Abortion, lies and truth – Ranier Fsadni
There are lies you tell and lies you live. In telling a malicious lie, you harm others. In living a lie, you harm yourself as well as others. Both kinds of lie feature in the accusations exchanged over the bill proposing an amendment to our anti-abortion law. Without sorting out these two kinds of lies, we cannot even hope to have the truth we need to deliberate the bill properly. The Labour machine says it’s a lie to declare that the bill will introduce abortion. Strangely, however, the bill’s public supporters speak of it as a partial decriminalisation of abortion. Indeed, it’s a key reason why they declare the bill an improvement over our current law. The 108 Socialist and Green MEPs who wrote to Robert Abela praised the bill as “a step in the right direction when it comes to protecting the fundamental rights of women…” They clearly understand it to be more than just a clarification of current practice. So does the Council of Europe’s Human Rights Commissioner, Dunja Mijatović. Like the MEPs, she thinks we’re getting abortion on narrow grounds. The Maltese supporters agree. The National Commission for the Promotion of Equality strongly supports the tabled amendments to what...