Muslim-American opinions on abortion are complex. What does Islam actually say?

Sahar Pirzada chose to have an abortion in 2018 when she learned that her fetus had Trisomy 18, a rare genetic condition that almost always ends in miscarriage or stillbirth. (Lauren Justice for NPR)

After the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that ended the constitutional right to abortion, Zahra Ayubi started to notice a theme among some critics of the historic shift.

"They'll draw analogies between abortion bans in the United States and Muslim conservatism," Ayubi, a professor of Islamic Ethics at Dartmouth College, said of some of the commentary she saw on TV and on social media. Critiques ranged from attempts at humor to outright Islamophobia.