Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1503087
6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 MARCH 2022 OPINION 2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR KURT SANSONE ksansone@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 • 2 JULY 2023 Bill 28: One man's moral code and another man's lack of spine Editorial PARLIAMENT'S enactment of Bill 28 effectively in- troduced abortion in the very limited circumstance where a woman's life is in danger. The only historical aspect about this Bill is that it ushers in the first change ever done to Malta's other- wise blanket ban on abortion. Short of giving women the right to full bodily au- tonomy by introducing abortion – something the government has no mandate for – Bill 28 could have been much better. In its original format, it also allowed doctors to terminate a pregnancy if a woman's health was in 'grave jeopardy'. Unfortunately, in its final incarnation Bill 28 qualified the words 'grave jeopardy' by limiting them to circumstances that 'may lead to death'. Additionally, three doctors would have to decide on a termination instead of the woman and her doctor. No matter how you look at Bill 28's final make up, it is radically different from what was originally proposed last November and which was assiduously defended by Robert Abela, Chris Fearne, Jonathan Attard, Rebecca Buttigieg and other Labour MPs. This leader, however, is not about Bill 28 – we have written enough about its medical and health impli- cations on women. This leader is about the process through which government ended up going down a radically different road than the one it had promised, while insisting that it committed no U-turn. Robert Abela was adamant on more than one occa- sion that his government was not going to budge on the principle that a woman's health should be pro- tected. He said this publicly in interviews, when ques- tioned and unprompted during party meetings. When push came to shove, he did exactly the oppo- site; he did a U-turn. Now, Abela may have his reasons for finally opting for a different road. He is entitled to change his mind and see things differently. After all, that is what he is being asked to do by the environmental lobby – change his mind on how he views construction as a crucial cog in Malta's economy. Abela will not be the first and last politician to change his mind. History is replete with U-turns. The problem here is that Abela's U-turn remains unexplained and to add insult to injury he continues to argue that the final rendition of Bill 28 does not depart from the very same principles he assiduously defended until recently. It is intellectually dishonest to say that the protec- tion of women's health if the situation may lead to death is the same as safeguarding women's health without qualifying it in any way. The two situations are not comparable and yet we still had the Prime Minister and others in Cabinet who fronted this Bill saying otherwise. The situation leaves us questioning whether Ab- ela sleepwalked into the first version of Bill 28 not knowing its full implications only to realise when the pushback arrived – something we find hard to believe given his character trait of getting involved in the nitty gritty of legislative drafting – or else did not have the guts to withstand the conservative backlash. At the end of the day, Abela ended up giving his political opponents a moral victory because the final version of Bill 28 is almost similar to what some doc- tors had suggested initially. But on a more politically significant note, Abela appears to have subjected the sovereign will of a dem- ocratically elected parliament to the moral code of President George Vella. Malta's democratic system does not give the presi- dent legislative powers, and neither does it give the of- fice the right to stop or send back legislation. Indeed, the Constitution makes it incumbent on the president to assent to legislation as quickly as possible. The President's Manual published by former president Ugo Mifsud Bonnici is currently the only guideline of sorts to go by in helping us interpret the Constitution. It clearly states that a president who has moral problems with a law that comes before him has only one choice - resign. The president cannot substi- tute parliament's will with his own. Vella threatened to resign if Bill 28 in its original format came before him. It would have been unprec- edented. Clearly, Abela was unwilling to push through with the reform when faced with this predicament and went as far as negotiating the best way out of this impasse with the president. In doing so, Abela created a precedent of his own. It is a pity that such an important reform, intended to safeguard women's lives and health, had to end up scuttled because of one man's moral code and another man's lack of spine. Women deserve better than being sabotaged by two men and their follies. One final reflection is about the women in parlia- ment. Throughout the debate that took place over the past year or so on abortion, the voices of women MPs were relatively absent, especially from the Labour benches. This leader believes that women MPs, especially those who understood the importance of the abortion reform, should have presented a unified front on this issue and spoke out in public about their expectations. They should have continued pushing for the original wording of the Bill and even if their arguments fell on deaf ears they should have qualified their vote in fa- vour of the amended Bill with a declaration. Today, these women are sulking in the background, ruing a missed opportunity as they are made to toe the government's line even though it leaves them uncomfortable. It is telling that the only woman to speak out was Rosianne Cutajar, who today sits as an independent MP. 2 July 2013 State wanted out-of-court settlement on Armier TALKS between the representatives of the ille- gally erected boathouses in Armier Bay and the government almost led to an out-of-court settle- ment when the Lands Department attempted to repeal an eviction order which was being con- tested in court, MaltaToday has learnt. Tarcisio Barbara, the director of Armier De- velopments Ltd, which represents owners of the boathouses, told MaltaToday that an attempt by the Commissioner of Lands to have court proceedings stopped could not be entertained by the court of Judge Anthony Ellul, who this week green-lit the eviction of 12 boathouses. ADL was contesting the eviction of the boat- houses in a court action against the Lands De- partment after the Mellieha Local Council de- manded the eviction of those obstructing access to the bay. The attempt to stay proceedings hints at a new direction by the Labour government to sanction a portion of the boathouses, which - in Barbara's words - can be considered to be "environmentally sound" and evict all the other boathouses built in historic and environmental buffer zones. Barbara in fact said the government is opposed to a plan forged by the previous administration in 2003 to hand over 230 tumoli of land to ADL on a 65-year lease against an annual Lm157,000 (€350,000) payment. "The government doesn't agree with rebuilding the boathouses. We are not stamping our feet either, because we are ready for alternatives. It seems the government's policy is to allow us to keep boathouses that are 'environmentally sound' and to remove those are not structurally sound or built on historic sites," Barbara said. Asked to comment as to the government's strategy on Armier, Parliamentary Secretary for Planning Michael Farrugia confirmed the ongo- ing talks between a government delegation and ADL, but said that he was "not excluding any- thing" for a solution to the illegal boathouses. Asked whether the government was consider- ing a sanction of the so-called "environmentally sound" boathouses and scrapping abusive con- struction around historic and environmental buffer zones, Farrugia said he would not confirm this. ... Quote of the Week "I, like many, feel the new amendments are not enough, as they do not give women the peace of mind they deserve. Even worse, they make the vulnerable woman's life even more complicated." Independent MP Rosianne Cutajar after parliament approved watered-down amendments to the Criminal Code that allow abortion if a woman's life is at risk. MaltaToday 10 years ago