Malta’s president “ready to resign” about abortion
Malta's president George Vella (left) with the Pope, in 2019. Photo EPA, YARA NARDI
Southern Europe
President George Vella of Malta has reaffirmed his stance against abortion. He repeated that he would rather resign than sign a bill concerning abortion.
“I will never sign a bill that involves the authorisation of murder.” Vella said this in comments to Net News, a Maltese TV channel, stating that his position on the matter has always been clear.
“I cannot stop the executive from deciding; that is up to parliament. But I do have the liberty. If I disagree with a bill, to resign and go home, I have no problem doing this.”
According to the Times of Malta, Vella is a doctor by profession. He has frequently spoken out against abortion and spoke at an anti-abortion rally last year, prompting criticism from the pro-choice Voice for Choice coalition.
Asked whether there were any exceptions where one might consider abortion permissible, Vella said there were no half measures to murder. “You have either killed or not killed. There can be no half death. I’m obvious; there are no ifs and buts.”
Decriminalisation
Vella’s expressions come one week after independent MP Marlene Farrugia presented a bill to parliament calling for the decriminalisation of abortion. This move was lauded by pro-choice activists and condemned by pro-life organisations.
Opposition leader Bernard Grech said the Nationalist Party could never back the decriminalisation of abortion. At the same time, the ruling Labour Party has also come out in opposition to the bill, saying that it was open to discussing the issue but that Farrugia’s bill ‘choked’ the debate.
King Baudouin
In 1990, the Belgian king Baudouin declared that he would not sign a bill liberalising abortion. On April 4th of that year, he stepped down while members of the government signed the bill into law. 36 hours later, the king took up his post again.
According to Catholic News Agency, more than 90 per cent of Malta’s population are baptised Catholics. Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta said on May 13th that the decriminalisation of abortion would be a backward step. “The womb of a mother is dear and holy. It is there that human life can grow. Let us pray that the womb remains a place of life, not a place where killing takes place”, he said, according to the <a href=" Times of Malta." target="_blank">https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/the-womb-must-remain-a-place-of-life-archbishop.871552).
