Real fear of prosecution

Unlike Giovanni Bonello (January 15), this busy gynaecologist does not find it demeaning to explain to the lay public that, while water may be wet, it may also be cold or hot or anything in between. Bonello is certain that, because no one has been legally harassed for participating in therapeutic abortions, this must necessarily mean that these abortions are regulated by other universal principles governing criminal law.

I’m afraid that, as a doctor, I cannot take his word for it. Can Bonello cite one case of anyone who, being accused of participating in a therapeutic abortion, was found not guilty because of a wider reading of the law? No doctor wishes to risk four years in prison plus being struck off the medical register.

I contend that the lack of prosecutions does not mean those who have to deal with abortions in therapeutic (life-saving) cases in Malta are necessarily as certain as he is as to their legality.

I invite him, as well as the

online anti-abortion commentators on his contributions, to step out of their privileged bubbles and face the reality of these clinical situations. Could I trouble their busy schedules to read the true story of Marion Mifsud Mora, who developed a fever after being admitted to Mater Dei in 2019 with preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) at 17 weeks of pregnancy, which is before viability?

Infection set in and, although she knew there was no hope for her baby, it seems that her doctors had no choice but to refuse her request to terminate the pregnancy because her baby still had a “faint heartbeat”. As her condition continued to worsen, she was evacuated by her travel insurance company in a medical jet to a private hospital in Paris. You can read the full story here: https://womenforwomenmalta.com/2019/09/26/welcome-to-womenforwomen/.

International medical protocols dictate that if there is evidence of severe life-threatening infection in PPROM before 24 weeks’ gestation, inducing delivery of the non-viable fetus (that is, an induced medical abortion) should be offered to protect the woman’s health from deteriorating and risk death.

Since Bonello is so certain that such a therapeutic abortion is not punishable under Maltese law, perhaps he can explain why this potentially life-saving treatment was not carried out in this case? Could uncertainty over the legal status of therapeutic abortions lead to such abortions not being performed when they should have?

It is easy for armchair commentators to pontificate about how the law plays out in the clinical setting but, in at least one case in Malta in the past few years (and I am aware of a number of others), a woman’s life and health has been put at risk because nobody would perform the therapeutic abortion she needed and wanted, probably out of fear that they would be prosecuted.

Isabel Stabile, obo Doctors for Choice – St Julian’s

Safety hazard

Should the usually chaotic roundabout be replaced with traffic lights? Photo: Jonathan Borg

The roundabout in St Julian’s, just up from Pendergardens with Swieqi on one side and the Regional Road/St Andrew’s road ahead, is becoming messier by the day. It is always super- congested with a flood of traffic exiting Swieqi (most drivers, as usual, not signalling their intentions) as well as that coming off St Andrew’s Road (same story with signalling).

Not to mention delivery vehicles and others, parked in front of the supermarket, whose drivers decide to clip across both lanes and turn right into Swieqi, without signalling or giving any warning.

It is superfluous to mention that the give-way-to-your-right rule is but a suggestion. When one does eventually exit St Julian’s for St Andrew’s Road, of course, the likelihood is of not having enough space behind a queue of cars in order to leave the intersection (tiny) clear. This, in a tiny roundabout, to boot. Would it not be appropriate to scrap the small pretend-roundabout and have a set of traffic lights instead? 

This way everyone knows: you either ‘Stop’ or ‘Go’, without pushing into a small space regardless of conditions and uncaring of risk. Or do we, as usual, need an accident first? Even a minor prang in such a location would cause massive blockage and inconvenience. Why not address it with common sense?

Anna Micallef – Sliema