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6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 MARCH 2022 OPINION 2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR Matthew Vella mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 11 DECEMBER 2022 Those who wage a 'culture war'... Editorial ABORTION is, by definition, already a sensitive and emotive topic in itself. But the debate surrounding this issue has so far served only to intensify all the emotions: without bringing any clarity (or, even less, rationality) to the discussion. A case in point is the Opposition's insistence that – by presenting a bill to amend Malta's abor- tion law, in the wake of the Andrea Prudente inci- dent last summer – the government is 'hell-bent on introducing abortion, at all costs'. This is disingenuous. In reality, this amendment is aimed at protecting the lives of women, in cases where childbirth could place their health in grave jeopardy; and also, removing the threat of impris- onment for doctors (and women) who have no option but to terminate a pregnancy in such cases; or risk serious harm to the mother. As such, it only provides a much-needed legisla- tive framework, to govern a practice which, essen- tially, could be occurring within our health service. Nonetheless, it should come as no real surprise that opponents of this bill have consistently dis- torted these facts. After all, the people on the frontline comprise a particular faction of Maltese society, which is steadfastly against openness or tolerance in many other facets of life, too. They include religious conservatives, Catholic traditionalists, American-style evangelicals, and also members of the political far-right: all of whom seem eager to reduce an issue that is intrinsically about healthcare, to another "culture war" being waged against so-called 'liberals'. Former Nationalist MP Edwin Vassallo, for in- stance, is now waging his own campaign against what he calls the "liberal, woke" agenda both inside the PN and within the mainstream media – chiefly MaltaToday and the Times – and has even called for a 'purge of liberals from the party'. There is also PN grandee Tonio Borg: who failed in 2005 to entrench the abortion ban in the Mal- tese Constitution; but succeeded in energising the Gift Of Life movement, and rubbishing his critics (and again, the press) as "the liberal elite". As of recently, Borg has been protesting against the equality bills tabled by the Labour government: claiming that they prevent Church schools from "advancing lessons on the beginning of life in bi- ology or the definition of traditional marriage." Another former MP feeding conspiracy theories that Andrea Prudente's life-threatening ordeal was 'contrived', is Jason Azzopardi. Then there are fringe members like evangelical preacher Gordon John Manché, who has peddled conspiratorial links on COVID-19; and believes Donald Trump was "breaking the build-up to the new world order"; as well as members of Malta's far-right who were also active in the COVID-scep- tic movement throughout 2021. Chiefly fronting the campaign is the Life Net- work Foundation, led by Miriam Sciberras: an ac- tivist who had protested against the introduction of gay marriage in 2017, as well as IVF rights for lesbian and single women; and who, in protesting the Equality Bill, says that "threatening people into compliance [with equality] is tantamount to brain- washing and Marxist indoctrination." All these opponents of the abortion amend- ment have many qualities in common: they are all against openness, the tolerance of differences, equality, if not the pursuit of happiness by people who are not like them; representing a world that is only defendable by strict orthodoxy – their own kind. In reality, however, one does not need to be "right wing" to oppose abortion; nor does be- ing pro-choice imply that one is, by definition, "pro-abortion". One merely needs to be in favour of viewing the life of a woman as equally 'worthy of saving', as any other life – including that of the un- born child, which (very often, in such cases as are being debated about today) cannot be saved at all. One must also understand that any proud culture of basic healthcare necessarily recognises abortion as a core service underpinning women's health and wellbeing; but Malta's punitive approach ham- pers the ability of doctors to provide life-saving treatment and does not even recognise women's autonomy to make their own decisions about their own bodies. This is shameful of an EU member state; and, moreover, incompatible with any party's alignment with 'European values' of liberty. Rather than supporting women's healthcare, these forces seem comfortable in maintaining a status quo that chooses the potential death of the mother, over a safe medical abortion. In this re- spect, the hypocrisy of doctors or activists who believe in WHO guidelines on COVID vaccination – but then, refute the same WHO recommenda- tions on reproductive rights and bodily autonomy – is galling. On closer scrutiny, one finds that the anti-abor- tion arguments hail from a Christian, politically conservative right that actually does not promote the common good, or the universalist values of 'healthcare for all'; nor does it fall in step with the European mainstream of strong welfare states, or the values espoused by the European Parliament: the same Parliament that is supporting Malta's slow build-up to return to its rightful rule-of-law. This is not the politics of hope, and certainly not that of reform. One can only ask, therefore, who is really promoting the culture of death in Malta: those who believe in universal healthcare, to the standards promoted by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists? Or those who feel comfortable with women being taken to the threshhold of death, to face the consequences of Malta's ideological ban on abortion? 9 December 2012 European Commission raps Malta over water pricing THE European Commission has rapped Malta for the absence of any tariffs on ground water extraction by farmers and for its failure to in- clude "the resource and environmental costs" in water pricing structures. This emerges from a European Commission report on Malta's Rivers Basin Management Plan, which is a requirement of the Water Framework Directive. The damning report on Malta's manage- ment of water resources was published by Alternattiva Demokratika in a press confer- ence last week. The inclusion of "resource and environ- mental costs" mentioned in the report would effectively mean that the environmental costs of ground water extraction by both private individuals and by the Water Services Cor- poration would have to be accounted for in water bills. By 2015, Malta must apply the Water Framework Directive which required EU Member States to take into account of the "environmental and resource costs" of groundwater extraction. In September 2010, MaltaToday had re- vealed that the resources ministry was "ex- amining a formula" to bill the Water Services' Corporation for the water it extracted from boreholes. But the additional bill was expected to "be offset against any costs incurred by the WSC to polish treated sewage effluent and the recharge of the aquifers," and cushion any impact on the price of water. Commission sources confirmed that "re- source and environmental" costs apply to both public and private extraction. Since ground water extraction contributes to the depletion of the aquifer, it has a resource cost. The report recommends that that cost-re- covery should address a broad range of water services, including ground water extraction by the agricultural sector and the treatment and discharge of waste water which is presently not accounted for in water tariffs. "The cost recovery should be transparently presented for all relevant user sectors, and environment and resource costs should be included in the costs recovered." ... Quote of the Week "If your sister or daughter faced a grave threat to their health due to an unviable pregnancy, what should we tell her? That 'wait... because some honourable Nationalist MP told us not to pass the law before Christmas!" Labour minister Miriam Dalli speaks in Parliament on the bill amending the Maltese abortion ban MaltaToday 10 years ago