MP calls for legislation on reproductive rights

Nationalist MP Michael Asciak called on parliament yesterday to discuss and enact laws on reproductive rights.

Speaking during the debate on the Gender Equality Bill, Dr Asciak observed that although artificial reproduction was being carried out in Malta, a legislative vacuum existed in this area other than licence conditions. For example, there was no legislation on the rights of women who underwent this process, such as when they could stop it. Nothing was said in legislation about control over hyper stimulation of ovaries and women were not told of the potential danger of this method in some cases. Nothing was said about the use of fertilised eggs.

Again, there was no legislation in Malta to ban the choice of sex of a baby.

Dr Asciak regretted that science in Malta was not on the same firm basis as abroad. The people's culture was oriented to business and the humanistic professions rather than pure science. Matters were not helped by the way science was discarded by the education sector in the 1970s.

He suggested that parliament should debate an environment science policy and an education science policy.

The House should also discuss and adopt conventions of the bioethics committee of the Council of Europe.

Earlier in his speech, Dr Asciak paid tribute to women who held their careers in abeyance while they tended to their children at home, saying this was major sacrifice which needed to be commended.

He said that women who chose to go out to work should enjoy equal rights as men.

The setting up of the equality commission in terms of this bill should discourage gender discrimination and provide redress.

Hopefully it would also discourage sexual harassment, which existed at places of work. He knew of it also having existed at the University at the time he was a student there, causing severe stress to the victims and causing them to leave their medical and nursing courses. He hoped that this bill would lead victims of harassment to report what was happening so that the necessary action could be taken. They should not suffer in silence, but should seek the help of counsellors and the new commission.

Earlier in the debate, Labour MP Carmelo Abela said there had to be political will for the promotion of measures aimed at bringing about gender equality.

The bill was not exactly what the opposition would have liked to see but it agreed with the proposed measures in principle even if it would act to improve the law when in government.

Apart from equality between the sexes one also had to guard against discrimination based on age.

In order to change the prevailing mentality one should first focus on the country's education system. Apart from laws, concrete action had to be taken, such as through gender mainstreaming.

At places of work women needed to be protected from discrimination and inequality.

Mr Abela referred to sport, saying this could serve as an opportunity whereby women could make a bigger contribution to society. In Malta, women unfortunately did not participate as much as they should in sport.

Labour MP Noel Farrugia paid tribute to the role of women in agriculture.

Mr Farrugia spoke on the increased incidence of smoking among women. He observed that many woman worked in the tobacco industry in Malta. While a variety of farmers' produce in Malta would not be eligible for EU assistance should Malta join the EU, tobacco grown in the EU was subsidised by the EU, despite its negative impact on health. Maltese taxpayers' money would therefore be funding tobacco subsidies.

At the same time, imports of tobacco by Malta from non-EU countries would carry a higher tariff than at present, creating competition problems for Malta's tobacco industry.

Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono said the government promoted equality not only between men and women, but among all members of society. That was why it had enacted the Equal Opportunities Act and the provisions against discrimination in the new employment law.

Mrs Debono regretted that to date, only 34.3 per cent of full time workers and 13 per cent of the self employed were women. Hopefully this bill would lead these figures to rise.

The bill, she noted, banned employers from discriminating on the basis of gender in recruitment. The bill also banned gender discrimination in education and in the granting of banking facilities. The latter measure, she said, removed obstacles which may have hindered women from working as self-employed.

Dr Jean Pierre Farrugia (PN) welcomed the way gender matters were being given increased importance in the national curriculum and in sports.

He said more remained to be done in the case of gender equality in children's books.

He thanked God he did not have daughters, because girls had fewer opportunities than boys to participate in sports.

Dr Farrugia regretted that the opposition was including abortion in the EU debate. He observed that the whole Christian democratic group had recently voted against a resolution on divorce in the European parliament, but that motion had found the backing of the socialist group.

Christian democrats argued that abortion could not be an absolute right of women since the process impacted directly on the right to life of the unborn.

Parliamentary secretary Jesmond Mugliett spoke on how the education and sports sectors had evolved to offer equal opportunities to boys and girls.

Up to a few years ago, home economics was only offered to girls despite the fact that the course content was applicable to all sexes.

Discrimination had existed in trade schools, where women were taught needlework and men carpentry, welding and other subjects. Educational institutions, including MCAST, now did not discriminate.

The issue of women's involvement in science, Mr Mugliett said, was a problem in many countries and he was not worried that there were less women than men involved in the sector.

On women and sports, Mr Mugliett admitted there could be discrimination in this area. For example, not all football clubs admitted women, a matter which had to be seen to.

He said the government was investing heavily in sports facilities for use by both men and women. He, however, would like to see more women involved in sports not just as players, but also as coaches and administrators.