Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1546781
The following has been edited for brevity and clarity. The full interview can be found on maltatoday.com.mt as well as our Facebook and Spotify pages. PHOTOS: JAMES BIANCHI / MALTA TODAY 7 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 SEPTEMBER 2026 INTERVIEW Those against abortion say a doctor's main duty is to save lives, and that abortion goes against the medical oath. How do you respond to this argument? I hardly need to answer, because every international board and body that regulates or advises doctors, including the World Health Organisation and the Royal Colleges of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in London and Edinburgh, does not see the foetus as the life we should prioritise. They draw on science and research, not on opinions or emotions. So, the doctor's priority is to look after the woman, her body, and her physical and mental health. We keep insisting the foetus is something innocent, and the woman is almost guilty. In truth, the life is the woman's own, and that of the people who love her and whom she cares for. Those are the people we, as doctors, take care of. If someone approaches you and says, "I'm against abortion, and you're killing a baby", how do you see it? I see the woman, and I see what she needs, physically. The word "baby" is misplaced here. We say "foetus" because there are various stages, and that's how we describe them scientifically. I'd like that person to shift their focus to the woman. Everyone knows someone who has had an abortion. Statistically, one in four women in the world has an abortion once in her life. In Malta, the number of women ordering pills online went up by 11% last year alone. It's more than 600 people. Many did it because the doctor told them the foetus wouldn't live until birth or would die soon after being born. Others were already in a very difficult situation, had children, and were at great risk of mental health problems. Our first obligation is to protect the person going through this health crisis. How should a doctor act when a patient arrives at the hospital after taking the abortion pills alone and is experiencing complica- tions? A notice was issued by the Medical Council, which regulates doctors' conduct. It says there is no obligation to make reports in these cases. Our first priority is that the patient in front of us is in good health and that we help her in every way we can. I have no doubt that for the most part this is already done. The risk of problems afterwards is very small. But even if it's two in 100, that means one person a month or every two months will seek help. These people should feel comfortable, and the Medical Council has now shown that we have to protect them and that they won't be reported. In practice, does the ban on abortion limit your ability, or that of another doctor, to give full medical care to their patients? Absolutely. No other country in the European Union decides that a woman's uterus is an organ that falls outside bodily autonomy. No doctor can say, "The prime minister needs a kidney, and yours matches, so we'll take it from you". Nobody can take it from you. But the state currently controls what happens inside the uterus. We've seen cases in the media of a foetus that had already died, but doctors had to wait several weeks. Or a pregnancy causing a problem that could kill the woman, where they have to wait until the foetus dies. It's as if, in this case and only this case, we remove the woman's agency to make a choice about a part of her own body. It's the only case where three professors have to agree on what happens. It ties doctors' hands a lot. I have no doubt that every one of them wants to see that woman healthy and alive. Public opinion has changed. A MaltaToday sur- vey recently showed that 43% now want the prison sentence removed for wom- en who have an abortion, but 41% still want doctors sent to prison. Why do you think people show more sympathy toward women, but not toward doctors? People are realising that abortion is happening, and that they may have had a sister, mother, daughter or aunt who needed one. Many know someone whose baby died 10 days or two weeks after being born. So, I'm glad they're feeling empathy for these thousands of women. Obviously, there's still some anger, where you put your moral clash and ask how a woman can get to that point. So, they direct some of that anger at whoever provides abortion. But it takes two to tango. Most terminations are done with pills, so there's no doctor's intervention at all. Doctors for Choice has been campaigning since 2019. Seven years on, what do you think has changed in the way people think about this issue? The situation has changed immensely. We're talking about a number of women every day, not someone we happen to meet once every six months. When you go online, you see these soldiers of morality who, frankly, should be ashamed, especially of the language they use. But people are talking, and stories are coming out. You even see people using their names. They're helping each other. Malta, like every other country, has more or less the same rate of people seeking abortion. It was there, it is there, and it will remain. They can keep their opinion, absolutely, but they need to understand reality and stop putting obstacles in the way of women seeking care. When parliament removed the health exception from Bill 28 in 2023, do you feel it had a big impact? We aren't a lobby asking for anything special. We simply want Maltese women to find the care that exists in the rest of Europe and the world. Many policy decisions in Malta are made in a populist way: "If I do this, they'll keep voting for me." I'd like whoever leads the country to rise above that and understand they're there to use the responsibility in their hands to improve people's lives, even if those decisions don't look great to the majority. Many people in Malta are against abortion. Con- sidering that, if not full legalisation, what are you concretely trying to achieve? The first step should be a good sex education system that is up to date, immediately. My children are almost finishing secondary school, and the word 'sex' was never even mentioned. We need people who teach it scientifically, not based on morality. The second step is to face reality and decriminalise abortion, or at least decriminalise it, meaning we remove the punishment and the prosecution. If we don't, the authorities are being hypocritical. If they truly wanted to put 600 women in prison, they could go today and do it. The prime minister once said that if he's in office, no woman will get a prison sentence. Legally, he can't say that, because he doesn't decide who goes to prison. But by saying it, he shows willingness, and we know he is moving slowly so that the persecution of these women stops. If we move on these two avenues, we'll reduce much of the suffering these thousands of women go through. Our aim is for them to find the care they need safely, without suffering, judgement, or persecution.