Watch: First Ever Pro-Choice Speech By Maltese MEP At EU Parliament
Labour MEP Cyrus Engerer has just given the first pro-choice speech by a Maltese MEP in the house of one of the EU’s largest decision-making bodies.
Engerer gave a speech earlier today at 9am during a plenary session at the European Parliament, recounting horror stories of Maltese women who desperately needed an abortion but couldn’t readily access it due to the country’s stringent laws.
This made him the first pro-choice Maltese MEP to give a speech in favour of abortion at the European Parliament since Malta joined the EU in 2004. While he has voted in favour of the procedure becoming part of the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights, he has never had the opportunity to speak about it on the stand… until now.
Engerer used excerpts of personal accounts from an initiative started by Women’s Rights Foundation and Doctors for Choice called Break the Taboo which features scores of personal stories of women in Malta who had abortions.
“When I went for my scan I found I have cancer. In Malta, you cannot get chemotherapy if you’re pregnant. According to law, I should’ve sacrificed my life for that of the foetus and left my children orphaned,” he narrated.
“I don’t remember much of that night, he hit me so hard I was unconscious. I woke up without any clothes on me.”
“Irrespective of the circumstances and although my baby couldn’t survive, they forced me to be a walking grave for nine months.”
The stories go on and on, highlighting the very real and traumatic experiences women have had to go through because of Malta’s antiquated laws that place a woman’s reproductive capabilities above her value as a human being.
“All these women have names,” he continued “But if they speak it means three years imprisonment for their crime to survive in my country Malta.”
“500 women per year in my country have illegal, unsafe abortions at home alone.”
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