PM rules out introducing abortion, disagrees with suspended jail-term for woman

Robert Abela on Sunday once again ruled out the introduction of abortion in Malta.

Speaking during an interview on ONE TV by John Bundy, the prime minister said the government has no mandate to introduce abortion or hold a referendum on its introduction.

On Saturday, activists gathered outside the law courts in Valletta to once again call for the decriminalisation of abortion. 

Despite ruling out introducing abortion, Abela said he disagrees with a recent court decision which gave a 28-year-old woman a 22-month prison term, suspended for two years, for carrying out an abortion.  

Having delved into the case, Abela said the woman had not taken the decision to have an abortion “capriciously”.

The woman was admitted to hospital after experiencing pain, and informed doctors she had a medical abortion.

She was subsequently criminally charged by the police.

Abela said there were “alternative penalties” that could have been handed out to the woman, as is the norm in such court cases.

Family life

Abela promised that next month’s budget would offer “unprecedented help” for parents looking to start a family.

The prime minister said the government would be there to support people’s choices, be it to have one child or more.

He said financial considerations should never have to be an obstacle when deciding on the number of children one wants. The government, he added, would strongly tackle this aspect in next month’s budget.

He said that since 2020, the government had doubled the children’s allowance budget to €90 million. The in-work benefit budget had increased fourfold in recent years, he continued.

The prime minister said the debate on Malta’s dwindling fertility rate was not new, having also been a topic of discussion in the 1990s.

Finance Minister Clyde Caruana has called Malta's low fertility rate the "greatest challenge of our time." 

Construction and housing

Weighing in on the construction sector, Abela said politicians have a duty to speak out against certain developments that go against the interests of a locality.

He warned that the proposed development of a 13-storey block in Xlendi would engulf the area.

Abela said he had a duty to serve the interests of the people rather than of developers.

While saying he understood that developers would always try to maximise what they could get, it was then up to the Planning Authority to analyse whether a proposed development was in line both with planning policies and the aesthetics of the locality.

Abela criticised Opposition leader Alex Borg for failing to take a clear stance when questioned about the same Xlendi development.

When it came to housing, Abela ruled out scrapping the UCA scheme, which offers incentives for buying properties in village cores.

Abela said the government wanted to direct more people towards such properties, rather than building new ones. 

Transport and health

On the proposed metro system, Abela denied that the project had ever been scrapped.

While saying that in recent years the government had focussed on other priorities in the transport sector, studies for the metro system had continued.

He said the project as proposed by government consultants Arup would take 20 years to complete and cost €6 billion.

Seeing that the project would span multiple legislatures, Abela said both the government and Opposition need to agree on the proposed way forward.

The prime minister questioned certain aspects of the Opposition’s proposal for an overground tram system, asking if this would lead to the narrowing of roads and loss of parking spaces.

Turning to healthcare, Abela said a tender to extend the Mater Dei emergency department and build a new psychiatric ward needs to be awarded in the coming weeks.

The initial tender was cancelled earlier this year after the only bid submitted was dismissed as too expensive.