Lawyer files protest against Equality Commission, comparing it to abortion lobby

One lawyer has taken it upon himself to defend the interests and rights of unborn children against “every violation of their right to life," by taking legal action against the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality for its position on the debate on whether to legalise use of the morning-after pill.

Tonio Azzopardi filed a judicial protest against the commission this morning, calling on the entity to desist from giving support based on “scientifically and legally incorrect considerations.”

The court action is a reaction to a recent declaration by the commission which stated that lack of access to the morning-after pill could be discriminatory.

In the judicial protest, the lawyer condemns the declaration as “scientifically, legally and factually mistaken.” He also hit out at the Women’s Rights Foundation, which he claimed, was “intentionally hiding the fact that life begins with conception” by denying personhood to the embryo in the first 15 days of life. A statement that the foundation had issued to that effect was built on “mistaken information,” reads the protest.

Somewhat patronisingly, the lawyer then went on to say that the commission “also lacked the knowledge of what amounts to discrimination, and therefore much less a breach of fundamental human rights.”

“Experts in the human rights field consider the right to life as prevailing over every other right,” argued the lawyer, adding that European human rights case law had established this “elementary concept.” 

He likened the commission’s arguments in favour of the pill’s introduction to those made by the pro-abortion lobby, adding that “the faulty arguments had led the organisation to think that nobody is prepared to face them and fight in favour of human life and defend these voiceless creations.”