Law students association GħSL has called for more clarity in the law on the liability of doctors when it comes to terminating a pregnancy as necessary healthcare, after a US woman was denied an abortion.

On Wednesday, the partner of an American woman carrying a non-viable pregnancy pleaded with health authorities to terminate the pregnancy, as he feared waiting for the foetus to die by itself would put her life in danger. 

Andrea Prudente, who is 16 weeks pregnant, travelled to Malta with her partner Jay Weeldreyer for a holiday earlier this month. However, her waters broke prematurely and doctors told the couple the pregnancy was no-longer viable.

However they refused to terminate the pregnancy because there was still a foetal heartbeat and Malta's laws ban abortion in all circumstances.

The couple were told doctors could only intervene if her life was at imminent risk. 

Prudente’s insurance provider deemed the situation "life-threatening" and airlifted her to Spain, where she is undergoing treatment. 

Malta is the only EU country that has a total ban on abortion in all circumstances. While doctors are said to locally apply the principle of 'double effect', whereby a foetus can be harmed as a result of treating the mother, this remains a disputed legal area.

“GħSL has been monitoring the situation of Ms Prudente who has been denied the necessary healthcare she requires,” the group said in a statement. 

“Signatory states of the European Convention of Human Rights are obliged to attribute the qualities of clarity, accessibility and foreseeability to their penal laws. On these foundations, this organisation urgently calls for legislative intervention to clarify the criminal liability of healthcare professionals to secure the highest standards of medicine and the fundamental principle of legal certainty.”

Jay Weeldreyer and Andrea Prudente were on their 'babymoon' when her water broke at 16 weeks. Photo: Jay Weeldreyer

However, in a statement sent to the media, pro-life group Life Network Foundation insisted the law is clear and that doctors have a legal and ethical obligation to save a mother’s life irrespective of the consequences to the unborn child. 

“Maltese law and medical precedent are absolutely clear: if a woman’s life is at risk from her pregnancy, then it is absolutely legal for her pregnancy to be ended by delivering the child, even if that child has a heartbeat, and even if the child will sadly pass away,” said OBGYN George Gregory Buttigieg. 

“This would not be considered in Maltese law or medicine as an abortion. As a Professor of Obstetrics, I have delivered babies prematurely in life-threatening situations and have never been worried about legal repercussions.

“To be clear: if a woman’s life is at risk from her pregnancy, she and her doctor will be afforded absolute protection from the law if the child is delivered prematurely. Whether the child has a heartbeat or is alive or not is irrelevant in this sense.”

Buttigieg added that whether premature delivery of the foetus is permissible comes down to the clinical condition of the mother and whether her life is actually at risk. 

“If it is not, then abortion would not be permitted, but nor would it be necessary,” he said. 

If the placenta has clearly been ruptured, then the law is clear that terminating the pregnancy is permitted, Buttigieg added. 

“Maltese doctors have delivered babies prematurely in many such life-threatening situations before and saved women’s lives. No change in the law is required for this.”

In 2020, GħSL published a position paper calling for the decriminalisation of abortion. The paper was criticised by some legal scholars who opined that it was flawed and one-sided.

Last week, a group of NGOs filed a judicial protest calling for the immediate decriminalisation and legalisation of abortion in Malta.

On Wednesday, pro-choice activists held a demonstration outside parliament saying that women should not be criminalised or imprisoned for having an abortion and argued that abortions should not be politicised.