Some sages or scholars, however, were of the opinion that abortion is permissible up to a certain point—some arguing that abortion is permissible up to 40 or 42 days (this is the position of some Shafi’i jurists) or up to 120 days (the position of some Shafi’i and Hanafi jurists). But most of the jurists who argued for the permissibility of abortion (whether under the 40, 42, or 120 day rule) also contended that unless justified by a health necessity, abortions are reprehensible or disfavored (makruh).
I want to stress that the crux of the matter for the jurists who did allow abortion centered around the issue of when or at what point the embryo becomes a human being or is endowed with a soul. Different jurists relied on or were persuaded by different kinds of evidence, but fundamentally, it is this belief about when an embryo or fetus becomes a human being—or can be said to possess life that justified the different time limits (whether 40, 42, or 120 days