Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1513668
3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 DECEMBER 2023 Looking back 2023 70 kilometres new underground cables in six months New and upgraded substations Stronger connections f rom substations to customers Preparing for new distribution centres public inquiry, he exited Castille an hour after the Sofia vigil had come to an end, on- ly to be booed by the stragglers leaving the protest. The partisan haters took the bait, but then, no prime minister should ever allow himself to be willingly humiliated in public... Abortion Abela's previous decisions are what seem to eat into the foundations on which he could otherwise build a stronger legacy. In what had to be Labour's most radical inno- vation in its historical record of upholding civil liberties, the administration announced Bill 28, a law to allow doctors to effect ter- minations on women when pregnancy is endangering their health and life. The law traced its roots to the case of Andrea Pru- dente, an American tourist who was forced to transfer to Spain after needing an abor- tion while on holiday in Malta. Prudente started miscarrying and despite being told by doctors her pregnancy was not viable was denied an abortion. Back in November 2022 when the Sec- ond Reading stage of Bill 28 started in par- liament, Abela and several other Labour MPs made a whole-hearted defence of the proposed amendment, especially the aspect that spoke of protecting women's health. The underpinning argument was that Prudente and women in her predicament should never be allowed to reach a stage where their life is put at risk before doctors could intervene. But seven months down the line govern- ment backtracked on its core principle to protect women's health, despite the rheto- ric saying otherwise. The revised wording of Bill 28, which became law in 2023, will not solve the dilemma created in the Prudente case – consultant obstetrician and gynaecol- ogist Mark Sant had said. Public defence of MPs, before acting Reacting to public backlash, Abela was forced to act on MP Rosianne Cutajar over her relationship with magnate Yor- gen Fenech (accused of masterminding the Caruana Galizia assassination) at a time when the MP was suspected of secretly ben- efiting from the Tumas CEO's largesse. Even when found guilty of an ethics breach by the Standards Commissioner over the Mdina property sale, Cutajar was allowed to contest the 2022 elections on the Labour ticket. But it was only in 2023 after her private WhatsApp chats with Fenech were pro- duced in a defamation lawsuit against Mark Camilleri that her position became untena- ble. Only two weeks before, Abela was de- fending Cutajar, to the extent of calling the publication of the WhatsApp chats, "mi- sogynistic", and arguing that the MP had already shouldered political responsibility when she resigned as Parliamentary Secre- tary in 2021. Abela seemed to now think that the MP's infamous "pigging-out" comment in the chats merited the MP's expulsion because of the public backlash against her sense of entitlement. feelgood era, costly u-turns Robert Abela met Jean Paul Sofia's parents to announce the public inquiry (Photo: James Bianchi / MaltaToday)