Southern Europe: Former political party leader marches with law in Malta

"According to law, presently abortion is illegal," he says, emphasising his position on an embryo being a person with legal rights. "This is fundamental to our argument. The person's life is protected from conception right up to our Constitution," he says.

Mintoff is the former head of the ABBA party, which has held strong views against abortion. Instead of holding marches, the party collected signatures to hold a national referendum to enshrine its abortion ban into law. In 2023, the Council of Europe voted to allow abortions in cases "when the pregnant woman is at risk." Still, Mintoff sees that directive as illegal and encroaching on the exceptions already outlined in its national ban. Another organisation organised the March for Life Malta.

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Although he has resigned from the ABBA party, he has not given up on collecting the required number of signatures for a national referendum. Mintoff is confident that most of his population will vote to make abortion illegal and revert to the old laws, which ensure the safety of the woman and protect the unborn, he says.

Even though the Council of Europe has stated that Malta had no exceptions, Mintoff disagrees and says that the mother's life is already protected under its current national laws.

The Human Rights Commissioner (Dunja Mijatović) on the Council of Europe (CoE) wanted to proceed with amending the words when the mother's health and life are in danger, which is vague, unnecessary and opens up the "golden wedge" that will bring in more abortions against the will of the people, according to Mintoff.

He also says that Malta is facing three sources of European pressure: the European Parliament (E.P.), the European Commission (E.C.), and the Council of Europe (CoE). In April, the E.U. parliament voted to "enshrine the right to abortion" in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. It also called on Malta to repeal measures that ban or restrict abortion, according to an Independent report.

"The key point is that the E.U. and the Council of Europe cannot regulate and issue directives on abortion, and yet it is doing so illegally and against its international treaties. If you have a written agreement and interfere in those decisions, then it is illegal," he says.

But the CoE has not stopped at Malta's exceptions. The Human Rights Commissioner also wants to see Malta legalise abortion despite the nation's constitutional ban.

Despite European pressure, Mintoff says that he will do what it takes to fight for life at conception in his country. He is willing to take the recent directive to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary. He is also seeking international cooperation with like-minded people who are willing to listen to his legal argument, as he believes this will also serve other European countries in this regard.

"I fight to win. It is quite a challenge, but the laws and the treaties are on our side. I'm absolutely convinced we can win this one," he says.

Read more about Protection of life

The protection of human life is seen as the most fundamental value in the Western civilisation. It is the basis of the right to life in most human rights treaties.