82 women in Malta have reached out to UK-based charity Abortion Support Network (ASN) over the past year, with 10 of them receiving funding for traveling, consultations and abortion care.

ASN extended its services to Malta on 14th February 2019 and has now taken to a press release to reveal the statistics behind its operations and to call on the Maltese government to “liberalise abortion laws”.

“While we are unhappy that people from Malta need to contact our charity for help in order to receive factual information about pregnancy options and help with abortion care, we are glad to be of service to anyone in Malta who wants or needs to terminate a pregnancy and lacks the information or funding to do so,” ASN founder Mara Clarke said in the statement.

“We long for the days when our services are no longer necessary, not only for people in Malta but anywhere else.”

“Until then, ASN remains committed to supporting people in Malta in any way we can, for as long as our services remain needed,” she continued.

ASN also noted that the majority of women who contacted them were between the ages of 19 and 46 and were looking for unbiased information about the options available to them, including providers of early medical abortion pills and guidance on how to make arrangements.

The charity also gave a total of £8,882.74 in grants for those in need of financial aid. £2,263.52 went towards the cost of travel and accommodation and £6,619.22 towards consultations and abortion care services which equates to an average of £888.74 per client.

“These numbers continue to confirm that women from Malta have had to rely on other countries and NGOs to receive the healthcare they need, because of the inability of policymakers in Malta to put evidence-based medicine and human rights before personal beliefs,” said Dr. Christopher Barbara on behalf of the Maltese civil organisation, Voice For Choice.

“It is a shame that Malta continues to deliberately digress from what is internationally considered good medical practice when it comes to abortion care. We do not digress like this in any other medical field, and it is a symptom of women being treated as second class citizens in our country,” he continued.

Those looking for more information can visit ASN’s website here.

What do you make of these statistics?