‘Society is ruthless…I lost my health from abortion attempts, imprisonment and childbirth in difficult conditions…If I could have had an abortion, my life wouldn’t be hell. I don’t have my health, nor a job, nor the respect of others, not even my children, nothing.’

Ouiam, a 28-year-old woman who as a result of being unable to obtain an abortion, was forced to carry a pregnancy to term and then sentenced to three months imprisonment for sexual relations outside of marriage.

The criminalization of abortion in Morocco has devastating consequences for women and girls. The threat of imprisonment creates a climate of fear, driving women and girls to resort to dangerous methods to end unwanted pregnancies, including those resulting from rape. These methods, which often traumatize and maim women and girls, frequently fail. In a country where sexual relations outside of marriage is also criminalized, these women and girls are effectively forced to carry the pregnancy to term, exposing them to prosecution, ostracism and destitution while enduring the painful consequences of failed abortion attempts.

Amnesty International’s research shows that the Moroccan authorities are violating a wide range of human rights of women and girls by criminalizing abortion as well as sexual relations outside of marriage; denying them sexual and reproductive health services and information, and reproductive autonomy; and perpetuating harmful stereotypes, gender-based violence and discrimination against women.

The Moroccan Constitution guarantees the rights to life, health, privacy, freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and equality between men and women – all of which are violated in Morocco because of the criminalization of abortion and sexual relations outside of marriage.

Today, the Moroccan authorities have a historic opportunity to uphold women ’s right to autonomous decision-making by decriminalizing abortion and sexual relations outside of marriage as they move towards a comprehensive revision of the Penal Code, and the ongoing revision of the Family Code.

This has never been more urgent as set out in this report, which documents devastating violations of the sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls in Morocco, as well as other human rights, highlighted by the words of women who bravely shared their experiences with Amnesty International researchers. Of the 33 women who had sought an abortion interviewed by Amnesty International, only 14 women had been able to obtain one; the 19 others were forced to carry their pregnancies to term. Ten of the women interviewed had become pregnant as a result of rape. Seven women ended up placing their children in an orphanage or abandoned them for kafala. Five women told Amnesty that they had considered or attempted suicide. Three women were convicted by a criminal court of sexual relations outside of marriage.

Twenty-eight of the 33 women interviewed reported being subjected to some form of violence, from their intimate partner, family members, health care practitioners, and/or members of their community.

This report is based on interviews carried out between May 2022 and March 2023 with 77 people, among them 33 women who had sought an abortion, in different parts of the country. The organization also interviewed two general medical practitioners and two gynaecologists, a hospital social worker, three lawyers, a judge, and representatives of 15 Moroccan NGOs working on women’s rights, disability rights and civil rights. Amnesty International reviewed relevant Moroccan laws and jurisprudence as well as the limited official information available on the justice and health sector directives and data related to abortion. This included the decrees, guidelines, statistics, studies and reports available on the official websites of the ministries of Health, of Justice, and of Solidarity, social integration and the family, as well as of the Presidency of the Public Prosecutor, the High Commissioner for Planning, and the Moroccan Parliament.

On 23 March 2023 and 24 November, Amnesty International wrote to the Head of government, the Minister of Health, the Minister of Justice and the Presidency of the Public Prosecutor requesting meetings with the organization’s researchers and specific information on policies and regulations on abortion and related statistics. On 10 January 2024, the organisation sent a third communication to the authorities to share the report’s key findings and request their response to include in this report . No reply to any of these letters had been received at the time of publication.

Criminalization of abortion

Morocco’s Penal Code criminalizes abortion in Morocco unless performed by a doctor or surgeon, is necessary to save the woman’s health or life, and is authorized by her husband or a Chief Medical Doctor, or a Chief Medical Officer has been notified if the mother’s life is in danger.

These highly restrictive provisions, combined with the absence in Morocco of any publicly accessible framework on legal abortion services or directives by the authorities, and the stigma and threats linked to abortion, mean that there is no legal and safe route to abortion for most women in Morocco.

Outside of the narrow legal exceptions, women who have or attempt to have an abortion are at risk of being prosecuted and sentenced to anything from six months to two years in prison and a fine. Anyone procuring or attempting to procure an abortion faces one to five years in prison.

Medical professionals who facilitate or perform an abortion may be barred from their profession, and if they become aware of abortions during the exercise of their profession or their functions, are obliged to testify if subpoenaed by a court and therefore cannot protect patient confidentiality. “Inciting abortion,” including through public speech or distribution of materials on abortion, is punishable by up to two years in prison and/or a fine.

As one doctor interviewed by Amnesty said, “What can we do as doctors? Nothing. We can’t help women. Our hands are tied. We’re frustrated because we can’t give women the help they want. There’s no regulatory framework to protect us. We’re policed.”

In addition, the Penal Code punishes any sexual relationship between unmarried persons with one month to one year in prison, and “adultery” (sexual relations with someone other than your legal spouse) with one to two years in prison, with women often punished more severely than men both legally and socially. This has profound implications for women’s ability to access sexual and reproductive healthcare information, services and goods; and fuels gender-based violence and discrimination.

Three women interviewed by Amnesty International had been convicted of sexual relations outside of marriage as a direct result of their inability to obtain an abortion and having to carry the pregnancy to term. Unmarried pregnant women forced to carry a pregnancy to term often come to the attention of the authorities when they seek assistance from public services, as is their right, mainly if they file a complaint of violence against a partner or go to a public hospital to give birth.

As elsewhere in the world, the criminalization of abortion in Morocco does not stop women seeking abortion, but rather forces them to pursue clandestine, unregulated, unsafe, and often expensive methods of abortion. The criminalization also violates a range of human rights, including the rights to life; the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, including sexual and reproductive health; equality and non-discrimination; privacy; equal protection under the law; and freedom from torture and other ill-treatment.

Violence and discrimination against women

The Moroccan authorities’ failure to effectively address intersecting forms of gender-based violence and discrimination impacts every stage of women’s experiences – from fostering unintended or unwanted pregnancies, to influencing women’s decision-making about their pregnancies, and determining the conditions in which they obtain abortions (usually unsafe) or are forced to carry on with unwanted pregnancies.

Two High Commission for Planning national surveys on the prevalence of violence against women (2009, 2019), and years of documentation by women’s rights groups in Morocco have shown that violence against women and girls is widespread and the state’s response remains inadequate. Morocco’s Penal Code and Penal Procedure Code have numerous gaps and deficiencies, including a lack of effective protective measures or specific guidelines for reporting, investigating and prosecuting gender-based violence. Rape is still defined as an act perpetrated against a woman’s will, implying the use of force or threat and physical injuries for this to be considered rape, and marital rape is not criminalized.

Due to judicial authorities’ failure to adequately investigate and prosecute violence against women crimes, few cases ever go to trial, undermining survivor’s perception of their ability to obtain a remedy/seek justice. As a result, and as demonstrated in the 2019 national survey, only 10.4% of women who had experienced physical or sexual violence in the preceding year had filed a complaint. This creates a climate of impunity for rapists.

Annual High Commission for Planning reports compiling ministry statistics show that women suffer much higher levels of illiteracy, poverty and unemployment than men, and those who find jobs are often employed in low-paying, precarious and informal sector jobs. Women are thus forced to navigate decisions about their sexual and reproductive health in a context of insecurity, social exclusion, and economic deprivation.

Sexual and reproductive rights

Under international human rights law, and as an extension of their right to equality and non-discrimination, women have the right to make autonomous and informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health, including the right to decide if and when to become pregnant. However, the systemic gender discrimination in Morocco creates multiple obstacles to women exercising these rights and fosters unintended and unwanted pregnancies.

These obstacles include high levels of gender-based violence committed with impunity. Ten of the 33 women interviewed by Amnesty International had become pregnant as a result of rape. Domestic violence meant that two of the women had stayed with violent partners for years and were forced to carry multiple pregnancies to term. Amnesty International also documented four cases involving unintended or unwanted pregnancies that were the result of sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace or educational institutions.

Access to contraception is also part of the right to health, and inadequate access to contraception disproportionately affects women who cannot afford it. Additionally, unclear and inconsistent regulations and the criminalization of sexual relations outside of marriage appear to hinder unmarried women’s ability to access contraception. One woman told Amnesty International that the local public health facility refused to give her contraceptive pills because she was unmarried and, unable to buy them herself, she became pregnant.

Gender discrimination in the social and economic fields also leaves women at heightened risk of unintended or unwanted pregnancies. High unemployment rates drove three women interviewed by Amnesty International to migrate to other areas of the country to seek work. There, isolated from their families, they sought social protection from a man, which resulted in unwanted or unintended pregnancies.