The specter of abortion haunts pregnant women in Gaza

With a belly heavy with seven months of pregnancy, Palestinian woman Hadeel al-Madani carries a gallon of water around her tent, performing simple daily tasks that the Israeli war of annihilation has transformed into arduous burdens that drain her body and raise fears for her unborn child.

Washing, cooking, washing dishes, and cleaning the shelter—tasks that were completed quickly before the war—now require hours of effort, from fetching and carrying water to washing and wringing clothes by hand, and finally, lighting fires to cook food.

Palestinian women in Gaza perform these tasks under harsh humanitarian conditions, under the scorching summer heat trapped in tents made of flimsy plastic fabric, which during the daytime become uninhabitable.

The already dire living conditions inside the tents have been exacerbated by the ongoing power outages since Israel launched its genocidal war on October 8, 2023.

The effects of these conditions extend beyond daily exhaustion. Pregnant women face increasing fears of miscarriage due to continuous displacement, malnutrition, limited access to medical care, strenuous physical exertion, and high temperatures inside the tents.

Data from the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip indicates that 3,958 miscarriages were recorded during the first half of 2026, a rate of 208.5 miscarriages per 1,000 live births, compared to 64 miscarriages per 1,000 live births during the second half of 2025—a 3.3-fold increase.

Amid this reality, Madani lives in constant anxiety for her unborn child, spending her days performing arduous tasks without running water, electricity, or any means of cooling—a life she describes as “tragic” inside the tents.

In a corner of her tent, Madani checks her medications, which she keeps among her few belongings, fearing they might be affected by the intense heat or by rodents hiding among her belongings and in the tent’s soil.

“Our lives are difficult,”