Over 1,000 Orders For Abortion Pills In 5 Years: Malta Sees Rising Requests For Telemedicine
Malta’s blanket ban on abortion has not stopped people seeking them as the number of pills shipped to the islands has steadily increased in the last five years, a new research paper has confirmed.
A joint paper, whose authors include pro-choice academic Andrea Dibben and pro-choice doctor Isabel Stabile, found that 1,090 women and pregnant people between 2017 and 2021 requested at-home abortions through a single online telemedicine provider (Women on Web), as more and more opt for “self-managed” abortions rather than travelling to countries where it is legal to terminate.
Abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol were shipped to 658 women during this time period, making up 60.4% of requests.
Legal restrictions (73%) and the lack of availability of abortion pills (45%) were the main reasons noted by those who wanted to terminate their pregnancies via telemedicine.
While opting for shipped pills is less costly and potentially less time-consuming than travelling abroad for an abortion, people must do so without any assistance or advice from doctors, due to potential criminal consequences.
This means that should any complications arise, doctors cannot legally help them, although this could well change if a bill currently being debated in Parliament passes into law.
The trend for more requests for pills coincidenced with increased hurdles posed by COVID-19 restrictions in 2020, which halted international travel due to forced airport closures.
In fact, 2020 saw the sharpest increase in pills demanded, with a 108% jump from 2019.
Number of abortion packages shipped per year. There was a 29% decrease in the number of shipments between 2017 and 2018, but a 56% increase between 2018 and 2019, a 108% increase between 2019 and 2020, and a 47% increase between 2020 and 2021. The sharpest increase was observed in 2020, corresponding to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. WoW, Women on Web.
This upward trend has continued into 2022, with at least 316 abortion packages shipped to Malta, marking a further 21% increase from 2021.
The circumstances and reasons behind wanting to terminate their pregnancies varied between patients.
More than half had existing children, while over 90% reached out to the telemedicine site Women on Web before seven weeks of their pregnancy. Meanwhile, the majority of those getting medical abortions (63%) did not use contraception while 30% blamed contraception failure.
The most common reasons cited for accessing abortion care were not being able to have a child at this point in their life (69%) and having no money to raise a child (34%).
Malta is one of the last countries on the planet that criminalises abortion under any circumstance.
Ultimately, blanket bans do not stop abortions, with an estimated 300 to 400 women in Malta seeking them every year. What it does do is promote dangerous abortions and place financial burdens and social shame on those seeking to terminate.
In a country where access to contraception is limited and a national sexual health policy that hasn’t been updated in a decade, women are left to their own devices in matters of family planning.
You can find the full study here.
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