Nationalist MP Therese Comodini Cachia is “vociferously” against her leader’s decision to oppose a legal notice granting 100 hours of leave to same-sex couples and infertile women seeking IVF treatment abroad.

Dr Comodini Cachia said she hoped Adrian Delia would keep his word in granting a free vote on issues of morality.

“I am sure Dr Delia acknowledges the sharp differences in opinion on this issue, even though it deals with employment conditions, and that he will keep his word and allow a free vote,” the former MEP said.

Dr Comodini Cachia, who has already voiced her dissent to the PN’s position internally, said she knew how difficult life was for couples with infertility problems. Their wish to have children was genuine and their suffering very real. It was such suffering that often led them to seek treatment abroad, she said.

She said the 100 hours of leave being offered by the government was just a small concession granted as a measure of social justice.

Dr Comodini Cachia said she was in a small minority within the Nationalist parliamentary group in arguing against the party’s opposition to the legal notice. “This is a legal notice about leave, not about whether one can or cannot undertake medically-assisted procreation abroad. How can I, as spokeswoman for employment, be against a measure that safeguards the health of the employee,” she said.

The Embryo Protection Act prohibits same-sex couples from being given access to medically-assisted procreation. Dr Delia said on Sunday the legal notice granting such rights to same-sex couples seeking treatment abroad was not in line with the law. The PN, he added, was merely seeking to eliminate a legal anomaly.

Dr Comodini Cachia admitted she was not taken in by such a legal argument, pointing out that the leave was being granted for medical treatment being undertaken lawfully abroad. She argued that not only was the treatment lawful but it was also done in line with the ethical and legal safeguards established by the applicable foreign laws.

Dr Comodini Cachia said the legal argument also jarred because Maltese laws now recognised marriage between couples of different sexual identities as well as different types of intimate relationships and different family compositions.

“Once conception exists, who am I to make a distinction with regard to its protection based on whether the medically-assisted technique used is that allowed in Malta or in other countries,” she said.

The couples involved often tried several methods to conceive, often risking their own health, she noted, pointing out how psychologically, emotionally and physically draining the process often was.

“To me it is only a measure of social justice that, as employees, they are allowed this small concession to safeguard their health and their well-being at the workplace as well as the viability and health of the child that has been conceived”.

Dr Comodini Cachia said she was sure that, in what were very private and intimate matters, Maltese children were conceived with the use of scientific techniques that were only lawful abroad. The method of conception, she went on, was irrelevant because what mattered was that the children were healthy, loved and cared for.

Dr Comodini Cachia said there was no law that would stop or even encourage couples with a genuine desire to have children from seeking the use of lawful techniques, even if they needed to go to other countries to do so.

“I believe their sincere desire and their suffering is why they seek medical assistance abroad and not because of 100 hours of leave,” she said.