Abortion if delivery is risky

Fatwa no. 14268 All praise be to Allah Alone, and peace and blessings be upon His last Prophet.The Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta' has read the letter that was sent to His Honor the President from His Excellency Dr. Ma'mun Mals and which was transferred to the Committee by the Secretariat-General of the Council of Senior Scholars under the number 4229 in 20/10/1411 A. H. Following is the question that was asked by Dr. Ma'mun that relates to a medical report that he wrote:The female patient mentioned above entered the hospital in 17/10/1411 A. H. Due to an expected miscarriage in the (Part No. 25; Page No. 108) twentieth week of pregnancy. On that day, the patient's reproductive system bled and she had some pain in the lower part of her abdomen. It may be worth mentioning that the woman had eight previous pregnancies. She had normal deliveries for her first four children. However, she had cesarean deliveries for her last four children, and it is impossible from a medical standpoint for this patient to give birth to any children during the ninth month of pregnancy who would live without a cesarean section performed. Doctors must resort to cesarean deliveries in the future as a means to protect the womb against being burst and to save the lives of both the mother and the baby in case of severe labor cramps.Ultra sound waves prove that the baby of the current pregnancy has a deformation that will eventually lead to its death. This deformation is the non existence of the skull, bearing in mind that Spina bifida is also suspected. Thus the nervous system of the baby will only have the heart and blood circulation center, but the cortex of the brain which is responsible for the intellectual growth of the baby is not there. In such a case the baby may either die inside the womb or be delivered alive and die within few hours or days. Such a case is beyond medical treatment.On the other hand, if we leave the current pregnancy to continue developing (Part No. 25; Page No. 109) until the end, it will be impossible for the mother to have a normal delivery as she has had four previous caesarean deliveries. This is because any strong parturition taking place during the last two months of pregnancy may cause the slots that were made during the previous caesarean deliveries to burst along with the womb itself and this constitutes a definite danger to the mother's life. Bearing in mind that the fetus has deformations that will definitely lead to the death of the baby, please give us a ruling on aborting it during the fifth month of pregnancy but not after it for if pregnancy continues to the seventh month we will not be able to take the fetus out of the mother's body unless a caesarean operation is done and this exposes the mother's life to the serious danger mentioned above. Thanking you.The report of the committee that was formed by Dr. Zar Banaza Huda, Dr. Muhammad Adam `Uthman, and Dr. Ahmed Bakir said the following:We would like to thank Your Honor for answering our question regarding the patient F. M. Whose case we have previously explained to you. She is in the fifth month of pregnancy and her fetus has some deformations that will cause the baby to die if pregnancy completes its normal duration. In addition, the concerned mother has had four cesarean deliveries and a fifth cesarean, in case that pregnancy completes its normal duration, from the medical standpoint will result in her not being able to tolerate any more pregnancies in the future. (Part No. 25; Page No. 110) This is because we will be compelled after the fifth cesarean to perform tubal ligation as the many cesareans endanger her life. Since the fetus in question has some deformations, i.e. the non existence of the skull and other possible deformations, if the baby is delivered alive it would die only after a life of a few hours. Is it Islamically permissible to abort the fetus at this stage, i.e. during the fifth month of pregnancy, and to try to let the mother have a normal delivery and thus avoid making the fifth cesarean, tubal ligation, endangering her life with repeated surgery, and exposing the womb to burst in case that current pregnancy completes its normal duration? Thanking you for your support.