Watch: Alex Agius Saliba Pledges To Keep On Campaigning Against Abortion ‘In Line With His Values’
As the likes of Joseph Muscat and Cyrus Engerer continue to push for abortion rights, Labour MEP Alex Agius Saliba has pledged to continue campaigning against moves to introduce it in Malta.
“It would have been easy to say one thing in Malta and another in the EU, as vice-president of a political group that promotes this issue,” Agius Saliba told a PL political rally yesterday.
“It would have been easy and I would have looked good among my friends but, unlike Roberta Metsola, I don’t say one thing in Malta and something else overseas. I am against abortion in Malta, which means I am against abortion in the European Parliament and everywhere else.”
“I am proud that although I stood firmly by my values and my mandate, I was still elected vice-president of the second largest group in the European Parliament. Respect and dignity aren’t obtained by sucking up to people and trying to please them but through work and consistency to your principles. This is the biggest lesson that the Nationalists need to learn.”
Agius Saliba is a vice-president of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), which has called for the right to legal and safe abortion to be enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
His anti-abortion intervention comes days after his PL colleague Cyrus Engerer became the first Maltese MEP to deliver a pro-choice speech in the European Parliament.
Engerer recounted horror stories of Maltese women who desperately needed an abortion but couldn’t readily access it due to the country’s stringent laws.
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