existing legislation in neighboring countries like Sudan, where Article 135 of the 1991 Criminal Law permits abortion for rape survivors.
Under the Egyptian Penal Code, abortion is criminalized through imprisonment penalties on women and on those who perform or assist in abortion, including doctors, pharmacists, and midwives.
Egypt is a signatory of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) but critics say the country remains far from providing adequate health and physical protection for rape victims.
“The absence of a legislation [allowing such abortions] violates Egypt's international obligations,” Mohamed said.
