After rejecting legislation to legalize abortion, Malta’s Parliament passed a bill on Wednesday that maintains protections for unborn babies while clarifying that doctors can only perform abortions if the mother’s life is at stake. in danger.
Malta, a small island nation in Europe, protects unborn babies by banning elective abortions, and has one of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world, according to the Times of Malta.
Last year, its Parliament considered legislation to allow abortions for any vaguely defined “health” reason after abortion activists falsely claimed that its pro-life laws put life of women at risk. But the bill drew massive opposition, including from the medical community and President George Vella. In the report, Vella said he would resign rather than support the bill.
Then, this month, the government announced a major change to the bill that removes the “health” exception and makes it clear that abortion can only be performed if three doctors agree that the mother’s life is at stake. danger, the Malta Independent reports.
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Lovin Malta’s report Parliament passed the amended law, Bill No. 28, on Wednesday. According to APthe final vote was unanimous.
Pro-abortion groups are not happy. The Voices for Choice Coalition Malta slammed the amendment as “a betrayal,” saying it was “unworkable and dangerous.” The group said that “doctors are likely to ask for permission [to perform an abortion] for fear of persecution.”
But leading doctors in Malta have repeatedly refuted these claims.
In December, Martin Balzan, president of the Medical Association of Malta (MAM), spoke out against the original bill, saying doctors did not support abortion and did not ask for changes to the law.
“We agree with the first part about preserving the life of a mother, because it is already done in practice, but we are not happy that the text also speaks of interventions that lead to the termination of pregnancies in order to preserve the mother’s health,” said Balzan. “… Bringing maternal health into the discussion will only create more problems, instead of solving them. It is a problem of words, of interpretation. The text is too vague, and we believe the wording should be completely amended or changed.”
Prime Minister Robert Abela and others who supported the original bill said they wanted to protect doctors and pregnant mothers in cases where her life was at risk. But Balzan said the law already does that, and doctors want “nothing to do” with legalizing the killing of unborn babies in abortions.
In making the case for the bill, several news outlets and abortion activists pointed to a situation involving an American woman who said doctors put her life at risk by refusing to abort her unborn child. baby was born while he was visiting Malta. The woman, Andrea Prudente, a United States citizen, traveled to Spain for an abortion and later sued the country of Malta for allegedly endangering her life.
But doctors refuted his claims at trial in January, according to Malta Today.
“The patient is never in danger of death,” Dr. Yves Muscat Baron, an OB-GYN and chair of the Maternity and Gynecology Department at Mater Dei Hospital, testified.
Another OB-GYN, Dr. Alberto Vella also confirmed in court that Prudente’s life is not in danger and that her unborn baby has a decent chance of survival.
Doctors for Life also responded to the allegations: “… no mother in living memory has been lost in Malta as a result of complications from [Premature Pre-labour Rupture of Membranes, Prudente’s condition]. It should be noted that contrary to popular assertion, these doctors, acting for the good of the mother and child, do not stop the termination because they need a law to protect them. They did not terminate because it was unnecessary and unethical to do so.”
The medical community and the citizens of Malta have widely opposed the bill to legalize the killing of unborn babies. Tens of thousands of citizens protested, including a rally last fall organized by the Life Network Foundation and other pro-life organizations.
Malta has resisted international pressure to legalize abortion for years. Abortions are illegal in almost all cases in Poland, but Malta is the only country in Europe that fully protects unborn babies from abortion.
Until recently, some European countries protected unborn babies by banning abortion. However, Ireland abandoned its pro-life laws in 2018 and the British Parliament forced Northern Ireland to legalize abortion in 2019.
