Women’s rights - Martin Scicluna

The newly elected leader of Alternattiva Demokratika (AD) recently used his inaugural speech to call for a parliamentary discussion on abortion rights in Malta. Building on what the Youth Parliament had said just before he became leader, Carmel Cacopardo underlined that abortion was a reality in Malta as scores of women were going abroad every year to terminate their pregnancies. Malta should stop pretending there was no problem.

Quite fortuitously, to add some substance to the views expressed by AD and the members of the Youth Parliament, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muiznieks, on a brief visit to Malta, expressed astonishment about the lack of debate about abortion in Malta. An expert in the art of understatement, he said: “Malta has one of the most restrictive regimes in the Council of Europe… it’s almost a taboo subject.”

Reflecting on the atmosphere of omertà that surrounded Maltese women’s “sexual and reproductive rights”, he added that women’s organisations were fearful of intimidation by pro-life activists or of losing public funding. A report just published by the Council of Europe calls for reform, specifically naming Malta and Ireland,...