Ruling on aborting the fetus due to danger to the mother

Question:
The questioner says: O esteemed Shaykh, may Allah preserve you and protect you. A man has a wife who cannot bear the burden of pregnancy due to an illness. The doctors advised her to take birth control pills, and she did so. Then she stopped taking them for a period. After it became clear that she was pregnant, the doctors informed her that this pregnancy was dangerous for her and for the fetus. So she proceeded to abort it with her husband's participation. What should they do to expiate for that? Please inform us, may Allah reward you.

Answer:
If the doctors determine that there is danger to her from the child, and that her life is in danger, then there is no objection to aborting it, and there is no blame in that; because her life takes precedence over his life, and there is nothing wrong with it; because it is done for the benefit of the woman.
The Council of Senior Scholars at our institution has determined that there is no blame in such a case; because that protects the mother if the danger is to her. And if this is before the soul is breathed into it, then there is nothing wrong with it, as long as it is a clot or a lump of flesh, there is nothing wrong with it. But if the soul has been breathed into it, then that is the point of concern; it must be attended to. So if a group of trusted, well-known doctors determine that she is in danger—meaning: her life is in danger—and that its remaining may lead to her death; then there is no objection to aborting it. If it comes out alive, praise be to Allah, and if it dies, it does no harm. This is from the principle of committing the lesser of two harms to avert the greater of them, and from the principle of obtaining the greater of two benefits by sacrificing the lesser of them.