Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1151507
17 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 4 AUGUST 2019 INTERVIEW weeks… These are among the things we try and help people with when they call… because in most cases, people who call us will be in a complete panic; they would have just found out they're pregnant… and they won't know what their op- tions are. And the options in- clude parenting, too. We love it when, sometimes, a caller calls back in three weeks, or three days, to say, 'You know what? I've decided to continue the pregnancy, because talk- ing to you made me realise I have options. I'm not trapped. And now that I realise I'm not trapped, I want to have the ba- by.' That's fantastic... Coming back to calls from Malta. Reason I asked about numbers is because there is a perception that this is a very 'niche' issue that only affects a handful of people a year. Do you think that part of the reason Malta can persist with a total abortion ban, is simply that the demand is so low it can be conveniently ignored? The numbers may be small, but it would only take one case to end in tragedy… like the Savita Halappanavar case in Ireland. But for me… I don't care how small the numbers are. It could be just one person. And it doesn't even make sense to talk about a 'total abortion ban'… because your law doesn't stop abortions from taking place. It only hurts poor peo- ple… poor, marginalised peo- ple: including refugees, by the way. What options does a refu- gee in a detention centre have, when faced with an unwanted pregnancy… possibly the result of rape? How are they going to travel? So, let's stop pretend- ing that the law stops abortions from taking place. Another thing is that: there aren't even any family planning consul- tancy services here. We have to fund pregnancy option coun- selling in England… because there's literally no place here that we can send people to get unbiased information… The Savita Halappanavar case was raised locally as a possible scenario that is not catered for by Maltese law. Would you say it was the turning point in the Irish pro- choice campaign? Yes, in the sense that it got more people to question their own opinions on the issue… but it was not the first case of its kind in Ireland. In 1995, a 14-year-old girl was raped. Her parents wanted to take her to England for an abor- tion; and the government said 'no', because back then it was not legal to travel for an abor- tion. Meanwhile, the girl was threatening to kill herself. So the case went up to the Su- preme Court, then the Euro- pean Court; and the ruling was that Ireland had to legislate on abortion in cases to save a woman's life. Twenty-three years later, they did. But only after the death of Savita Halap- panavar. We know that there were other deaths, but Savita's family and friends were will- ing to come forward with what really happened. The fact of the matter was that her preg- nancy was not viable. She was a medical practitioner – a den- tal assistant – and knew she was unwell; she asked for an abortion; and they wouldn't let her have one because there was still a heartbeat. They waited until she got septice- mia, and died. They priori- tised an unviable foetus over a living woman. Savita Halap- panavar had moved to Ireland with her husband because she thought it was a better place to raise a family… and Ireland killed her. But that's not actu- ally where it all kicked off. The summer before, one of the an- ti-abortion groups had put up billboards saying: 'Abortion tears her life apart – there is always a better way.' A group of four very brave women, who had all travelled to Eng- land to abort in cases of severe foetal abnormality, came out and said: 'Do you know what? There isn't a better way, actu- ally…' They talked about what it's like, to be hugely pregnant, and to have people coming up to you, going: 'Oh my God! How exciting! Is it a boy or a girl?' And having to tell them: 'No, I'm going to have a dead baby…' Also, some of these women had other children: how do you explain to your children that, 'Oh yeah, I'm going to give birth to your dead brother or sister…'? And there were Irish politicians – not all, of course, but a few – going around saying things like: "But you can't be a 'real mother', unless you give birth to that baby and watch it die in your arms…" [Pause] But how can anyone make that decision for those women? This is what it all boils down to, really. If you got pregnant tomorrow; of your wife, or your 12-year- old daughter… who would you want to take that deci- sion? You? The Pope? Donald Trump? The local priest? You hear that sort of argument here, too. The religious answer would be that 'life is a gift from God' (and that includes the life of the severely abnormal foetus); a more secular version would be that the law should offer protection to all lives, including the unborn. How do you respond to those arguments? At the end of the day, I'm a parent; I'm a person of faith; I attend services regularly; I believe in God; and I don't believe God would punish a woman for making the right decision for her and her fam- ily. But even if you do believe that… then, let God judge her. This idea, that 'you know what you would do…' No, you don't 'know what you would do'. Because the number of times we have been called, and told things like: 'I was totally pro- life… until.' 'I was completely against abortion… until.' Un- til my wife, and the mother of my children, got cancer… and we were told she couldn't have chemotherapy because of the harm to the baby. Un- til our 14-year-old daughter got raped. Until my husband killed himself, and left with me with five kids I can't afford to feed. So those other people who can afford to make all these 'anti-abortion' procla- mations… they're lucky. I envy those people… because they don't know what it means, to need an abortion and not have anywhere to turn. But I live in the dark. At Abortion Support Network, the calls that we get are from people who are in the dark. Like that mother of four, who wanted to crash her car to cause a miscarriage, but didn't want to kill herself to be able to take care of her four other children. It's chilling. But I also think that a lot of people who call themselves 'pro-life' are actually pro-choice. Be- cause pro-choice doesn't mean 'everyone has to have an abor- tion'. It just means that you believe the decision is for the individual to make, and not the government. That's all we're saying. The stigma around abortion only hurts poor and vulnerable people. And it hurts families, too. Because people facing unplanned pregnancies are going to hide. Do you really want your daughters, your girl- friends, your nieces, and eve- rybody else, to feel so shame- ful, and alone, and desperate… that they're going to call com- plete strangers in England for help, instead of turning to you? Do want your own family and loved ones to feel they can't confide in you, because they're too afraid? Those are the ques- tions I'd ask… bathwater with the baby Most people, if you really question them, are usually OK with abortion in some circumstances. But then, their issue is not so much with abortion, in itself: it's with judging the woman for her behaviour