Maltese government tightens abortion proposal
Malta's Minister for Health, Dr. Chris Fearne. Photo EPA, Stephanie Lecocq
Southern Europe
For a while, abortion activists hoped the government of Malta would finally tear down the ban on terminating pregnancies. However, they seem to be disappointed by the government.
In Malta, abortion is illegal in all circumstances. Even when the mother's life is at stake, treatment is not possible if it can kill the unborn child Euractiv reports.
This has led to upheaval several times already. Once, an American woman had to be airlifted to Spain when her health was allegedly at serious risk because her membranes ruptured after 16 weeks of pregnancy. In another case, a woman was prosecuted after she took abortion pills because she was in an abusive relationship.
Signature
Abortion activists used the opportunity to campaign for liberalisation of the abortion law, and the Maltese Labour Party proposed amendments so that life-saving treatments could be carried out if the mother's health was at serious risk. The bill had passed the second reading in Parliament, but last Friday, the government backtracked. Only one more reading and a signature of te President are necessary for the bill to be implemented.
However, now, the proposal reads that abortion can only take place when a mother's life is endangered after all other treatments have been tried, Health Minister Chris Fearne announced. In addition, three doctors must agree upon the procedure, which may only occur in a special clinic. According to Euractiv, the amendments come after President George Vella said publicly that he would rather resign than sign the proposal.
Risk of dying
Health Minister Chris Fearne and Justice Minister Jonathan Attard emphasised on Monday that the changes to the bill do not mean that treatments are delayed when a woman's health is severely threatened. Doctors will not have to wait until a woman is "at imminent risk of dying before terminating a pregnancy" Times of Malta writes. Also, a doctor does not have to wait for two colleagues to give permission for the treatment when the risk of death is very clear, and anything that can eventually lead to death is considered a grave risk by the proposal, the politicians stressed.
However, abortion activists are critical. They want the bill to be changed back to its original wording, which spoke about a serious health risk instead of a grave health risk.
The Voice for Choice, a group of pro-abortion organisations, warned that a stricter abortion law could lead to pregnant women being left "permanently disabled or dead", Euractiv writes. In addition, Voice for Choice expects that doctors will seek authorisation from two other colleagues even when it is not necessary because they are afraid of prosecution.
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