Reproductive Biopolitics, Demographic Anxieties, and Access to Safe Abortion: National Security and Pronatalism in the ‘Family Protection and Youthful Population’ Law in Iran
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Abortion in Muslim Contexts
3. Biopolitical Approaches to Abortion in Iran
3.1. Pre-Revolution Period
3.2. Shi’i Jurisprudence
‘If the continuation of the pregnancy is considered by a specialist and reliable doctor to be a threat to the mother’s life, then abortion before ensoulment is not prohibited, but it is not permissible after ensoulment. Even if the continuation of the pregnancy is dangerous for the mother’s life, except if the continuation of the pregnancy threatens the life of both the mother and the fetus, and saving the child’s life is not possible in any way, but saving the mother’s life is only possible through abortion’.(Khamenei, quoted in Hedayatgar n.d.)
‘If the existence of the fetus leads to the mother’s death, such as if it carries a disease that is transmitted to the mother and causes her death, to prevent the mother’s demise and on the condition that there is no other way, the mother can abort the fetus even after ensoulment’.
3.3. The Iranian Law
‘Therapeutic abortion is permissible with the definitive diagnosis of three specialist doctors and the confirmation of the Iranian Legal Medicine Organization based on the fetus’s illness, which due to retardation or being malformed causes hardship for the mother, or the mother’s illness that is life-threatening before the ensoulment (four months) with the woman’s consent, and no penalty or liability shall befall the attending physician’.
‘All forensic medical centers in provincial capitals are required to immediately refer received requests to the Legal Abortion Commission. This commission, consisting of a special judge, a committed specialist doctor, and a forensic medicine specialist employed by the Legal Medicine Organization, shall be formed within a maximum of one week. The necessary verdict is issued by the judge member of the commission, observing the principle of not permitting abortion in cases of doubt (…) If, after obtaining the guardian’s statement [emphasis added], all the following conditions are met: The mother’s consent; Existence of hardship (severe unbearable difficulty) for the mother; The definitive presence of untreatable fetal abnormalities, in cases where the hardship is related to the fetus’s illness or defect; Lack of possibility for compensation or substitution for the mother’s hardship; Absence of signs and indications of ensoulment; The fetus being less than four months old’.
4. National Security and Pronatalist Biopolitics in Iran
‘The population of the country is seventy-five million. I believe that our country, with the capabilities that we have, can have a population of one hundred fifty million people. I believe in a large population. Any action that slows or stops population growth should only be done after we reach one hundred fifty million people’.
5. Discussion: From Demographic Moral Panics to National Security
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
1 | Since official numbers do not exist, it is impossible to know to what degree and in which way this law influenced abortion rates. |
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Rahbari, L. Reproductive Biopolitics, Demographic Anxieties, and Access to Safe Abortion: National Security and Pronatalism in the ‘Family Protection and Youthful Population’ Law in Iran. Soc. Sci. 2025, 14, 188. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14030188
Rahbari L. Reproductive Biopolitics, Demographic Anxieties, and Access to Safe Abortion: National Security and Pronatalism in the ‘Family Protection and Youthful Population’ Law in Iran. Social Sciences. 2025; 14(3):188. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14030188
Chicago/Turabian StyleRahbari, Ladan. 2025. "Reproductive Biopolitics, Demographic Anxieties, and Access to Safe Abortion: National Security and Pronatalism in the ‘Family Protection and Youthful Population’ Law in Iran" Social Sciences 14, no. 3: 188. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14030188
APA StyleRahbari, L. (2025). Reproductive Biopolitics, Demographic Anxieties, and Access to Safe Abortion: National Security and Pronatalism in the ‘Family Protection and Youthful Population’ Law in Iran. Social Sciences, 14(3), 188. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14030188