Woman given suspended sentence for having an abortion
28-year-old told doctors she had stomach pain after she took abortion pills
Last updated 5.37pm with statement by the Voice For Choice Coalition
A 28-year-old woman has been handed a suspended jail sentence after she pleaded guilty to having an abortion.
It is understood that the woman bought abortion pills from the internet.
A court heard how in November 2024, she went to the hospital after experiencing pain, and informed the doctors she had a medical abortion.
She was subsequently criminally charged by the police.
Abortion is illegal in Malta, although changes were approved in 2023 that allow for termination if a woman's life is in danger.
Police statistics from the last ten years show four of the seven abortions reported to the police were flagged by doctors at Mater Dei.
Recent figures show that more women are receiving abortion pills at home, with 590 shipments last year, up 14 per cent.
It has been over 25 years since a woman was jailed for carrying out an abortion in Malta. In June last year, a woman charged with abortion was given a conditional discharge for three years.
The latest case involved a woman arraigned under summons. This time the court handed down a 22-month prison term, suspended for two years.
Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech presided over the court.Police inspectors Wayne Buhagiar and Ian Vella prosecuted. Legal procurator Peter Paul Zammit appeared for the accused.
Abortion should be decriminalised - ADPD
In a reaction to the judgement, ADPD said it was shameful that Malta was still the country with the toughest laws against abortion in Europe.
Party leader Sandra Gauci said that a case like this showed that while abortions were taking place, a woman in difficulties could not even trust her doctors.
This was a ‘witch hunt’ against women, which needed to end by decriminalising abortion immediately. "The life of a woman is important and has value," she said.
ADPD recalled that some years ago, the Labour Party's general conference had decided that when Labour was in government, no woman would be imprisoned or risk imprisonment because of abortion.
In keeping with this resolution, ADPD said it was challenging the government to grant a pardon to this woman.
Healthcare professionals must be told that they have no obligation to report abortion-related cases, coalition says
The Voice For Choice Coalition in another statement said that the court's decision was a recurring sign of systemic state failure – and of the complicity of institutions like the Malta Medical Council.
"The State has failed to repeal the law and decriminalise abortion. Instead, it clings to the hollow claim that 'women don’t go to prison,' as though suspended sentences and fear of imprisonment are a form of justice. This is not just spin – it is cowardice. Cowardice dressed up as pragmatism, driven by fear of losing votes and popularity," the coalition said.
"The government has said that women should not be criminalised. The opposition has also acknowledged that women should not be criminalised - a cross-party commitment is both possible and urgently needed – not just to stop prosecutions, but to stop pushing women and girls away from the very health system put in place to protect them - a health system they are just as entitled to make use of as the rest of us," the coalition added.
It insisted that if Malta claimed to value equality, healthcare, and social justice, abortion must be decriminalised – fully and immediately.
"Healthcare professionals must be explicitly and publicly informed that they have no obligation to report abortion-related cases. And the government must end the dangerous ambiguity it continues to enable," it insisted.