'The Maltese are losing their moral code,' government whip warns

Maltese society is "losing its moral code", according to government whip Godfrey Farrugia who this evening in parliament reiterated that the emergency contraceptive - more commonly known as the morning-after pill - was an abortifacient.

Farrugia, a family doctor by profession, also urged the Medicines Authority to rethink a guidelines booklet on the use of the morning-after pill. He went as far as accusing the authority of including factually incorrect information that was not in the public interest.  

Speaking in parliament about "violence against the unborn", Farrugia said the pressures of modern day life were causing Maltese society to slowly lose its moral compass.

“We are forgetting the moral code we have always cherished, that moral conduct that has always distinguished us,” the Haz-Zebbug MP said.

Farrugia sat on the parliamentary committee that eventually agreed to recommend that the morning-after pill should be dispensed against a doctor's prescription. It also recommended that a licence should be issued by the Medicines Authority only once a rigorous assessment of the emergency contraceptive pill is carried out.

He went on to quote a 2011 scientific paper co-authored by the then president of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynaecologists which states that ulipristal acetate – the active ingredient in Ella One – can prevent the implantation or kill an implanted embryo. He said that the text made it clear that the EllaOne pill was abortive.

Farrugia said the Medicines Authority was “conveniently assuming” that pregnancy starts between five and 15 days after conception, the moment the embryo is implanted, criticising the United Nations for taking this position and “agreeing with abortion”.  

“How can we have an organisation that is constantly speaking about Global Development Goals, but which then forgets certain virtues and the right to life, a universal right that overrides any civil right, even a woman’s right over her own pregnancy?” Farrugia asked.

Farrugia added that in having the morning-after pill available over the counter, the country is adopting the flawed model employed abroad in countries where “people do not have access to a doctor and are therefore forced to consult directly with a pharmacist”.

He questioned what would happen in cases where the morning-after pill is needed in the early hours of the morning, when pharmacies are closed and warned that people might start trying to purchase emergency contraception as a precaution.

Farrugia concluded by saying that he was proud to be pro-life and reminded the Speaker that all living persons were once embryos.

“Mr Speaker, how can one be an environmentalist and not be pro-life?” he said