He—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked:

An upright man owns a slave woman. In the presence of upright witnesses, he admitted that he had intercourse with her, that she became pregnant by him, that he asked some people about substances that cause miscarriage, and that he beat her severely over the heart, after which she miscarried. The slave woman stated that he would coat his penis with tar and have intercourse with her to make her miscarry, and that he forced her to drink poison and other substances that induce miscarriage. What liability does the slave woman’s owner incur for the acts described? Does this cause him to lose his standing as a man of probity or not?

He replied:

Praise be to Allah.

Causing a miscarriage is forbidden by the consensus of the Muslims. It is a form of burying children alive, concerning which Allah says:

“And when the girl buried alive is asked
for what sin she was killed.”

He also says:

“Do not kill your children for fear of poverty.”

Even supposing that someone caused a miscarriage accidentally—for example, by accidentally striking a woman and causing her to miscarry—he must give a male or female slave as compensation, as explicitly stipulated by the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and agreed upon by the imams. According to the majority of scholars, including Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī and Ahmad, the value of this compensation is one-tenth of the mother’s full blood money.

According to the majority of jurists, he must also offer the “expiation for killing” mentioned in the words of Allah Most High:

“Whoever kills a believer by mistake must free a believing slave and pay blood money to the victim’s family, unless they waive it.”

The passage continues to His words, Most High:

“But whoever cannot find one must fast for two consecutive months