Pakistan

ABORTION POLICY

Grounds on which abortion is permitted:

To save the life of the woman Yes

To preserve physical health Yes
To preserve mental health Yes
Rape or incest No
Foetal impairment No
Economic or social reasons No
Available on request No

Additional requirements:

Information is not readily available.

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CONTEXT

Government view on fertility level: Too high

Government intervention concerning fertility level: To lower

Government policy on contraceptive use: Direct support provided

Percentage of currently married women using

modern contraception (aged 15-49, 1996/97): 17

Total fertility rate (1995-2000): 5.0

Age-specific fertility rate (per 1,000 women aged 15-19, 1995-2000): 90

Government has expressed particular concern about:

Morbidity and mortality resulting from induced abortion No
Complications of childbearing and childbirth Yes

Maternal mortality ratio (per 100,000 live births, 1990):

National 340
South-central Asia 560

Female life expectancy at birth (1995-2000): 65.1

Source: Population Policy Data Bank maintained by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United
Nations Secretariat. For additional sources, see list of references.
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Pakistan

BACKGROUND

Until 1990, abortion in Pakistan was regulated by century-old provisions of the Penal Code of 1860
which had been developed for India by the British colonial government and remained in force in Pakistan
following independence. Under this Code, abortion was a crime unless performed in good faith in order to
save the pregnant woman’s life. Article 312 of the Penal Code provided that any person performing an
illegal abortion was subject to imprisonment for three years and/or a fine; if the woman was “quick with
child”, the penalty was imprisonment for up to seven years and payment of a fine. The same penalty
applied to a woman who caused herself to miscarry.

Following a 1989 decision of the Pakistani Supreme Court, which held that part of the Penal Code of
1860 dealing with offences against the human body was invalid because it was repugnant to the injunctions
of Islam, Pakistan revised its law in this area, reformulating a number of its provisions to conform to the
principles of Islamic law. The revised law came into effect provisionally in 1990 and became permanent
law in 1997.

Under the new law, abortion offences are divided into two categories depending on the stage of
pregnancy during which the abortion is performed. Abortions carried out before the unborn child’s organs
have been formed are prohibited except when performed in good faith for the purpose of saving the life of
the woman or providing necessary treatment. The punishment is the imposition of the penalty for a ta’zir
crime—that is penalties other than the traditional Islamic penalties of retaliation and compensation—in this
case, imprisonment for up to three years if the woman consented and up to ten years if she did not.
Abortions carried out after some of the unborn child’s organs or limbs have formed are prohibited except
for the first of the above reasons. The penalty is, in general, the imposition of diyah, or compensation to the
heirs of the victim by the offender. If the child is born dead, the amount of diyah is one twentieth of that
for a full person; if the child is born alive but dies as a result of an act of the offender, a full diyah is
payable; if the child is born alive, but dies for any other reason, ta’zir shall be imposed consisting of up to
seven years’ imprisonment. Under Islamic law, organs and limbs are usually deemed to be formed in a
foetus by the fourth month of pregnancy.

There are a number of interesting features of the law. One is that it appears to represent an expansion
of indications for abortion in early pregnancy. Abortions are allowed not only to save the life of the
pregnant woman, but also to provide “necessary treatment,” a phrase that, although not defined, is likely to
encompass threat to health of some sort. Another is the law’s hybrid nature. On the one hand, the law
retains features of the old law. Penalties for the crime are still dependent upon which of two stages of
development the pregnancy has reached and on whether the woman consents or not. In some cases, they
also include imprisonment, now denominated a ta’zir penalty. On the other hand, the law defines the stages
of pregnancy in terms of the formation of organs or limbs according to Islamic law principles and it
introduces the distinctive Islamic law penalty of compensation or diyah in the case of late-term
pregnancies. Finally, the new law is somewhat ambiguous: there is no clear demarcation of the two stages
of pregnancy or definition of what constitutes “necessary treatment”. Indeed, the law has been criticized for
just this reason.

In part because of the lack of data on the incidence of induced abortion, illegal abortion has not been
an area of major governmental concern in Pakistan. However, illegal abortion does take place and
complications from septic abortions are believed to be a major cause of maternal mortality. Only 5-10 per
cent of births occur in hospitals. According to a study conducted in a hospital at Karachi in 1985, about
300 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births were due to complications from abortion. Multiple unspaced

Source: Population Policy Data Bank maintained by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the
United Nations Secretariat. For additional sources, see list of references.

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 Pakistan
pregnancies combined with poor maternal nutrition and scarce maternity services have resulted in high
(though declining) maternal mortality rates, estimated at 340 deaths per 100,000 live births (1990).

Family planning in Pakistan has a long history. A family planning association was established in 1953,
the National Population Programme was begun in 1955 and the Population Welfare Programme has been
part of the National Five-Year Plans since 1960. Despite these early efforts in family planning in Pakistan,
modern contraceptive prevalence remains low. It was estimated in a Demographic and Health Survey at 11
per cent in 1991 and 17 per cent in 1994-1995. Under 5 per cent of the population is estimated to have
easy access to family planning services. However, although contraceptive use remains low, demand is
increasing and the Programme has succeeded in creating awareness and demand for family planning
services.

The total fertility rate has hovered since the late 1960s at about 6.0 children per woman and is
currently (1995-2000) at 5.0 children per woman. Greatly concerned by the rapid population growth, the
Government of Pakistan formulated a new population policy in 1991 that included an improved family
planning programme. The Population Welfare Division’s 1993-1998 comprehensive programme sought to
reduce the average annual rate of population growth from 2.9 to 2.6 per cent, mainly by increasing
coverage of the family planning programme from 5 to 70 per cent in rural areas and from 54 to 100 per
cent in urban areas. The 1996 population growth rate was 2.8 per cent. Following the International
Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), held in Cairo in 1994, Pakistan has gradually
integrated family planning with reproductive health services and adopted a voluntary and target-free
approach to family planning services. The Government continues to focus on improved delivery of health
care to an overwhelmingly rural population.

Source: Population Policy Data Bank maintained by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United
Nations Secretariat. For additional sources, see list of references.
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