Malta Women’s Lobby: ‘Andrea Prudente Shouldn’t Have Needed To Travel To Spain To Protect Herself’
The Malta Women’s Lobby has slammed Maltese law for “failing” to safeguard a pregnant American woman who suffered a miscarriage while holidaying in Malta, leading to her needing to be airlifted to Spain to undergo a medical procedure that is not allowed on the island.
“Maltese Law has failed Andrea Prudente, as it keeps failing women, time and time again.”
“Whether one agrees with abortion or not, women’s lives should never be put at such a risk,” MWL continued. “Why is women’s health always less valued and always questioned?”
Earlier today, Prudente was given the go-ahead from her insurance firm to be medically evacuated to a hospital in Spain after it deemed the situation to be a matter of life or death.
Prudente, who was 16 weeks pregnant, suffered serious medical problems while on holiday in Malta and was told by doctors that her placenta had become partially detached and there was “zero chance” her pregnancy would be a success.
She said Malta’s medical staff advised her that her only options were to wait for the foetus’s heartbeat to stop or for her to develop an infection, after which they could terminate the pregnancy.
Prudente’s story has captured the attention of the international media, placing a spotlight on Malta, which has some of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the world.
Andrea Prudente, 38, and her partner Jay Weeldreyer, 45
For MWL, it is clear that Prudente should be able to find the necessarily and potentially life-saving medical treatment she needed on the island – and not need to go to another country.
“Andrea Prudente shouldn’t have needed to travel to Spain, she should have been taken care of here. She should have been given the medical services she needed to protect herself from enduring further health complications, trauma and possible death,” it said, calling out Malta’s political class by saying it is “shameful that no politician has spoken out about this”.
“Those in power have also failed her, as they have done with other women in the past. As a country we must do better! No woman deserves to ever feel and experience the ordeal that Andrea Prudente and her partner have passed through.”
What do you make of the lobby’s statement?
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