A small group of pro-choice campaigners gathered in front of parliament in a sit-down protest calling for MPs to debate a private member's bill to decriminalise abortion.

The group of around ten activists, carrying placards saying "women should decide their own fate" and "my body, my choice" sat in a row outside the Valletta building on Wednesday evening.

In an unprecedented move last week, Independent MP Marlene Farrugia presented a bill proposing that a woman is not penalised for having an abortion, which currently carries a maximum three-year prison term.

However the House Business Committee, which decides the agenda of the House, has so far failed to list it for debate. A request for abortion to be discussed within parliament's Health Committee has also been rejected. 

Maya Dimitrijevic, from the group known as Young Progressive Beings (YPB) said the sit-down protest to "keep up pressure to ensure the issue is discussed at parliamentary level in spite of the major political parties' stances against the abortion bill."

PN leader Bernard Grech has said the party can never back the decriminalisation of abortion, while the governing Labour Party has also come out against the bill, saying it "chokes debate".

The group of activists wore handcuffs “to directly portray the reproductive oppression manifested by Malta’s highly restrictive laws”.

The group argues that having an abortion does not make a person a criminal, and that “women who’ve had abortions should not go to prison for undergoing a medical procedure”.

“We know that there are over 300 women a year who seek an abortion in Malta, and these women are not criminals. They are workers, mothers, sisters and daughters,” Dimitrijevic stated.