‘I am sure I will be judged’ - Woman on mental torture to end unviable pregnancy

A Maltese couple, who had to fly to the UK to terminate an unviable 17-week pregnancy after being told that their much-wanted baby girl would soon die, have spoken about the mental “torture” they had to endure as they waited for the inevitable to happen naturally in Malta.

The couple described how they battled their feelings of ingrained guilt to head to the UK to terminate the pregnancy as the woman’s mental and physical health deteriorated. The pregnancy could not be terminated in Malta due to Malta’s blanket ban on abortion.

“I’m sure I will be judged. But, unless you are the one carrying a dying baby, it’s easy to say: ‘she should have waited it out’. But I also now know that unless you’re in it, you won’t know the emotions it brings along. It is a pain I’ve never felt before,” said the woman.

Three weeks after the ordeal, Jane (not her real name) is still emotionally fragile and is aware of the public backlash that will certainly come with such a story – the type of resentful comments made like the case of the US couple who, in June, spoke up against the Maltese healthcare system which refused to terminate an unviable pregnancy in Malta.

Andrea Prudente was 16 weeks...