Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1467182
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 MAY 2022 8 INTERVIEW Raphael Vassallo rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt 'Someone you love has had There seems to be a contra- diction in the local abortion debate. On the political level, the issue itself is clearly no longer such a 'red line' (as ev- idenced also during the last election campaign). And yet, pro-choice activists continue to receive death threats – in your own case, even targeting your children - suggesting that the situation may actually have worsened, at street-level. How do you feel about this? Would you agree, for starters, that the political landscape has in fact shifted, since your organization was formed? In general, yes… but only up to a point. First of all, I do think things are moving for- ward, on the whole. Since 2019, when Doctors For Choice was launched – together with oth- er NGOs – there has definite- ly been a change in the way we discuss the issue, on a national level. Abortion today has become a much more 'accepted', as a mainstream topic for political debate. It is clearly no longer the taboo it used to be, just a few years ago. So on that level, at least, we have taken a step in the right direction. At the same time, however, what Doctors For Choice also argue, is that we [Malta] follow all the international health- care guidelines, when it comes to every other medical issue… except this one. Diabetes; high blood pressure; cancer treat- ment; whatever the condition, there are clear international guidelines for how to actually proceed, from a medical point of view. Yet when it comes to repro- ductive healthcare… we are not following the same international medical guidelines. In fact, doc- tors are even told that we cannot follow them: because the law is so strict, that abortion is not al- lowed even when there is a risk to the mother's life… And this also means that we are simply not reaching the ac- cepted international standards, when it comes to reproductive healthcare. So to come back to your orig- inal question: the situation has certainly improved, in terms of how the issue is discussed lo- cally; but in terms of legislation, and accepted medical proce- dures in hospitals… things hav- en't changed at all. One thing that certainly has changed, though, is (ironically) the number of women seeking abortions in Malta. Recent sta- tistics suggest it may be well over 500 a year: and that only includes abortions in hospitals which publish that sort of data. Meanwhile, Doctors For Choice has been collecting testimoni- als from quite a few women, who are now clearly willing to go public with their own experi- ences. Doesn't this suggest that abortion – legal, or illegal – is already 'accessible' in Malta? Yes, but not to everyone; and not legally, either… which also means, 'not up to the standards required by international medi- cal procedures'. And, this only makes the situ- ation worse; not better. Because it's not just about whether abor- tion is 'available in Malta', or not. As you yourself said… it is. The reality is that people ARE accessing abortion: so long as they have the financial means to do so; if they can afford to travel; or if they have support at home, and so on. But women whose circum- stances, for whatever reason, are different – someone in an abu- sive relationship, for instance; or who can't afford to buy pills on- line; or who just left it too late, because she was surrounded by judgmental people, who made it impossible for her to even think of seeking help… those are the women who are affected by Mal- ta's total ban on abortion: not the ones who can easily afford to catch a plane. So there is also a social justice dimension to this issue. It's ul- timately about inequality: some women can access abortion; while others - very simply - can't. And this is, in fact, why we are arguing that abortion should be made safely accessible, to everyone equally… Do you think this 'inequality' factor might also be the driving force behind changing public attitudes? In other words: that – as was the case with the di- vorce referendum (albeit on a much smaller scale) – the social problems associated with Mal- ta's total abortion ban, are now becoming too conspicuous to ignore? I don't really think that's the way most people are looking at it, no. I think that what's really striking them – and what really made a difference, in the way we talk about abortion here – is… women's stories. When people started realising what women are actually being made to go through in Malta, because of the legal status of Despite being targeted by intense hate-speech (including death-threats), Dr NATALIE PSAILA, of the NGO 'Doctors For Choice', argues that people are increasingly beginning to realise that abortion is much more of a 'social' and 'medical' issue, than a 'moral' one