Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/424604
23 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 30 NOVEMBER 2014 Opinion wait… Dead silence. Not a mention, not even a squeak, of the inevitable correlation between these two scenarios. Malta is actively pushing more women into situations where they may consider abortion… while simultaneously retaining a system which punishes those same women for taking the decision they were pushed into taking by the State in the first place. Which of course brings me to the third incident. This is how it was reported in the press: "A Tunisian woman, 30, was this afternoon given a suspended jail term after she admitted in court to having committed an abortion two weeks ago… [the woman] who is married to a Maltese man, was six to seven weeks pregnant and wanted to end her pregnancy. So she asked her friend to procure a cocktail of pills to end it because she had been told that it was going to be a stillbirth. She swallowed some of the pills and ingested others in a bid to end the pregnancy." (Interestingly, the news report removed an adverb from the last sentence: she had 'ingested' that second batch of pills through her vagina.) To the best of my knowledge, this represents the first case where a prosecution under Articles 241- 243 of the criminal code – which criminalise abortion, without actually mentioning the word – has resulted in a conviction. There were two other cases in recent history, and both were inconclusive. This appears to indicate a shift in police and judicial attitudes towards this particular crime. A law which had been gathering dust in Malta's statute books for decades has now been brought out of the closet and given a good dusting. A warning shot has been fired in the direction of mothers-to-be who may have felt that the law was fast asleep on the issue of abortion (as indeed it was until that sentence: I still remember a 2005 episode of Xarabank, in which an anonymous woman claimed to have been offered an illegal abortion at St Luke's hospital… a claim that was never investigated by the police.) And all along, the Maltese state also closes all the loopholes and limits all the options for the only category of citizen that this law actually affects. Something tells me, then, that cases such as the one described above are likely to become a good deal more frequent in future… whether or not they ever end up in court. This is clearly not a sustainable approach to such matters… especially if we're also going to insist on banning any discussion on the subject. Even if we accept that the overwhelming country is resolutely pro-life, and will remain so ad aeternam… it does not follow that there are no areas where our legislation on abortion needs updating at all. Why, for instance, are we not talking about the possibility of decriminalising abortion, as we are with drugs? I find it ironic that the present government considers itself 'courageous' for discussing drug decriminalisation… when there is no real political opposition to this initiative at all… while simultaneously lacking the balls to discuss any of the recommendations of the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the United Nations, etc.: all of which have been urging a reform of Malta's abortion legislation for decades. The Tunisian woman's case alone illustrates precisely where it needs amending. What, exactly, has society gained by sentencing that woman to two years' imprisonment, suspended for four? Apart, of course, from the usual titillation of the religiously obsessed, who (in Catholic and Islamic cultures, at any rate) always seem to get a kick out of watching women being subjugated? The usual response is that Malta's draconian anti-abortion regime somehow serves as a 'deterrent' which may save unborn lives. Well, in this case, it didn't save any lives at all. Not only was that woman (who admitted to the charge, if you'll remember) completely undeterred by the law as it stands today… but she even risked her own life to end the pregnancy: ingesting a 'cocktail of pills' that could – and very often does, in analogous cases –have dispatched her along with her unborn child. Clearly, if your circumstances are such that you would be willing to risk your life to end a pregnancy, you are hardly going to be put off by the prospect a two-year suspended sentence. The law therefore fails eminently in all its declared objectives: it does not save lives, and it does not deter crime either. All it succeeded in doing on this particular occasion is punishing someone for having taken a clearly desperate measure… at a time when the entire apparatus of the State is also informing that person that: sorry, babe, but you're on your own… Yet all along, as with drugs, abortion could be decriminalised without changing its status as an illegal procedure in this country. Removing the criminal penalties stipulated for mothers in Article 241 would not change the fact that abortion is illegal in Malta. No doctor, hospital or clinic would legally be able to provide the service; the only difference would be a tiny bit more compassion when dealing with unfortunate cases like the one described above. How is that a bad thing? A second point to discuss is the State's own responsibility in such desperate cases, which ought to go slightly beyond merely threatening vulnerable women with prison. I'll keep this one short and sweet: if you're going to insist on a blanket ban on abortion in all cases, then you're also going to have to assume full responsibility for the unwanted children who came into this world as a direct result of your policy. And (Edward Scicluna, please note) that means MORE benefits to single mothers, not fewer. But of course all this is spectacularly irrelevant, because the only important thing – as the PN's Convention of Ideas so recently reminded us – is that we continue to studiously avoid discussing the issue at all… for fear of annoying an all-powerful religious conservative mindset that neither of our 'courageous' political parties has the cojones to challenge. Such bravery. Such cojones… Removing the criminal penalties in Article 241 would not change the fact that abortion is illegal in Malta. No doctor, hospital or clinic would legally be able to provide the service; the only difference would be a tiny bit more compassion when dealing with unfortunate cases. 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