ABBA ‘Abusing’ Justice System To Harass Pro-Choice Activists’, Maltese Doctors Warn After Police Reports
Maltese doctors have called out a police report made against pro-choice activists, saying the political party behind the reports are abusing the justice system.
A representative from Doctors For Choice, who are among the organisations reported by religious group Partit ABBA, said the lack of safe and legal abortion services in Malta pose a risk to women’s health and lives as fells as fouling European human rights standards.
When asked to comment about the police report made against them, they said that ‘Partit ABBA are attempting to abuse the criminal justice system to harass pro-choice activists and criminalise the provision of information about abortion’.
“They will not succeed against us, but they may succeed in subverting our country’s democracy if they get even close to power. People who care about democratic values and human rights should not vote for them’, they said.
Aleksander Dimitrijevic, the husband of one of the reported individuals, Dr Lara Dimitrijevic, lashed out against ABBA for reporting the pro-choice activists.
Partit ABBA has filed a police report calling for criminal investigations into 18 pro-choice organisations and activists.
ABBA said that it reported the activists to the police to establish if the people who have been reported have been breaking the law regarding abortion services in Malta. However, representatives of the party have not cited what laws they reported the activists for breaching.
The party is notorious for its staunch anti-abortion position, sometimes even spreading misinformation about the emergency contraceptive, the morning after pill which the party incorrectly calls ‘abortive’.
Speaking to Lovin Malta, ABBA’s party leader Ivan Grech Mintoff said that the party ‘defends life from conception’ and that they will go ‘against anyone who wants to work so that a human’s life is terminated in this manner’.
When asked about how he feels the case will develop, Grech Mintoff said that he is “optimistic that action will be taken in this regard”.
When asked for a comment, the Malta Police Force said that “investigate all allegations of a criminal nature which are brought to their attention”.
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