Pro-life groups want Prime Minister to oppose inclusion of abortion in EU rights charter

Two pro-life groups have written to the Prime Minister asking him to formally declare Malta’s opposition to the inclusion of abortion in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Life Network Foundation and Doctors for Life want the government to publicly oppose the European Parliament’s non-binding resolution to include abortion in the charter.

The pro-life organisations also want the government to make a clear statement that the matter of abortion will “always remain a matter to be decided by Malta and its institutions and no one else”.

The EU has no competence as to whether abortion should be legalised or not since this is a matter for the individual member states to decide. The European Parliament has often passed resolutions calling on member states to ensure access to safe and legal abortion for women is safeguarded.

In its latest resolution, the EP called for abortion to be included in the Charter of Fundamental Rights, something that can only be done if all 27 member states agree. But the EP also singled out Malta and asked for abortion to be decriminalised.

When Malta joined the EU in 2004, its Treaty of Accession emphasised that regardless of what the Treaties say, abortion will remain something to be decided by Malta.

The pro-life organisations said Malta had to ensure that “its sovereignty and mothers and unborn babies will continue to be protected”.

Malta is the only EU state where abortion is illegal with the only exception being if the woman’s life is in danger.