Rebecca Gomperts, the pro-abortion doctor of the ship Women on Waves fame, came and went. She did create a few waves but these were mostly directed in her direction and not in that of those who do not agree with her. She was invited to Malta by Dr Emy Bezzina who according to The Malta Independent, has proclaimed himself as an "intellectual revolutionary"! With friends like these, who needs enemies? The Times last Thursday told us that "only a handful" turned up for her talk in a Valletta hotel while photos show that a sizable crowd was outside protesting Gomperts' pro-abortion position.
The event was well covered by local newspapers. Three of them - The Times, The Malta Independent and In-Nazzjon - gave it front-page treatment. The Alpha Liberal Democratic Reformist Party - probably the only political party in the world that has more letters in its title than supporters - has never had and will never (probably) have more coverage for an activity it organised or will organise.
Pride of place among the coverage undoubtedly goes to the story written by Fiona Galea Debono on the front page of The Times, and the back page story by Ariadne Massa. The former covered the talk given by Dr Gomperts and the protest, while the latter covered the press conference. Both journalists gave us a good description of what happened, but within a context that needed better explanation.
It is not clear what Dr Gomperts wants to save us from. Does she want to save us from ourselves? Does she believe that our pro-life mentality is a minus which reduces us to humans of an inferior kind?
Faced with a negligible audience, she tried to blame it on some commotion that prevented people from entering the hall. As was pointed out to her, there was hardly anyone listening to her because hardly anyone was interested. Punto e basta. And the Maltese are not interested in Dr Gomperts or her message because they believe in the opposite message. The Maltese are pro-life and, one hopes, so they will remain.
Dr Gomperts tried to put our minds to rest. "Abortion is the safest medical procedure that exists." We guess that the aborted babies would tend to disagree.
The newspapers' reports projected quite a positive image of Paul Vincenti, chief executive of the Gift of Life Foundation. His dialogue with Dr Gomperts reproduced on the back page of The Times showed a man who was both assertive and tolerant. He stressed the important difference that had to be made in these cases: the issue not the person... our difficulty is with the message you bring, not with you. "We welcome you. We are sure you are a great person," Mr Vincenti told Dr Gomperts.
On the other hand, films shown on television give the impression that the crowd protesting against Dr Gomperts' pro-abortion message was mainly made up of middle-aged and older men and women. Hardly any young people were caught on the films we saw. We were not there, so we have to rely on what was shown.
The pro-life mentality is diffused in all age groups and socio-economic groupings. Several surveys show that our youths are pro-life as much as the other segments of the population. Is there any particular reason why they seem not to patronise the pro-life movement as those of an older age?
Last but not least... in actual fact, a number of Maltese - some say a few hundred each year - do go abroad to commit abortion. The drama of these persons cannot be put aside or forgotten. They need help and must be helped. Condemning abortion is just not enough.