Joanna Delia:
'Nobody can
take your
kidney, but
the state
controls the
uterus'
6
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 SEPTEMBER 2026
INTERVIEW
ABORTION is banned in
Malta, yet Joanna Delia says,
the debate around it is still
framed as the woman against
the foetus—a contest over
who carries more value. But
for Delia, a doctor with Doc-
tors for Choice, this is not an
abstract argument; it is a dai-
ly encounter with women in
crisis.
One in four women in the
world has an abortion once in
her life, Delia says. In Malta,
she says, the number of wom-
en ordering abortion pills on-
line rose 11% last year alone.
Doctors for Choice figures
show 667 women received
pills in 2025, up from 590 in
2024.
"A doctor's first priority
should be the woman, her
body, and her physical and
mental health," she says.
Malta, like every other coun-
try, has more or less the same
rate of people seeking abor-
tion, she says. "It was there,
it is there, and it will remain,"
Delia adds, saying that those
opposed to abortion can keep
their opinion but have to un-
derstand reality and "stop
putting obstacles in the way
of women seeking care".
Abortion is already happening in
Malta despite being illegal, says
Joanna Delia of Doctors for
Choice. She tells Juliana Zammit
what the law does is force women to
hide and doctors to wait as politicians
play the game of populism with
women's lives
