Ethiopian Religious Faith Leaders’ Views on the Ethics of Abortion,’’Hard Cases’’ and the 2005 Abortion Law

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Abstract Background-Orthodox Christianity and Islam co-existed in Ethiopia for more than a thousand year.Their coexistence is a symbol of tolerance in a multi-ethnic and language diverse country. These two religions strive for the common good of human life and wellbeing, but differ in some of their ethical views. Even though abortion is condemned generally by these two religions, there is a need to know their views when there are ‘hard cases’ of abortion. We aim to explore the views and stance of religious faith leaders about the ethics of abortion, views on ’hard cases’ (specific cases were allowed by the law) of induced abortion and the 2005 abortion law. Method- In-depth interviews were conducted with a total of 12 religious faith leaders (scholars) of which 7 were Christians and 5 were Muslims. Analysis was made using systematic text condensation. Results -diverse views on ’’hard cases’’ of abortion were expressed by faith leaders from these two monotheistic religions. While in general Christians (Megabie Hadith and/or Megabie Biluy) base their argument on the Holy Scriptures/Image Theology and Tradition, Muslims base their argument on the Holy Quran and Islamic jurisprudence (Fiqh). ‘Abortion’ is a closed agenda for faith leaders in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC). That is, they don’t want to discuss or debate publicly about this issue with civil society or health care professionals. Islam however welcome dialogue on these special cases ‘ hard case’referred to in the 2005 abortion law. Conclusion-while a strong, diversified, yet conservative attitude is observed from the EOTC scholars, a relatively moderate but consistent stance is seen from Islamic side. Leaders of both faith traditions , however claim that protection of the embryo must start from the moment of conception.

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