ISIS Forces Pregnant Sex Slaves to Have Abortions, Beats Them Repeatedly if They Refuse

International   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Mar 14, 2016   |   2:08PM   |   Washington, DC

Women and their unborn babies have not been spared from ISIS’s horrific mutilation and murder in the Middle East.

Those fortunate enough to escape the Islamic terrorist group are bringing back stories of sickening abuses against men, women, children and unborn babies, too. The New York Times recently published several accounts of women who ISIS fighters captured, sold into sex slavery, raped and then forced to have abortions.

Pregnant at the time of her capture, 20-year-old “H.” was repeatedly pressured to abort her child by the ISIS fighter who claimed her as his property. She said she was raped repeatedly, despite an Islamic law prohibiting sex with pregnant slaves.

According to the report:

Eventually he drove her to a hospital with the aim of making her have an abortion, and flew into a rage when she refused the surgery, repeatedly punching her in the stomach. Even so, his behavior suggested he was ashamed: He never told the doctors that he wanted H. to abort, instead imploring her to ask for the procedure herself.

When he drove her home, she waited until he left and then threw herself over the property’s wall. “My knees were bleeding. I was dizzy. I almost couldn’t walk,” she said.

Weeks later, with the help of smugglers hired by her family, she was spirited out of Islamic State territory. Her belly was sticking so far out that she could no longer see her toes when she finally crossed to safety.

Her first child, a healthy baby boy, was born two months later.

A teenager referred to as “M.” said she was sold into sex slavery seven times. One of the men who bought her forced her to take a morning after pill after her period was late and he thought she may be pregnant, she said. M. said she began bleeding soon after taking the pill. Some believe the morning after pill sometimes can cause early abortions.

In October, LifeNews reported other women’s stories of forced abortions with ISIS. A 21-year-old woman known as Bushra said her friend was three-months pregnant when she was captured by ISIS and forced to have an abortion.

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She explained, “One of my friends was pregnant. Her child was about three months in the womb. They took her into another room. There were two doctors and they did the abortion. Afterwards, they brought her back. I asked her what happened and how they did it. She said the doctors told her not to speak.”

Bushra said the abortion left the woman in so much pain that she could not talk or move. Later Bushra too was raped repeatedly and told that she had to leave everything behind to marry an ISIS fighter. “They told us, ‘Give up your family, give up that you are Yazidi — you are now Muslims. We are going to marry you; each fighter will have one of you,’” Bushra said.

Another report in April 2015 found that doctors in the Middle East have been doing illegal abortions on girls as young as 9 who were kidnapped and raped by ISIS fighters.

According to the New York Times, an Islamic law provides some protection against rape for pregnant women and girls; however, the law could be leading more ISIS fighters to force women to abort so that they can abuse them again.

The report explains:

According to an obscure ruling in Islamic law cited by the Islamic State, a man must ensure that the woman he enslaves is free of child before having intercourse with her.

Islamic State leaders have made sexual slavery as they believe it was practiced during the Prophet Muhammad’s time integral to the group’s operations, preying on the women and girls the group captured from the Yazidi religious minority almost two years ago. To keep the sex trade running, the fighters have aggressively pushed birth control on their victims so they can continue the abuse unabated while the women are passed among them.

… In its official publications, the Islamic State has stated that it is legal for a man to rape the women he enslaves under just about any circumstance. Even sex with a child is permissible, according to a pamphlet published by the group. The injunction against raping a pregnant slave is functionally the only protection for the captured women.

A United Nations clinic in Iraq that has been treating the rape victims reported that only about 5 percent of the more than 700 women became pregnant from rape, an unusually low number, according to the report.

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