[WATCH] Over 60 doctors to file judicial protest over draconian abortion law

More than 60 doctors will be filing a judicial protest calling for changes to Malta’s strict anti-abortion law, gynaecologist Isabel Stabile has told MaltaToday.

Doctors will ask for legal changes to allow them to offer abortion if this is in the patient’s best interest.

Stabile said doctors live in fear of losing their medical licence. “They cannot perform necessary and sometimes life-saving medical procedures, such as abortion.”

The move comes in the wake of American citizen Andrea Prudente’s case that has sparked widespread controversy in a country where abortion is illegal without exception.

Prudente was on holiday in Malta with her partner Jay Weeldreyer when her waters broke at 16 weeks of pregnancy. Apart from losing all the amniotic fluid, Prudente also had a detached placenta, however doctors at Mater Dei Hospital refused to terminate the pregnancy because the foetus still had a heartbeat. Prudente ran the risk of bleeding and suffering from sepsis, a blood infection.

READ ALSO: ‘Why is Mater Dei putting my lost daughter above my partner’s life?’

She is now being flown out to Spain by medical ambulance where her pregnancy can be terminated.

“The existing scenario is unacceptable and contrary to international guidelines. Doctors should be free to make the decision which is in the best interest of their patients, whatever that decision might be. Doctors need to feel safe to do the right thing,” Stabile said during a live podcast on MaltaToday’s Facebook page.

Stabile said that in the most recent case the foetus, despite having a heartbeat, will not survive if delivered now or “even in six weeks’ time”. 

Doctors at the Maltese state hospital told Prudente they will not intervene until the heartbeat of the foetus stops or else labour takes place naturally.

“Right now, Andrea is stable but that can change anytime. She is currently on antibiotics but faces two risks. The first is infection (sepsis), which is exactly what happened in the case of Savita in Ireland. The second and possibly more likely at this point is profuse haemorrhage,” Stabile said.

She added that with the exception of Poland, in any other European country, a patient like Andrea would have been monitored closely and should the patient decide that they do not wish to continue with the pregnancy the uterus would have been evacuated.

“She would be told: ‘These are the risks, these are the complications, what would you like to do?’ And the patient would make the decision,” Stabile said. “This woman is alive, this foetus is also alive, but this foetus will die. Do we want two deaths on our hands?”

Stabile said pre-viable rupturing of the membranes is not a rare occasion with three or four cases a year. In cases involving Maltese residents with no option to travel abroad, these are left under “watchful waiting”, Stabile explained.

“In most cases the foetuses will die eventually and spontaneously miscarry. However, women in Malta, unless financially privileged enough, will not be able to be airlifted by air ambulance to go abroad to receive the necessary medical procedure. The last case of a Maltese resident who had a similar medical complication waited six weeks for the foetus’ heartbeat to stop,” she said.

Jay Weeldreyer, Andrea’s partner, described this ‘watchful waiting’ procedure as “torture” in comments he gave this newspaper yesterday.

Stabile called on women who need help accessing abortion to reach out to FPAS volunteers.

FPAS can be contacted on 2778 0037 or through online chat at the FPAS website. 

ADPD calls for abortion law based on common sense and empathy

Abortion should be legal to protect women’s health, ADPD chairperson Carmel Cacopardo said as he called for “common sense and empathy” to prevail.

Cacopardo said doctors are obliged to provide the best medical care to ensure the physical and mental health of women are guaranteed.

“It is unacceptable in 2022 that the Maltese State, parliament and doctors refuse to do what is acceptable in all the world: not putting women’s health and lives at risk because of a fundamentalist attitude bereft of empathy and sensitivity,” he said.

Cacopardo and ADPD deputy chairperson Sandra Gauci were present yesterday for the protest outside parliament by pro-choice groups in the wake of the saga involving an American woman who was denied an abortion despite the pregnancy deemed not viable by doctors.

ADPD called for a law that safeguards sexual and reproductive health that is based on commons sense and empathy.