In Morocco, abortion is illegal except for therapeutic abortion. Though the law does not specify grounds for abortion, the country's medical code of conduct only permits abortions to save the life of the mother up to fetal viability. Legal abortions must have the consent of the spouse or of the regional chief medical officer, unless three physicians declare that the pregnancy carries the risk of the mother's death. Performing or receiving an abortion outside of these conditions, as well as promoting abortion, is punishable by fines or imprisonment. Though the government does not publish data on abortion, estimates say that the country has hundreds of illegal abortions per day, most of which are unsafe.
Morocco inherited French law banning abortion before becoming independent. The law was amended in 1967 to add an exception for therapeutic abortion. Abortion was not a focus when the country introduced sexual and reproductive health programs in the 1990s. The Justice and Development Party, which became the ruling party in 2011, opposed abortion. The abortion debate in the country was strengthened by reports of fatal abortions and by the 2014 firing of gynecologist and pro-choice activist . King Mohammed VI then established a council to review the law, which proposed expanding the legal grounds for abortion to include rape, incest, and birth defects. A 2016 draft law included this proposal but was withdrawn in 2021. The Party of Progress and Socialism also proposed a law expanding legal abortion. Events that contributed to the abortion debate included a 2019 abortion allegation against journalist Hajar Raissouni, the 2022 death of a rural teenager, and the 2023 drafting of a new family law.
Illegal abortions are common and are mostly performed at medical facilities. Self-induced abortions commonly use herbal abortifacients or abortion pills which are sold on the black market. Abortion is common among women who have unintended pregnancies; unmarried women who get pregnant usually have abortions as non-marital sex is illegal. Proponents of abortion in Morocco primarily invoke public health arguments, while anti-abortion activists are influenced by Islamic abortion law—particularly of the Maliki school—and the view that fetuses have souls. Groups that advocate for legal abortion include the Moroccan Organization against Clandestine Abortion, founded by Chraïbi, and the , founded by Ibtissame Lachgar.
Legislation Chapter 8 of the penal code of Morocco, "Crimes and Offenses against Family Order and Public Morality", prohibits abortion, with an exception if the pregnancy threatens the life or health of the mother. Article 453 requires abortions to be performed by a physician with spousal consent, and, if received by a minor, parental consent; an abortion without spousal consent must be approved by the chief medical officer of the prefecture or province. If the pregnancy is life-threatening, the provider may waive these requirements and notify the chief medical officer; the country's medical code of conduct requires that two additional physicians independently write that there is a risk to life. The wording of the law does not explicitly require the consent of the woman receiving the abortion.
Articles 449, 451, and 454 of the penal code set punishments for illegal abortions. The recipient may receive a prison sentence of six months to two years and a fine of 200 to 500 dirhams. The provider may receive the same fine and a prison sentence of one to five years, which is increased to ten to twenty years if the procedure is fatal. The chapter also bans "inciting abortion", which includes public advertising, promotion, or distribution of abortion services, punishable by a prison sentence of two months to two years and a fine of 200 to 2,000 dirhams.
The law does not specify what cases count as a risk to health. Out of caution, the interpretation of most physicians is to only allow abortions if there is a risk to life, which is also how the medical code of conduct defines therapeutic abortion. The law also does not specify a gestational limit, so providers must determine whether to allow an abortion at any stage; the code of conduct allows it up to fetal viability. Legal approval of an abortion requires strong evidence and is often influenced by politics. The public medical system mostly avoids it. Medical professionals also avoid providing information about abortion due to the law against inciting abortion.
Morocco's abortion law is more restrictive than the sharia-based abortion law of Saudi Arabia. The United Nations has urged the country to change its abortion laws to comply with treaties such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. , Morocco has not signed the Maputo Protocol, which includes a right to abortion.
History The French protectorate in Morocco inherited France's abortion law. With the support of Sultan Yusef of Morocco, France extended the Napoleonic Code to the protectorate in 1913, which banned abortion. France passed another law banning abortion in 1920, which was passed by the Moroccan government in 1939. Policies in the region had the goal of population control. This ban was aligned with the opinion of the Maliki school of Islamic law. After Morocco's independence in 1956, the country kept the ban. The ban was amended to permit therapeutic abortion in 1967, two years after the creation of a family planning program.
Following the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, Morocco began focusing on sexual and reproductive health programs, shifting from the population control framework from the 1960s, but the subject of unsafe abortion in the country was largely ignored. After Morocco committed to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, physicians argued that unsafe abortions were a barrier to decreasing maternal mortality, but reports on progress toward these goals barely mentioned abortion. The country's United Nations Population Fund program from 2012 to 2016 did not mention abortion.
The Moroccan Organization against Clandestine Abortion (AMLAC) was founded in 2008 with the goal of a "clear legal framework" to permit abortions for health reasons, led by gynecologist . He argued that the grounds should be expanded to account for complete physical and mental health, including the emotional harm caused by birth defects, in line with the World Health Organization's definition of health. The Justice and Development Party (PJD), with an Islamist ideology, became the ruling party in 2011 during the Arab Spring. The party opposed abortion, and prosecution of abortion increased. The (MALI), founded by activist Ibtissame Lachgar, created a petition to lift the abortion ban in March 2012. The group collaborated with the Dutch NGO Women on Waves to bring a ship to Morocco that would provide medical abortions in international waters. Hundreds of religious anti-abortion protestors assembled in response to this event.
Royal committee and Draft Law No. 10-16 Chraïbi was fired from his position at Maternity Hospital in December 2014 after allowing the hospital to appear in a French documentary in which he discussed unsafe abortion. This invigorated discussion of abortion in the country, with widespread support for Chraïbi, and his position was restored after an intervention from King Mohammed VI. The debate was also motivated by reports of fatal abortions. AMLAC held a debate with members of the Parliament of Morocco in March 2015. A party deputy of PJD, Mustapha Ibrahimi, concurred with Chraïbi's argument about fetal defects despite saying that the fetus has its own life. Other members of the party, including Abdelilah Benkirane and Saadeddine Othmani, supported exceptions for rape and incest.
In response to the public debate, Mohammed VI launched a consultation about abortion on 16 March. Widely considered a progressive leader, the king had previously introduced reforms to the country's family law but had not previously spoken about abortion. With the intent to enable legal reform, he formed a council led by the Minister of Islamic Affairs, the Minister of Justice, and the president of the National Human Rights Council (CNDH). On 15 May, the council recommended that abortion be permitted in "cases of ": rape, incest, risk to health, or birth defects. Minister of Health El Hossein El Ouardi, of the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS), said that the existing abortion law "is not fair to women" and "doesn't take into account the reality that Moroccans live in these days"; he supported legalizing abortion for mental health grounds, but did not support providing abortions for free, as is done in Tunisia.
After the proposed abortion reform was approved by religious authorities of the , it was included in the proposed penal code reform of Law No. 10-16, introduced by the Cabinet on 9 June 2016. This would have permitted abortion up to a gestational age of 90 days in the case of pregnancy from rape or incest, or 120 days if the mother has a mental disability or the pregnancy risks birth defects. It would have required that, to receive an abortion, a woman must undergo a judicial process approved by the Public Prosecutor, notify a prefectural or provincial officer, and undergo a waiting period of three days. Cases that qualified as risking birth defects would have been determined by committees of the Ministry of Health. Mental disabilities that qualified would have been listed by the National Council of the Order of Medical Doctors, and such cases would have required spousal or parental consent.
Many media sources described the proposed law as liberalization of the abortion law, though organizations that advocated for it, including AMLAC, considered it a measure to avoid public health risks. CNDH also expressed support for legal abortion in the cases described by the law. According to anthropologist Irene Capelli in 2019, these proposals would not make it feasible for most women to follow the requirements for legal abortions, and it is unlikely that reforms would lead to the availability of abortion on demand in Morocco. The Moroccan Family Planning Association also stated that reforms would not enable unmarried women to receive abortion as non-marital sex would remain illegal. Chraïbi said that the law would be ineffective as its grounds only covered one-tenth of the country's abortions.
of the PPS introduced a bill in April 2018 that would that would expand the legal grounds for therapeutic abortion. PPS representative Nouzha Skalli, as well as Authenticity and Modernity Party representative , called for a health plan that would introduce legal abortion and sex education. In June 2019, AMLAC led a sit-in in front of the Parliament building in support of abortion, with Chraïbi saying, "We want to show that we are here, that we will not stop, and that we support women." The same year, journalist Hajar Raissouni was detained after allegations including illegal abortion. Before she was pardoned, the case increased debate about abortion and the right to privacy; reactions included a pro-choice declaration by writers Leila Slimani and Sonia Terrab and the creation of the activist group Moroccan Outlaws 490, opposing the law of Article 490 that banned non-marital sex. In response to the case, the National Human Rights Council wrote in support of legalizing abortion, which PJD opposed. The government began a crackdown on illegal abortion in 2018, which halved the illegal abortion rate by 2025, according to Chraïbi.