Malta is standing firm against European pressure to impose abortion on the traditionally Catholic pro-life nation.
Dunja Mijatovic, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, has demanded that Malta legalise abortion and outlaw conscientious objection to abortion on the small pro-life island.
Mijatovic said: “It is time for the authorities to repeal provisions criminalizing abortion, develop comprehensive regulation of women’s access to legal and safe abortion and improve the availability of sexual and reproductive health services.”
The Commissioner added that the right to conscience of medical workers should not extend to abortion – “safeguarding access to health care in the light of refusals to provide care on grounds of conscience” – meaning that they would have no right to refuse participation in abortion.
Mijatovic also compared Malta’s current ban on abortion to torture.
Rejecting Mijatovic’s demands, the Maltese government stated that it “does not agree with the interpretation that the right to sexual and reproductive health services includes an intrinsic right to abortion.”
Last month, French President Emmanuel Macron called for the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights to include abortion, following the election of Roberta Metsola, from Malta, to be president of the European Parliament, distinct from the Council of Europe.
Reportedly pro-life, Metsola said she would not stand in the way of the Parliament’s “unambiguous and unequivocal” pro-abortion agenda.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “This is not the first time that Malta has withstood a siege. In this case, a deplorable pro-abortion European agenda masquerading as ‘human rights’ seeks to rob the Maltese unborn of their humanity.
“Like Poland, brave Malta is one of the few pro-life outposts in Europe resisting this gross parody of rights that forsakes the human rights of unborn babies. Malta has the right to determine its own laws on this matter, which must be respected.
“SPUC stands with both Poland and Malta in this ongoing struggle.”
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