Robert Abela Pledges To Relax Abortion Laws But Only When Mothers’ Lives Are At Risk
Prime Minister Robert Abela has pledged to update Malta’s abortion laws to clarify that doctors will be allowed to terminate pregnancies if they believe the mother’s life is at risk.
Although this is already common practice at Mater Dei, Abela pointed out in an interview with Times of Malta that there are questions surrounding the legality of it all.
“We discovered that there’s a long-standing practice at Mater Dei that goes back decades. In cases where the mother’s life is at risk, clinicians decide among themselves to terminate. But there are questions about the legality of that,” he said.
“So we discussed with our health department and they’ve presented a legal amendment that states that when there are medical complications during a pregnancy and the mother’s life is at risk, doctors can terminate a pregnancy to safeguard the mother’s life without the risk of legal prosecution. Of course, the mother will also be protected from prosecution.”
Andrea Prudente and her partner
The Prime Minister denied that this legal amendment will act as a precursor to the eventual decriminalisation or legalisation of abortion.
This update to the law was triggered by the case of Andrea Prudente, an American tourist who was denied an abortion when she suffered a miscarriage while on holiday in Malta, even though her pregnancy was deemed to be unviable.
She was eventually airlifted to Spain, where she terminated her pregnancy.
Prudente has since filed a constitutional challenge against the Maltese authorities, arguing that the clauses of the Maltese Criminal Law which prohibited her from getting an abortion go against the European Convention on Human Rights.
Should Malta fully decriminalise abortion?
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