Ulema allows abortion for rape victims

I was browsing through the Borneo Post today and came across this rather shocking article. I invite who has broad knowledge about abortion be it from religious perspective or scholars point of view or even your own view as an individual human being.

JAKARTA, Indonesia: The Indonesian Council of Ulema, the highest authority on Islam in the world's largest Muslim nation, has decreed that victims of rape should be allowed to have an abortion, the council's deputy chairman said yesterday.
"In rape cases, pregnancy is forced on the victims. It is not planned or wanted pregnancy," Ma'aruf Amin told AFP. But he added that the recently issued fatwa also mentioned that abortion was only permitted if the foetus was not yet 40 days old."
"At the age of 40 days after pregnancy, the foetus already a soul...so that to prevant the taking of life the abortion should be conducted before the 40th day of pregnancy," Amin said. He said that abortion was also allowed if the situation threatened the life of the mother.
The state Antara news agency, quoting research by a foundation for women's health, said that about two million Indonesian women underwent abortions in 2004
- AFP.