Morocco – Who Gets Arrested for Having an Abortion?

Who Gets Arrested for Having an Abortion?
Laws that criminalize “immoral” behavior in Morocco and elsewhere aren’t about ethics. They’re tools for state control.

By Ursula Lindsey
Sept. 25, 2019

On Aug. 31, six plainclothes policemen arrested a woman named Hajar Raissouni outside the office of her obstetrician-gynecologist in Morocco’s capital, Rabat. She was detained along with her fiancé, her doctor, his anesthesiologist and his secretary. Her doctor was compelled to hand over her medical records while Ms. Raissouni was forced to undergo a medical examination and to answer questions about her sex life.

Ms. Raissouni, a 28-year-old journalist from a politically active family, is now on trial for having an abortion and for having sex outside of marriage. Both are crimes under Morocco’s penal code, and she faces up to two years in jail; her doctor also faces jail time. Ms. Raissouni’s defense maintains that there was no abortion and that the medical reports presented by the prosecution are false.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/opinion/hajar-raissouni-arrest.html