europe magazine
Malta has one of the strictest abortion laws in the EU. The ruling Labor Party wants to relax the law somewhat, but the process is dragging on. The case of a tourist amplifies the debate.
Maria is sitting in a doctor’s office somewhere in Malta. Maria is not her real name, she must remain anonymous. She only wants to talk in the presence of her gynecologist, in a protected setting. Because Maria got pregnant two years ago – unintentionally. That’s why she immediately thought of an abortion.
I was afraid that the police would ask for my credit card details because they pay for these pills online with a credit card. I was afraid of being discovered that way. I was afraid that while I google ‘abortion in Malta’ they would track my IP address and they would find out that I was looking for these things.
High penalties for abortion
Maria was so scared because abortion is forbidden in her homeland. Women face up to three years in prison. But the then 25-year-old saw no other option.
She ordered abortion pills online. Mifepristone and misopristol are the drugs that terminate pregnancy with medication, at home, without supervision. Maria would have preferred to go to the hospital.
What I wanted was proper health care. Because that’s what you need. Something is happening in your body that you don’t want happening, but you can’t properly talk to a doctor. You have to go underground somehow.
No regard for the mother’s health
Many women in Malta are like Maria. Doctors for Choice estimates that there are at least 300 a year. The ban applies even if the mother’s life is at stake.
Like Andrea Prudente, an American. With her partner she is vacationing in Malta in June 2022, she is 16 weeks pregnant, a desired child. But she gets bleeding and is taken to the hospital. Eventually it becomes clear: the child no longer has a chance of surviving.
But the doctors are not allowed to intervene because the child’s heartbeat can still be heard. Although the risk of infection for the mother is immense. Prudente’s partner is very worried because a flight to another country would also be risky. Prudente could experience in-flight bleeding that would be difficult to stop outside of an operating room. Finally, she is flown to Mallorca, where the doctors carry out the demolition.
The American Andrea Prudente sued Malta after she was not allowed to have an abortion there despite the danger to her life.
Lawsuit against Malta
Prudente later sued the state of Malta for violating human rights. Her lawyer Lara Dimitrijevic has been campaigning for years for women in Malta to have more rights.
When her client’s case made headlines, she says, many other women came forward and posted reports of similar situations on social media. How they were also in dire straits and at risk of losing their lives.
Nevertheless, according to Dimitrijevic, Prudente is currently the only legal case. “Let’s not forget: Malta is a small island. Everyone knows everyone. And it’s not easy for someone to get through such a public and controversial case.”
anti-abortion reject changes
Society is deeply divided on the issue of abortion. On the one hand there is the influential Catholic Church, which has strongly shaped the culture of the country. She is opposed to certain exceptions to the abortion ban which Parliament, with a majority in the ruling Labor Party, passed on second reading in December. The Archbishop of Malta, Charles Scicluna, made it absolutely clear that the blanket ban should not be lifted.
According to him, the change in the law introduces something new. The text also speaks of situations “in which it is not the mother’s life but her health that is in danger. It thus proposes that health can be preserved by killing a new human life. That means abortion. “
Pro-life activists and the opposition in parliament, the Nationalist Party, also fear this. Law student Thomas De Martino is politically active for her and believes that the connection to the mother’s health is secretly legalizing abortion: “The wording doesn’t define what an emergency is or what constitutes a problem. So it’s all subject to interpretation open it and it would be nothing but having an abortion.”
In December, the Maltese Parliament voted to relax the ban on abortion. It is still unclear whether this change will come into force.
Women must have free choice
On the other hand there are initiatives like Doctors for Choice. In her opinion, the general abortion ban puts women at a disadvantage and puts their lives at risk unnecessarily. They stand up for a free choice. The gynecologist Isabel Stabile filed a judicial protest signed by 135 doctors.
Tenor: The general ban on abortion in Malta must be reviewed, as it puts women at a disadvantage and puts their lives at risk unnecessarily. Stabile: “What we really want are fewer abortions. But for that we need sex education and contraception. These have to be free and accessible, but they’re not.”
Hope for international Print
So far, the new legal text provides that in future the pregnancy may be terminated if the health of the mother is at stake. It is still unclear whether the law will come into force at all, even if the government is aiming for this by the summer.
Because Malta’s President Georg Vella would have to sign it, but he is known to be an opponent of abortion. Nevertheless, Maria hopes. She has to remain anonymous, but she wants to tell her story.
“I hope that this will put international pressure on the country to legalize abortion at some point. But I think the first step would be to decriminalize abortion – for whatever reason it is done.”
You can see this and other reports in Europamagazin – on Sunday at 12.45 p.m. in the first.