Pro-choice doctors tell women to lie about taking abortion pills if hospitalised

Pro-choice doctors are advising women who need to go to hospital after taking abortion pills not to speak up and to fake disappointment at their pregnancy loss to protect themselves from being taken to court. 

Professor Isabel Stabile and Dr Natalie Psaila Stabile, from Doctors for Choice, said they knew of some three to four women each year who atended hospital due to heavy bleeding after taking abortion pills, and who reported being “badgered” with questions.

“We have heard stories about doctors asking: ‘did you take any pills or hormones?’ over and over again. Also, nurses inquiring whether ‘they did anything to themselves’," they said. 

"We also get calls from women who have not had abortions, saying that they had a miscarriage but hospital staff suspected an abortion, and they badger them with accusatory questions, which disturbs them immensely.”

On Thursday, a 28-year-old woman was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to having an abortion. The woman ended up in court after telling hospital doctors she had undergone a medical abortion. The case sparked an uproar with several MPs speaking out against the practice.

Following the incident, Psaila Stabile shared a Facebook post in which she listed steps to follow for women who think they are bleeding too much during an abortion.

The steps include calling Doctors for Choice for free help, not disclosing having taken abortion pills and appearing "sad, upset and disappointed" at losing the pregnancy. 

"I apologise for asking you to lie and act falsely, but this is the only way to keep you and your loved ones safe,” she wrote.

Psaila Stabile and Stabile told Times of Malta that "many" women contact them after taking abortion medication, asking whether their level of blood loss was usual. They said they assess such situations and ask the women to remain in contact by phone and visit their clinic.

“Very often, we manage to resolve the bleeding in this way. However, maybe three to four times a year, we have to tell someone to go to hospital because their bleeding is too heavy. And yes, we do tell them to act upset,” they said.

The reason does not impact the treatment

They added that haemorrhaging after a natural or an induced miscarriage is treated in the same way, with medical staff not required to understand the cause to provide effective management to stop the bleeding.

They stressed that patient histories and notes are accessible to other hospital staff including ECG technicians, receptionists and radiographers.

“The health minister today said that there needs to be a change in the law surrounding reporting. He needs to keep in mind that, if it only affects doctors and nurses, it won’t go far. There will also be family members and partners, exes who can still report,” they said.

Earlier on Friday, Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela called for changes in the law that allows doctors to disclose otherwise confidential information if they believe a crime has been committed, after a woman was given a prison sentence over an abortion.

Abela said he was “shocked” not only by the penalty handed down in the court case, but also because of its implications – that women’s health would be in danger if they feared seeking medical assistance.

While it has been over 25 years since a woman was jailed for abortion in Malta, prosecutions still occur, however; in 2023, one woman received a conditional discharge.

And in 2014, two women were handed suspended sentences for abortion-related charges.

Meanwhile, four of the seven abortions reported to police over the past decade were flagged by doctors at Mater Dei Hospital, with the revelation sparking debate about whether doctors are legally obliged to report abortions or if such reporting breaches professional confidentiality.

Lawyers speaking to Times of Malta called for clear guidelines to help doctors determine whether they should report abortions, warning the lack of policy was leading to subjective interpretation.

Abortion is illegal in Malta except when performed by doctors to save a woman’s life. But there is no explicit legal requirement for doctors to report abortion cases to the police, resulting in some doctors doing so and others not.

Charmaine Mangion, the chair of the Consultative Council for Women’s Rights, said the issue was separate to the debate surrounding the legalisation of abortion; “Rather, there is something fundamentally wrong in the way a woman seeking medical help can end up being penalised", she said.

"Such a scenario creates a dangerous path that threatens safeguards for both mental and physical health, as fear discourages people from accessing the care they urgently need.”