'This Isn't Some Western Liberal Concept': Uncovering Islam's Historic Support for Reproductive Agency

From abortion bans to faith-based stigma, Muslim Americans face unique challenges in today’s reproductive health crisis.

Sahar Pirzada was elated when she found out she was pregnant in 2018 after four years of trying. She could never imagine that she’d end up getting an abortion.

Her baby had trisomy 18 or Edwards syndrome—an incurable and rare genetic condition that almost always ends in miscarriage or stillbirth. She made the heart-wrenching decision to terminate the pregnancy.

Today, as Director of Movement Building at HEART (Health Education Advocacy Research and Training)—a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote sexual health, uproot gendered violence, and advance reproductive justice by establishing choice and access for the most impacted Muslims—Pirzada reflects on her experience with a new sense of urgency in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 and the subsequent wave of abortion bans across more than a doze…