Updated | PN’s pro-life offensive: voters should know European socialists favour abortion rights

Both the Labour and Nationalist parties have said they are against the introduction of the procedure but civil society groups are determined to push the matter to the top of the national agenda

Billboard in Triq Sajjied
Billboard in Triq Sajjied

The Nationalist Party has erected a pro-life billboard on Saqqajja hill to remind people that European Socialists’ favour abortion.

The first billboard to be erected, shows a new born baby with the words “I have a right to life”.

Over the last year, the PN has repeatedly insisted that it will protect life from conception till its very end, having on several occasions accused the government of wanting to introduce the procedure. The Labour Party has insisted that it has no mandate to introduce abortion.

READ ALSO: PN candidate casts first stone over abortion reference in socialists’ manifesto

Asked about the billboard, a PN spokesperson told MaltaToday that the surveys showed that 97.3% of the population is against abortion. The spokesperson added that this also included youth, a majority of whom were also against the procedure, he said.

The excerpt from the European socialist's manifesto that refers to a person's right over their body
The excerpt from the European socialist's manifesto that refers to a person's right over their body

Despite Labour distancing itself from any pro-abortion position, the PN spokesperson noted that the billboards were intended as a reminder to the public that the European Socialists’ manifesto for the upcoming European Parliament elections approved of abortion.

The spokesperson said this was “something the European People’s Party’s manifesto does not endorse because it embraces European values”.

The party will be erecting a number of other similar billboards around the island, the spokesperson added.

While both parties have categorically stated that they had no intention of introducing abortion, Malta’s civil society has recently taken it upon itself to place the issue on the national agenda.

Last March, a coalition of NGOs under the banner Voice for Choice, launched a big to legalise abortion. The NGOs are campaigning for the decriminalisation of abortion and advocating for laws which ensure that there are no barriers standing in the way of people accessing sexual and reproductive health and rights.

A group of doctors last week launched a similar initiative called Doctors for Choice calling for “safe, accessible, comprehensive, evidence-based reproductive healthcare in Malta”.  

PN so desperate it is trying to sow divisions - Labour

Reacting to the billboard, the Labour Party accused the PN of being so desperate that it was trying to sow divisions where there were none.

“The fact that the PN is again speaking about abortion, as it does whenever it is lacking in ideas, shows how detached from the reality it is,” the Labour Party said.

It said that it was clear to everyone that abortion remained the competence of the individual member state and that the Labour Party’s position was against. 

“Adrian Delia would do well to have a look at what Tonio Borg had replied when asked about it before being made European Commissioner,” Labour concluded.