“I don’t care about what you ate between your house visits. I don’t care that you’re the oldest politician in history. I don’t care that you’re the first fishmonger in Parliament.”

“I don’t care about your cosmetic ‘Happy International Women’s Day’ post. I don’t care about rhetoric. I care about you speaking up about what was in the news these past days.”

“I care about you acting on a woman’s life being put into jeopardy by sadistic and primitive laws. I care about you caring about women’s lives. I care about you acknowledging that saving a mother is against the law, with doctors facing four years in prison and a revocation of their license if they actually do prioritise her life.”

“I care about you acknowledging that women have heartbeats too. We have a life worth living too.”

She added that she also expected MPs to speak up about the case of Nicholas Camilleri, the man who was recently found dead after a harrowing mental health crisis.

“I care about you doing something about a son, not the Police, finding his own father’s lifeless body. I care about you doing something about a mental health system that miserably failed a man diagnosed with schizophrenia and his family,” she said.

Speaking to Lovin Malta, Caruana said her post was intended to express disappointment at both PL and PN MPs for not calling for action in the wake of the Prudente and Camilleri cases.

Only one MP, PL’s Rosianne Cutajar, is known to have said anything publicly about the Prudente case, sharing an Instagram post by the Parents for Choice NGO calling for the woman’s life to be saved.

Asked what action should be taken in light of the Prudente case, Caruana said that “this remains to be seen but we should at least discuss it, say something and show some sympathy”.

“This isn’t a singular issue but about the cosmetic way politicians are behaving nowadays,” she said.

“We didn’t vote MPs in to say they got their hair dyed last week or to inform us that they met a cat, but to legislate. I’m seeing very little legislating so far and I don’t think I’ve seen any bills presented this legislature. Can MPs tell us what they’re actually working on?”

The PN has enshrined its anti-abortion stance in its statute and has repeatedly pushed back against any calls to decriminalise the practice, despite Malta enacting some of the world’s hardest abortion laws.

Caruana said that while she doesn’t expect PN MPs to call for the decriminalisation of abortion, she did expect “to see some compassion and some people inquiring into what is happening.”

“I expected to see some humanity,” she said.

Although Opposition Leader Bernard Grech has recently warned he will “discipline” PN officials who criticise the party on social media, Caruana said that her comments don’t go against the party’s rule and that no one from the PN has contacted her to inform her otherwise.

“The PN hasn’t taken an official position on the [Prudente] case and I haven’t received any directive on how I should respond,” she said. “It reflects my personal position and not the party’s position, which is also why I published the post on my personal page and not my political one.” 

Prudente developed serious pregnancy problems while she was on holiday in Malta, with her waters breaking after 16 weeks of pregnancy, leaving no amniotic fluid for her foetus to grow or breathe. 

Although Maltese doctors told her that her pregnancy had a zero chance of success, she wasn’t allowed to terminate it so long as the foetus had a heartbeat and she wasn’t in serious risk of dying, and this in line with the law.

Prudente has since been airlifted to Spain where she reportedly successfully terminated her pregnancy.

Cover photo: Left: Martina Caruana addressing a press conference, Right: Martina Caruana with Opposition Leader Bernard Grech (Photos: Facebook)

Should Malta decriminalise abortion?