Editorial

Abortion was brought up with a certain insistence in the European Union membership referendum campaign. Despite repeated assurances that it would not be binding on governments, the No camp made much of the fact that a resolution approved a short time before by the European Parliament had recommended that information and assistance on abortion, as one means of population control, be made available by governments in all candidate countries.

The Labour camp in Malta had played on fears that a part of Malta's contribution to the EU budget could eventually find its way to EU programmes for assisting women in third world countries to carry out abortions.

Eventually, although it was not strictly necessary, because the European Commission or other EU institutions have no competence in such matters, which fall strictly under the jurisdiction of national governments, Malta succeeded in obtaining a specific protocol in its EU membership package to the effect that the Maltese Parliament alone has the last word on abortion legislation in Malta. Despite this, anti-EU elements within the MLP continued to sow doubts in their efforts to undermine the Yes vote. That they failed to do so is a tribute to the electorate's maturity.

It is established therefore, that both major political parties in Malta are against the legalisation of abortion, which is rightly seen as the killing of an unborn child who certainly is not to blame for the mother's predicament, no matter how sad this may be. Yet abortions continue to kill innocents in Malta too, with, according to one estimate, one a week - about 50 a year - carried out on Maltese women by abortionists abroad.

Malta's House of Representatives recently gave a second reading to a Bill to appoint a Commissioner for Children. Abortion did not feature much in the debate, although at least one Labour MP, former Health Minister Michael Farrugia, did say that the child should receive protection even before birth.

Two lay religious organisations - the Social Assistance Secretariat (SAS) of the Malta Catholic Action and the Cana Movement - on June 18 published the text of a memorandum which they addressed to all Members of Parliament, specifically on protecting the unborn child. They note that the definition of "child" does not specifically include the unborn child, who therefore will not fall under the competence of the Commissioner for Children. The memorandum notes that some 4,000 children are born in Malta and Gozo every year.

The definition of "children", "boy" and "girl" in the Bill, which now goes into committee, is given as "any person which has not yet reached majority."

The SAS-Cana memorandum asks: Is the foetus a person? It recognises that although, in legal terms, the unborn child is not universally considered to be a person, yet it notes that according to an article written by Labour MP Josè Herrera in Il-Gens some two years ago, the unborn child in its mother's womb, under our Civil Law, already has its legal rights protected for inheritance purposes. This could be done, according to the memorandum, by considering the child, in the law's definition, as a person from the moment of conception.

Yet, despite the lack of general agreement on whether the foetus is a person, there is no doubt that there is the widest political consensus in the Maltese Parliament that the life and other rights of the unborn child in its mother's womb should be protected. Hence our MPs should not find it difficult to extend the Commissioner of Children's jurisdiction to unborn children, who should benefit from such protection, which need not only be against abortion.

One must consider, for example, the effects of physical, mental and emotional damage caused by heavy drinking, drug-taking and tobacco smoking by the parents during conception and pregnancy. Such damage could cause permanent harm and disability to the child.

After all, as the memorandum notes, among the Commissioner's obligations is that of "promoting the welfare of children and keep continuous control on the conditions in which children develop".

It is a question of priorities, surely, and in the light of the importance given to abortion and the parties' stand against its legalisation, particularly during the EU referendum debate, the strengthening of the Commissioner for Children's role in this regard would make perfect sense and prove that our politicians can follow up their words with deeds.