Petition for EU abortion funding reaches target number of signatures in Malta

Updated 3.30pm with comments by Life Network Foundation

An EU-wide petition calling for financial support for women seeking abortion in countries where access is restricted has reached and exceeded the minimum number of signatures required in Malta. 

The petition, organised by European NGO My Voice, My Choice, calls for financial support to be directed to member states that offer abortion services, and to women in regions where abortion is unavailable. 

The proposal suggests a voluntary opt-in system, whereby participating countries receive EU funding to support the “solidarity measure”. It does not claim to harmonise abortion laws across the EU or interfere with national legislation. 

The petition garnered 4,410 online signatures locally, as well as dozens more on paper, going past the national threshold of 4,230. Only signatures by Maltese nationals count towards the local quota, with signatures by non-Maltese residents from the EU counting towards their own countries’ thresholds. 

Each country’s national threshold is calculated based on the number of Members of European Parliament a country has, which in turn reflects population size. 

The petition was started a year ago, with collection closing at midnight on Thursday and collected a total of 1.2 million signatures across the bloc, passing the legal requirement of one million.  

Belle De Jong, who coordinated the petition campaign in Malta, said she was initially highly sceptical about the prospect of reaching the threshold. 

“But somehow, with hard work and a lot of backlash, we got more than 4,400 people to sign in the EU’s most restrictive country,” she said. 

De Jong added that, beyond the numbers, the initiative is significant because Malta is the country most affected by the issue. 

“We’re the ones who are going to benefit the most from a fund that supports women who need abortions,” she said. 

The signature verification process is now underway across all member states and will take up to three months. Once completed, results will be submitted to the European Commission. 

The Commission then has three to six months to respond, either by proposing action or declining to act on the initiative. 

The proposal will also be formally presented to the European Parliament, where elected MEPs can debate and advocate for the initiative’s demands. 

My Voice, My Choice said the next step would be a shift from grassroots mobilisation to institutional advocacy, as organisers will push EU institutions to adopt a solidarity-based mechanism that guarantees access to abortion regardless of a country’s laws. 

Abortion is illegal in Malta, which has the strictest abortion laws in the EU and among the harshest worldwide. The procedure is only allowed in the country when a woman’s life is in danger and it has been approved by three different doctors. 

Women can face up to three years in prison for having an abortion, although this punishment is rarely meted out. In one of the most recent cases, in 2023, a court give a woman a conditional discharge.

Over the past decade, seven abortions were reported to the police, with four of the reports coming from Mater Dei Hospital. 

Every year, almost 600 abortion pills are ordered to Malta, while an estimated 300 to 400 women travel abroad to access abortion healthcare. 

‘Rude’ – Life Network Foundation condemns petition

Life Network Foundation on Friday called out the European Citizens' Initiative entitled “My Voice, My Choice” as “particularly rude” as it “directly attacks the voices, choices and expressed votes of Europeans”.

“The commission cannot accede to this request without seriously undermining the freedoms of citizens in EU countries,” Dr Miriam Sciberras, Life Network CEO said.

She added the petition was asking the EU to “fund abortion tourism, enabling women to go and have an abortion in a country that is more permissive than their own.”

“While abortion falls within the exclusive remit of the Member States, the legal protection of the dignity, right to life and integrity of every human being from the moment of conception falls within the remit of the EU. The embryo is the beginning of the development process of a human being ... To be consistent in the exercise of its competences, the EU should put an end to European funding of activities that involve the destruction of human embryos, particularly in the fields of research, development aid and public health,” Dr Sciberras said.

"This was the demand of 1.7 million European citizens united in 2014 by the One of Us citizens' initiative. This initiative remains unrivalled, with a budget 5 times smaller than the My Voice My Choice initiative. The Commission did not follow up. At a time when it is being presented with a diametrically opposed and manifestly illegal initiative, it would be a good idea for it to remember this request - and the choices made by all European citizens in defining its competences."

The One of Us European Federation brings together 50 NGOs from 19 European countries. Life Network Foundation Malta is a member of the One of Us Federation.