For standing up for unborn babies’ right to life, Malta is being accused of cruelty toward women.
In a report Monday, Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic demanded that Malta legalize abortion on demand and curtail conscience rights for pro-life medical workers, according to the Malta Independent.
“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,” Mijatovic wrote.
She likened Malta’s protections for unborn babies to torture and claimed its pro-life laws deny women basic human rights.
Mijatovic also advocated for restricting the conscience rights of medical workers who refuse to abort unborn babies. According to the Independent, her report called for “safeguarding access to health care in the light of refusals to provide care on grounds of conscience.”
The Maltese government quickly rejected Mijatovic’s recommendations. Responding to her report, the nation’s leaders affirmed their support for sexual and reproductive health services but rejected the notion that these services include an “intrinsic right” to abort an unborn baby, according to Malta Today.
They pointed out that their pro-life laws do not put women’s lives in jeopardy. According to the report:
… in its reply to the Commissioner’s remarks, government noted that there have been no registered maternal deaths or complications following abortion over the past 10 years.
Government insisted that no person requiring treatment is ever denied treatment or turned away. “Should the mother’s life be in danger, all efforts are made to save both lives, and the double effect principle applies (such as in ectopic pregnancy).”
Maltese leaders also emphasized that Council of Europe member states have the right to make their own laws about abortion.
“Whilst Malta is fully committed to providing access to reproductive healthcare, and is working to improve these services, … Malta does not agree with the interpretation that the right to sexual and reproductive health services includes an intrinsic right to abortion,” the government responded. “It remains Member State competence to decide whether abortion should form part of a range of sexual and reproductive health services at a national level, in accordance with the ICPD Programme of Action.”
Malta has resisted international pressure to legalize abortion for years. In 2013, pro-abortion groups also accused Malta of “torture” because its laws protect unborn babies’ lives. The accusation came from the International Commission of Jurists, a human rights organization, in a report to the Human Rights Council. It also claimed Malta is unnecessarily endangering women’s lives by prohibiting abortions.
Until recently, a number of European countries protected unborn babies by prohibiting abortions. However, Ireland abandoned its pro-life laws in 2018 and Northern Ireland was forced to legalize abortion 2019 by the British Parliament.
Abortions are illegal in almost all cases in Poland, but Malta is the only European country that fully prohibits abortions.
HD Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?
Dr. Miriam Sciberras, chairwoman of the Life Network Foundation Malta, in an interview with LifeSite, described the pressure campaign being waged against the Pro-Life stronghold.
Malta’s position as a “sanctuary for life,” according to Sciberras, is a result of a “very brave solitary stand” taken by “past and present political leaders, who in spite of multitudes of political pressures have always maintained our right as a sovereign country to defend life from conception.”
“The deliberate killing of unborn children in their mother’s womb by abortion in any form is illegal in Malta, as is homicide,” she said.
“We face intense media pressure that markets abortion as a basic choice that needs to be available to women,” she continued. “This dishonest portrayal of a procedure that involves eliminating a life as choice ignores the gruesome truth of what the abortion procedure does to the pre-born child and the trail of blood left behind.”
“Selective amnesia ignores post-abortion trauma on the mother, father and other family members as they struggle to ignore the reality of the loss,” she explained. “It also selectively ignores the biological reality of pregnancy which is that there are at least two lives involved, both with their right to life.”
“Their call is to destigmatize abortion so that women who have had abortions can be made to feel comfortable with their abortion,” Sciberras described. “The campaign of ‘my body, my choice’ is an appealing call to arms for young teenagers who have not really thought much about what this actually means.”
“Political correctness holds hostage politicians who defend life from conception,” she maintained. “A post-truth society, which is the one we inhabit now, is no longer convinced by truth or science, but is manipulated by social media and marketing strategies.”
Sciberras went on to insist that “the tight grip of the culture of death vultures on the EU institutions” and has caused a “historical amnesia” in the European alliance of nations.
“EU institutions were set up in the aftermath of World War II, when the evidence came out of abuse, torture, infanticide, human experimentation, eugenics, and outright genocide. Yet, we ignore, worse still legalize the genocide of infants in the womb, and in some countries also sanction the infanticide of children with disability,” she asserted.
“World-wide, we are in desperate need of politicians who will courageously defend life without compromise,” Dr. Sciberras added. “One day the truth about human life will be acknowledged and the God-given right to life and human dignity will be recognized. Until that day, prolife movements need to continue working threefold: supporting pregnant women and other vulnerable groups, educating the public on life issues, especially youths, and being a voice for the vulnerable in the public square.”
Generations of men and women have, through Biblical ignorance, been convinced by a godless world that such evil is acceptable. With a large percentage of churches silent on this important issue, many remain uninformed about what the Bible says about life in the womb.
Through the Bible we know:
- We know that life begins at conception (Psalm 22:10, Psalm 139:13-16, Jer. 1:5)
- We know each of us is made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27)
- We know factors such as ethnicity, deformity, and gender do not determine a person’s right to life (Gal. 3:28, Acts 17:26, 1 Sam. 16:7)
- We know poverty, rape, inconvenience, and shame are not valid excuses to end a human life (Exodus 20:13, John 8:44)
- We know child sacrifice, the murder of innocent children “pollutes the land with blood” (Psalm 106:38-39)
- We know God hates hands that shed innocent blood (Proverbs 6:16-19)
- We know abortion is a sin to be repented of and there is forgiveness through the shed blood of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:1-5, John 3:16, Isaiah 53)
Ken Ham, reporting on the rising acceptance of abortion worldwide, explained that as “our culture fights for the right to end lives,” it is the duty of the people of God to “stand on the authority of his Word” and stand for the sanctity of life.
