Adrian Delia has made his first major national policy move as Nationalist Party leader, objecting to a law which grants vacation leave to lesbian couples and infertile women seeking gamete donation treatment abroad. 

The PN filed a motion in parliament yesterday, the day Delia was sworn in as a MP,  to contest the legal notice – which has been in place since the end of May.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat criticised the PN’s motion, which he said put to bed Delia’s campaign slogan calling for a “new way”.

“So now the Opposition is contesting law giving more rights to lesbian couples and infertile women,” he tweeted. “The new way looks worse than the old one.”

Malta’s IVF law, introduced in 2012, does not currently cater for lesbian couples and infertile women, meaning they have to travel abroad if they want to give birth to their own children through egg or sperm donation treatment. 

Indeed the law, called the Embryo Protection Act, explicitly excludes lesbians from IVF  and defines “prospective parent” as “either of two persons of the opposite sex  who  are  united  in  marriage,  or who  have  attained  the  age  of majority and are in a stable relationship with each other”. 

The outlawing of sperm and egg donation, with a penalty of €23,000 or a five-year jail term, also excludes infertile couples and single mothers from IVF treatment. 

Sperm and egg donation are currently illegal in Malta 

Yet the Maltese government has now given them some relief, by including people who go abroad for gamete donation treatment in a new law which allows couples undergoing IVF to avail themselves of 100 hours of vacation leave. 

Delia is fighting back – arguing the terminology in the legal notice contradicts that found in the Embryo Protection Act. This includes the term ‘prospective parent’, which the legal notice defines as “two persons who are united in marriage, civil union, cohabitation, or who have attained the age of majority and are in a stable relationship with each other”.

“For the sake of legal coherence, we are proposing an amendment to this legal notice to ensure the definitions of ‘prospective parents’ and ‘medically-assisted procreation’ are the same as those found in the Embryo Protection Act,” the motion says. 

The motion was filed by shadow health minister Stephen Spiteri (pictured) and PN Whip David Agius

Although the legal notice is an amendment to the Employment and Industrial Relations Act, the PN’s motion is not signed by its shadow employment minister Therese Comodini Cachia but by its shadow health minister Stephen Spiteri. Opposition whip David Agius, who intends to become PN deputy leader for parliamentary affairs, has also signed it. 

After Lovin Malta published the story, the PN issued a brief statement to say it had tabled the motion to ensure that the legal notice doesn’t break Maltese law.

Since the election, the government has forged ahead with plans to modernise Malta’s IVF legislation. At the end of June, health minister Chris Fearne said an updated IVF law which will eliminate discrimination towards same-sex couples is in the pipeline, without giving much detail of what it will entail. The government has remained coy over whether it plans to legalise surrogacy, the only method which allows gay couples to have their own children.

Questions sent by Lovin Malta to Fearne last week which called for an update on the process remain unanswered. 

What are your opinions on the PN leader’s first major policy move? Let us know in the comments’ section

READ NEXT: Adrian Delia Solves His Parliamentary Seat Dilemma

Tim Diacono

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]