Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1151507
16 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 4 AUGUST 2019 INTERVIEW Your organisation, Abortion Support Network, offers help to women seeking termination services in (among others) countries where abortion is illegal, like Malta. What sort of service do you provide? First of all, it's important to note that Abortion Support Network is a non-political or- ganisation, in the sense that… we don't tell people how to vote. The groups that campaign for legislative change are the 'cure'… we're the 'band-aid'. We receive calls from women who need assistance, and we explain to them what their op- tions really are. Because most of the time, they wouldn't know. These are not things they can talk about at home, or even with a doctor… Can you give an indication of how many requests you got from Malta? Sorry, no. Not yet. The most I can say is that we made an estimation of how many we ex- pected to receive, based on the population and poverty levels… because if someone can afford it, they're going to just go and do it, without needing any as- sistance… and we estimated correctly. I can also say that the age-range of requests we have got from Malta is from 19 to 37... with the majority in their late 20s-30s. But we will not re- lease specific numbers for now. We normally just do that annu- ally. One thing I feel I have to comment about, though, is the ignorance about sexual health in this country. I don't mean it disparagingly; but we had people calling us who clearly have no idea about how sexual health works. A lot of people think that… 'I last had sex two weeks ago, so I'm two weeks pregnant…' But we have to tell them: 'No, you start counting from the first day of your last menstrual period…. so actually, you're four weeks pregnant'. Also, the fact that you can have a period while pregnant; and that you can get pregnant while you're breastfeeding. Another thing that stands out is that, be- cause of the stigma associated with abortion, and everything to do with sex and reproduc- tion… the people who contact us from Malta are terrified. One of them told us that there is a genetic disorder running in her family; she was pregnant, and wanted to terminate if the baby had this disorder. But she was too scared to go to a doc- tor. What would happen if they knew she was pregnant… then later saw that she was no longer pregnant, and no baby? Could she be arrested? To me it is hor- rifying that these women, who clearly need help, are too afraid to seek it… The existence of an abortion stigma cannot be denied, but there are indications that more people are willing to speak out about it. Recently a group of young women staged a public protest in Valletta: for which they received death threats. Why do you think this issue provokes such hostile/ violent reactions? The longer I do this work, the more I realise a few things. One is that there are people who are against abortion in all circum- stances, even to save a wom- an's life. They literally want to throw the bathwater out with the baby… and I am the bath- water. My daughter is the bath- water. All women are the bath- water. And… OK, if that is what they want to do, I can respect that. If they want to have this absolutist definition of 'Thou shalt not kill', that's fine… as long as they are not wearing clothes made from two differ- ent fabrics, and are willing to stone their neighbour for work- ing on the Sabbath. Because all that's in the Bible too. But let's put those people to one side. Most people, if you really ques- tion them, are usually OK with abortion in some circumstanc- es. But then, their issue is not so much with abortion, in itself: it's with judging the woman for her behaviour. Like: if it was incest, it's OK… if it was rape, it's OK. In all other instances, however… the woman is a slut. It is more about disapproval of women, than concern with the baby. This, by the way, is evident from the law itself: be- cause laws which ban abortion don't stop abortions from hap- pening… they only stop poor women from having abortions. It's a giant hypocrisy; and it was the same in Ireland quite re- cently: there was a law against abortion… but this doesn't mean there was no abortion in Ireland. There was the same level of abortion in Ireland, as in any other European coun- try. The only difference was that, when faced with an un- planned, unwanted or non-vi- able pregnancy… women with money and family had the op- tion to travel to seek care; while women without money either had babies they didn't want or couldn't afford… or, from our own experience, often took drastic, life-threatening action to try and self-abort… What sort of cases do you have to deal with? I'll tell you some of the things that our clients did, before they found out we could help them. There was a mother of three who had never done drugs in her life, who went out and got heroin... because she hoped the shock to her system would cause a miscarriage. There was a mother of four who was try- ing to figure out how to crash her car, so as to cause a miscar- riage without dying or perma- nently injuring herself. There was a girl who had been raped, who sold her car, cut off her landline… and asked the rapist for a loan. She was also help- fully told by a so-called 'fam- ily planning agency' that if she had an abortion, she would be a worse criminal than the man who assaulted her. Because he was 'only a rapist', while she would be a 'murderer'. There was a girl who got her boyfriend to pound her in the stomach with a baseball-bat... we've had people skipping rent, people ra- tioning food for their families… these are all real, actual cases… According to at least one woman who was interviewed (incognito) on Maltese TV some years ago, the local traditional method is for a woman to 'throw herself down the stairs'… Well, the old ways work the best. The only difference be- tween 1850 and now is that, today, you can just Google 'how do I self-abort?' And hopefully, you will get a reputable pro- vider of tablets, like 'Women on Web' and 'Women Help Women'. But there is also the chance that… because this is an industry, right? So, all sorts of organisations claim to sell pills, and then just steal women's money. Or send Paracetamol. Or delay… and the problem with delaying is that, the further you are into the pregnancy, the more expensive the abortion. The price doubles at 14 weeks, and more or less triples at 19 Malta is among the last European countries to have a total abortion ban in all circumstances. MARA CLARKE, founder of Abortion Support Network, argues that banning abortion doesn't save babies… it just drives poor people to desperation Throwing out the bathwater PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES BIANCHI Raphael Vassallo Raphael Vassallo rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt