Watch: Robert Abela Confirms His Abortion Opinion Evolved After Meeting Women Who Had One
Prime Minister Robert Abela has taken his strongest pro-choice stance yet, confirming that he has softened his hardline position on abortion after meeting women who actually had one.
Interviewed on Xtra last night, Abela said that since he became Prime Minister around three years ago, he has met several women who underwent an abortion, either by travelling overseas or by ingesting a tablet.
“Nowadays I observe the situation from the experiences of those 400 or so women who pass through this procedure every year,” he said.
While Abela noted that the PL doesn’t have an electoral mandate to introduce abortion and denied that a new bill would de facto decriminalise the practice, his statement signals a major policy shift.
Only three years ago, Abela said that if his predecessor Joseph Muscat wanted to campaign for the introduction of abortion, he would definitely “find me against him”.
However, yesterday he argued that the pro-life stance adopted by large sections of the Maltese public – including that adopted by both the Labour Party and Nationalist Party – is hypocritical.
“As it stands, the state and society are saying that abortion shouldn’t be introduced and will remain illegal, but at the same time, everyone is saying that the 400 women who get an abortion every year shouldn’t go to jail. This is a hypocritical position.”
“If these 400 women are committing a crime, are we saying that we want the laws to change but that these women shouldn’t go to jail? Society must decide which direction it wants to head down, and this direction shouldn’t be as a response to an episode.”
“Rest assured that one day a woman will ingest an abortion tablet, suffer medical complications and perhaps refuse to access the healthcare system out of fear that she might go to prison. Then we will say that society had failed her.”
“While we don’t have a mandate to introduce abortion, I certainly wont take an attitude like the Opposition Leader when he said that no one who militates or speaks out in favour of abortion can form part of his party.”
“After meeting so many people who passed through this procedure, I can tell you that they certainly didn’t enjoy doing it and all of them were socially stigmatised. Perhaps their greatest problem is that they can’t speak out because they risk incriminating themselves.”
“I want more people to speak out. I understand that fear is holding them back, but when you hear certain people, you understand how your views could take on a different form from what they were in the past.”
Should Malta decriminalise abortion?
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