Malta’s opposition to abortion under threat
Protesters hold placards during a pro-life rally. Photo EPA, Glenn Hunt
Southern Europe
For decades, Malta has maintained a strong anti-abortion stance within the EU. However, amendments in an EU initiative are threatening to change that.
In response, pro-life groups are looking to their elected representatives in opposing a “right to abortion” clause in the EU’s Fundamental Rights Charter.
As reported in the Times of Malta, the EU proposal involves adding abortion rights in the EU Charter. Abortion is permitted in the EU except in Malta, Poland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, and the Faroe Islands, where it is administered in exceptional cases.
Life Network Foundation Malta, a pro-life group in the country, said that while the proposal uses language involving “human rights,” it fails to mention abortion when it talks about providing “equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family.” Life Network Foundation calls the move a “travesty of justice” as it is not acknowledging the humanity of the unborn in the human family.
Poll
Although Malta’s EU representative, Cyrus Engerer is responsible for proposing the amendments and criticising the country’s current position, all members of the Maltese parliament voted to keep its present-day law. Malta’s current law on abortion opposes the practice but approves it in cases when the mother’s life may be in “immediate danger” or when there’s a risk of death.
“This draft proposal, framed in human rights language, is the antithesis of human rights. It attempts to dehumanise the unborn child, giving him or her no rights whatsoever and turning children into commodities,” a spokesperson for Life Network Foundation Malta said in the Times of Malta report.
Malta’s opposition to abortion remains strong throughout the country. In a recent poll by Malta Today, at least 95 percent of respondents rejected unrestricted abortion in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy. That figure rose to 97 percent when it came to unrestricted abortion in all stages of pregnancy. Despite widespread, national resistance, the issue of unlimited abortions keeps coming up within all levels of government.
Explanation
In 2022, the country struck down a change in its criminal code to allow exceptions in an abortion. However, it was opposed, as referenced in another report in Times of Malta. However, Malta’s existing law on intervention in abortions was later changed to allow it in cases when the woman’s life “is in immediate danger” or when her health is “grave jeopardy that may lead to death.” According to ABBA party leader, Ivan Grech Mintoff, this interpretation deserves more explanation.
Rather, Malta introduced a law that included an unnecessary change in wording, he said. Mintoff also said that Malta’s older law permitted medical intervention when a woman's life was at risk. However, parliamentary leaders “caved in” at the last minute after pro-abortion groups demanded that the law be changed to “may be at risk.”
The sudden change was also initiated by some pro-life organisations such as the Life Network. Mintoff indicated that such a change is rather vague and can be interpreted to include abortions that are medically unnecessary.
“There was no need to change the law,” he said. “Why change the law to include that the mother’s health may be in danger?” he said, who is also the founder of the over 37,000 member Facebook group, Abortion in Malta? Not in my name!
Legal level
Although most Maltese oppose abortion, the ABBA party, which is an affiliate of the European Christian Political Movement (ECPM), is working to protect its anti-abortion position. Yet, Mintoff said that the EU and pro-abortion groups are looking to change that. When it comes to the EU Fundamental Rights Charter, Mintoff said that the EU bound itself to respect Malta’s opposition. He also explained that the EU granted Malta with three derogations or exceptions when it came to deciding its own national affairs. One of those includes abortion.
“Why are you deciding for us when you have promised in writing not to do that?” he said in response to the EU’s decision. “We will fight this at the legal level.”
Choice
One of the legal solutions has been for ABBA to call for an abrogative referendum. Malta’s President Myriam Spiteri Debono proposed a similar solution. Debono was elected earlier this month and raised the possibility of creating a consultative referendum.
If enough signatures are collected, a petition for consultative referendum still leaves the choice of holding a referendum in the hands of parliament. But an abrogative referendum, preferred by Mintoff, takes that choice away from parliament completely and forces the electoral commission to hold the public referendum within a short period of time. So far, no action has been taken by parliament in initiating one, as reported by Times of Malta.
Referendum
Even before Debono’s proposition, the ABBA party decided to collect signatures for an abrogative referendum. For that to happen, at least 10 percent of the voting population must create a petition that calls for a specific law (or article(s) to be put forward in a referendum. After getting at least 10 percent or 34,000 signatures, the petition must be taken to the electoral commission, where a referendum must be held within a short period of time. If there are enough votes, that law/ article(s) will have to be removed.
Achieving the required 34,000 signatures is possible, Mintoff said, and so far, at least 5,000 signatures have been collected. All the signatures must be done one by one and in person.
“We are not asking them to sign for or against abortion. We are asking them to sign in order to allow the people to decide democratically what they want,” he said. The party has collaborated with other pro-life groups in getting more such as Malta 4 Life
Safeguarding
“We believe that the people will vote. If we win that referendum, we will have created Roe vs. Wade in Malta. We want to send a very strong message to Europe and the rest of the world that the Maltese people have not just chosen life over the culture of death but removed abortion from law, whilst safeguarding the life of the mother too,” he said.
While the ABBA party awaits the required number of signatures, Mintoff said that it is only a matter of time. It may take years or only months, but he said that they are willing to do whatever it takes to fight for the greatest right- the right to life.
“Being Christian, God is on our side. We’re going to win,” he said.
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