If the wife is sick and cannot bear the hardships of pregnancy, should she abort the foetus?
Question

                My wife went to the doctor and it was proven that she was one month and eight days pregnant. We had agreed not to have children for a certain length of time because my wife is sick and cannot bear the hardships of pregnancy. Is it permissible to abort the pregnancy or not? Please note that we had agreed not to have children only for that certain length of time.
Praise be to Allah.
    If the wife is sick and cannot bear the hardships of 
    pregnancy, then it is permissible to abort the foetus within the first forty 
    days of the pregnancy, according to the view of a number of scholars. 

    It says in a report issued by the Council of Senior 
    Scholars: 

    1 – It is not permissible to abort pregnancy at various 
    stages thereof, except for a shar’i reason, and within very narrow limits. 

    2 – If the pregnancy is in the first stage, which is the 
    first forty days, and aborting it is for a legitimate shar’i purpose or to 
    ward off harm, then it is permissible to abort it. As for aborting it at 
    this stage for fear of hardship in raising children or for fear of not being 
    able to afford the expenses of raising and educating them, or for fear of 
    their future or because the couple is happy with the number of children they 
    already have, that is not permissible. 

    3 – It is not permissible to abort a pregnancy if it is a 
    ‘alaqah or mudghah (i.e., in the second and third forty-day periods of 
    pregnancy) unless a committee of trustworthy doctors has determined that 
    allowing it to continue will pose a danger to the safety of the mother 
    because they fear that she will die if it continues. In that case it is 
    permissible to abort it after trying all other means to avoid risk to the 
    mother. 

    4 – After the third stage, and after four months of pregnancy 
    have been completed, it is not permissible to abort it unless a number of 
    trustworthy specialists have determined that leaving the foetus in his 
    mother’s womb will cause her death, and after exhausting all means of trying 
    to save his life. A concession allowing abortion subject to these conditions 
    is only granted so as to ward off the greater of the two evils and achieve 
    the greater of the two interests. End quote from al-Fataawa al-Jaami’ah 
    (3/1056). 

    And Allaah knows best.