Gift of Life accusations ‘political and malicious’ – Edward Scicluna

MEP and prospective Labour candidate Prof. Edward Scicluna has shrugged off insinuations, made by the Gift of Life Foundation on Mondya and repeated by PN newspaper Nazzjon today, that he had voted in favour of a resolution recommending abortion in the European Parliament.

Contacted yesterday, Scicluna explained that the vote in question concerned a raft of proposals and recommendations, all aimed at combating the spread of HIV/AIDS, in line with the Millennium Development Goals the EU is committed to reaching by 2015.

Of the 23 recommendations approved by the EP last Thursday, only one mentioned abortion by name, while another three loosely referred to 'reproductive health'.

Scicluna said that while he voted in favour of the motion as a whole, he registered objections to all the paragraphs concerned.

"The minutes of the session confirm that I voted against all four references," he said, adding that 'reproductive health' does not necessarily amount to abortion.

Asked to comment on the timing of GoL's criticism - Scicluna had only just confirmed his intention to stand as a candidate for the Labour Party at the next general election, and the same accusations were made in his regard on il-Mument on Sunday - he dismissed the concerted effort as a 'politicial and malicious' one that sought to associate Labour with pro-choice views.

"It is not a coincidence that this statement was effected within days of the announcement of my candidacy with the PL," he said.

Echoing Scicluna, former PL candidate for the European elections, Sharon Ellul Bonici. likewise confirms that GoL had resorted to similar tactics against her during her MEP election bid in 2009.  Ellul Bonici openly questions the foundation's true motives.

"Gift of Life are not credible in what they do," she argues. "If they really cared about the issue, they would actively lobby, like many other pro-life organizations, here in Brussels. But I never see or hear GoL activists actively trying to lobby for changes at EU level. They are only ever heard when Labour candidates are concerned: and then, their tactic is character assassination."

Scicluna and Ellul Bonici are not the only non-Nationalist politicians to have been targeted by GoL, which claims on its website to be a non-political organization. The foundation was in fact first introduced to a wider public by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, less than a year after taking over the PN in 2004.

At one of his (now defunct) Saturday morning press briefings, Gonzi publicly endorsed GoL's campaign to lift a ban on abortion straight of out of the Criminal Code, and entrench it in the Constitution.

Taken up enthusiastically by then Justice Minister Tonio Borg - who used his ministry's assets to conduct a personal media blitz to this effect - the proposal was resisted by both Labour leader Alfred Sant and Green Party chairperson Harry Vassallo. Just like the situation with Scicluna today, efforts were made to misconstrue this opposition as an expression of 'pro-abortion' views.

It is a pattern of behaviour that has been repeated ever since: individual politicians, journalists and other individuals who expressed disagreement with the entrenchment campaign have variously targeted as being 'pro-abortion'. At one point, Gift of Life CEO Paul Vincenti even published a list of prominent persons - including Dr Harry Vassallo, and also the undersigned - who were 'campaigning for the introduction of abortion to Malta'.

The list was removed only after the foundation was threatened with legal action.

GoL have since then repeatedly attacked prominent Opposition politicians: among them, Scicluna's colleague in the European Parliament John Attard Montalto (as well as Ellul Bonici, mentioned above), who went on to be re-elected despite a concerted smear campaign aimed at associating him with approval of abortion in cases of rape associated with military conflicts worldwide.

And just to underscore the essentially political nature of the foundation, Gift of Life even organized a prayer meeting on the eve of the 2008 elections, in order to pray to God for a 'positive outcome'.

Among the people invited to attend this prayer meeting by SMS was the undersigned, who respectfully declined the invitation.