Historic U-turn

This week saw the so-called abortion Bill approved unanimously by the House of Representatives. The approved law, in fact, signifies a most telling historic U-turn. In short Prime Minister Robert Abela decided to significantly change the law from what had been originally proposed.

The approved Bill is very different from the Bill that was originally presented late last year, and which would have originally allowed terminations when a mother's health was in ‘grave jeopardy’, without indicating what this actually means.

The revised version of the Bill was welcomed by pro-life activists, the Opposition and the Church; but it was condemned by pro-choice campaigners, who have accused the government of ‘betraying’ women.

President George Vella, who had declared that he would rather resign than sign an abortion law, had made it clear he was not happy with the Bill's original wording.

The new law allows doctors to carry out an abortion if a woman's life is at immediate risk or her health is in ‘grave jeopardy which may lead to her death’.

Terminations can only take place once all other treatments have been exhausted and the decision must be taken by three specialists except in emergency cases.

Even with this new law, Malta will still have one of the strictest abortion laws in the world and abortion will remain illegal under all other circumstances including rape, incest and severe foetal abnormalities.

Polls suggest that younger people in Malta are more amenable to be pro-choice than older citizens. As an old citizen myself, I feel that abortion should not be resorted to as a matter of principle. Yet, I acknowledge that there are particular circumstances when it should be morally acceptable, such as in the case of a mother carrying an unviable foetus.

From a political angle, I feel that Robert Abela’s administration was misled about the current mood about abortion. Otherwise the original Bill would not have been proposed.

Many were angry at what they perceived as the government’s blatant attempt to introduce ‘abortion by stealth’. The government’s argument that its original Bill was not intended to introduce abortion was undermined by pro-choice NGOs who referred to the Bill as one introducing abortion in limited circumstances.

Polls showed clearly that the majority of people - and the majority of Labour voters - were against the introduction of abortion in Malta. The pressure made by the President against the proposed legislation was also telling.

Robert Abela had no choice but to practically withdraw the original proposals by heavily diluting the effects of the Bill in order to avoid a political crisis that would only have led to Labour losing a lot of votes.

This is not the end of the story, however. I think that as more people in the older bracket pass away, abortion will become even more acceptable and eventually it will be introduced in Malta. Whether this will happen in my lifetime or later is for destiny to decide, but I have no doubt that the day will come when abortion is introduced even in Malta.

Freedom for artists

Last week I wrote that I smelled a rat when I heard of the announcement of a proposed Bill ‘to continue strengthening the freedom of artistic expression.’

Now that the Bill has been published, I can only regrettably confirm that my suspicions were on the right track.

The proposed law is discriminatory and makes a mockery of our constitutional right for freedom of expression.

The Bill which was published last Tuesday says it proposes changes to the law ‘to provide for the enhanced protection of artistic expression and in particular to provide for the avoidance of the misuse of the criminal justice system for the suppression of such form of expression’.

According to the two ministers - Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri and Culture Minister Owen Bonnici - freedom of expression will be protected and it will allow artistic, satirical or comic expression ‘which does not include any credible or realistic threat to the personal liberty or security of the complainant or to his property.’

The Bill also provides for the protection of whoever makes or publishes statements on an electronic communications network or apparatus, which will not be deemed as being offensive ‘if they are uttered or published as part of artistic, satirical or comic expression and do not include credible and realistic threat to the personal liberty or security of any person or to a person’s property.’

Is a satirical sentence in the middle of a serious newspaper article part of an ‘artistic, satirical or comic expression’? I don’t think it is. Hence it is not covered by the law.

During a press conference on Monday, Minister Bonnici said that the law has a wide application, and covers all that is said or published in the spirit of satire on any medium while Minister Camilleri said that the government aims to pass these amendments prior to the suspension of parliament for the summer recess.

‘We want to live in a country which embraces the liberty of artists,’ Minister Camilleri was reported as saying.

On the other hand, I want to live in a country which embraces the liberty of all its citizens.

Groundwater extraction

A recent study published in Geophysical Research Letters, a scientific journal, has shed light on the significant impact of groundwater extraction on the Earth's rotational axis and its contribution to global sea-level rise.

The Earth’s geographic North and South Poles are not fixed as the poles fluctuate due to variations in the Earth’s mass distribution. In the past, it was thought that the poles’ drift was only caused by natural forces like ocean currents and the convection of heated rock deep beneath the Earth.

But the study points out to the possibility that the redistribution of groundwater as the primary culprit for the drift. Groundwater pumping has tilted Earth nearly 80cm east between 1993 and 2010 alone. In that period, humans pumped 2,150 gigatons of groundwater, equivalent to more than 6 millimeters of sea level increase.

The findings emphasize the need to address groundwater depletion and its consequences on a global scale and underscore the importance of considering it as a crucial factor in analyzing Earth's rotational dynamics and rising sea levels.