Women’s lobby group shames politicians: ‘Women’s lives should not be put at risk’

Maltese law has failed Andrea Prudente and it keeps failing women time and time again, the Malta Women’s Lobby said on Thursday.

The group said women’s lives should never be put at risk irrespective of whether one agrees with abortion or not.

In a strongly-worded statement, the group said Prudente should not have needed to travel to Spain to terminate a pregnancy that was not viable and risked putting her health and life on the line.

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“Why is women's health always less valued and always questioned? Andrea Prudente shouldn't have needed to travel to Spain, she should have been taken care of here. She should have been given the medical services she needed to protect herself from enduring further health complications, trauma and possible death,” MWL said.

The lobby group also called out the abject silence from politicians as Prudente’s plight made international news headlines.

“It is also shameful that no politician has spoken out about this. Those in power have also failed her, as they have done with other women in the past,” the group said. “As a country, we must do better! No woman deserves to ever feel and experience the ordeal that Andrea Prudente and her partner have passed through.”

The case has recast the spotlight on Malta’s archaic and strict abortion law that bars abortion in all circumstances. Women who undergo an abortion and doctors who carry out the procedure face a potential prison term and doctors will have their warrant withdrawn.

Malta remains the only EU country to have a complete ban on abortion.

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