Parties bicker over free vote on IVF leave motion

After yesterday’s parliamentary vote the Labour Party has accused the PN of being on the wrong side of history while the PN has accused the government of ‘steamrolling over everyone’

A PN motion to repeal a legal notice granted leave to couples seeking IVF treatment was comfortably defeated in parliament on Wednesday
A PN motion to repeal a legal notice granted leave to couples seeking IVF treatment was comfortably defeated in parliament on Wednesday

The Labour Party has accused Nationalist Party leader Adrian Delia of going back on his word to grant MPs a free vote when parliament discusses moral and ethical issues, while the PN continued to today that the motion on IVF leave rejected by parliament last night was legal, and not moral, in nature.

In its motion – presented the same day Delia was sworn in as leader of the Opposition - the PN argued that a legal notice granting 100 hours of leave to anyone undergoing IVF treatment, should be repealed, on the basis that the definition of prospective parents in the legal notice was different to that found in the Embryo Protection Act.

The motion was defeated with 37 votes against and 21 in favour, with six PN MPs not being present for the vote, and effectively abstaining.

Addressing a Labour Party press conference earlier today, deputy prime minister Chris Fearne said that yesterday’s parliamentary debate had exposed the fact that Adrian Delia was leading a “divided party that was once again on the wrong side of history”.

Insisting that if the motion had it passed, it would have punished women who wanted to seek treatment for infertility, simply because they loved another woman, and not a man.

MP Glenn Bedingfield on his part, pointed out that Delia was meant to be giving a free vote on moral issues, although this did not materialize in Wednesday’s vote.

On the other hand, the PN once again insisted that the motion presented was purely legal, and was intended to allow PN MPs to vote according to their conscience when the amendments on the Embryo Protection Act are discussed in parliament

“What Joseph Muscat did through the legal notice on IVF, was tie Labour MPs’ hands, in order for them not to be at liberty to vote according to their conscience when the he amends the Embryo Protection Act,” said the PN in a statement.

“This is because Joseph Muscat chose to put forward a legal notice instead of amending the law.”

The PN argued that it was for this reason, that it felt the need to put forward a motion asking for the legal notice to be repealed.

 “[It was presented] so that Nationalist MPs remain at liberty to vote according to their conscience when the Embryo Protection Act is amended,” it continued, adding that if the Prime Minister wanted to change the law, it should do so by presenting amendments to the Embryo Protection Act rather than “steamrolling over everyone”.