Updated 2.14pm with PN reaction

Prime Minister Robert Abela on Sunday harked back to the Church’s interdiction of Labour supporters in the 1960s, framing a contentious abortion reform as part of Labour's struggle against "conservative forces".

Addressing Labour supporters, Abela said: “There are some who believe that they have a divine right to lead - that when they buried our forefathers in Il-Miżbla, they were invoking some divine right bestowed upon them alone.”

Commonly referred to as Il-Miżbla, the Maltese term for a rubbish dump, this section of the Addolorata cemetery was the designated part for the burial of interdicted Labour Party supporters during a conflict between the Church and the PL.

Under the Church interdiction of the 1960s, six Labour Party supporters and others deemed to have violated the Church's teachings were denied a Roman Catholic burial and interred on unconsecrated ground. 

It is one of the most sensitive topics among die-hard Labour grassroots supporters.   

Abela said just as it had done in the past, the PL is again pushing back against “conservative forces” 

Abela on Sunday dedicated almost the entirety of his address to the party’s contentious abortion reform.  

A bill that will make abortion legal when a pregnant woman’s life is at risk or her health is in "grave jeopardy" is being discussed in parliament.  

The amendments, first announced last month, are intended to free doctors and pregnant women from the threat of criminal prosecution if a pregnancy is terminated for health-related reasons.

Currently, abortion is outlawed in all circumstances and both the doctor and mother risk jail time if they go ahead with a termination, irrespective of the reasons why.

The reform is being opposed by the pro-life movement, the Church, and the Opposition.

A protest march is being held on Sunday in Valletta.   

Churchgoers are being read a message from Malta's bishops this weekend, urging them to oppose the reform. 

‘PN always against progress’

On Sunday, Abela asked whether anyone remembered a single social reform put forward by the PL that wasn’t met with a campaign of fear from those opposing it.  

Labour he said, presented progressive reforms because it believes in them.  

Those on the other side of the political fence are more interested in demonising victims and those suffering.  

Harking back to the debate over the introduction of divorce, he said there had been fear-mongering. 

The same was true over the introduction of same-sex marriage. 

“Because we know that more people allowed to raise a family, would lead to more people loving their family,” he said.  

Likewise with the introduction of IVF reforms: “They told us we were killing babies when what we were doing was helping people have babies”.  

“When we tried to help families have babies and address infertility, they dragged abortion.”

“Even when we discussed divorce, there was someone who told us that the Holy Mary had told them they were against it,” he said. 

More explaining to be done

He conceded that the government could still do more to explain the reform to the public and said this is what he would be doing in the coming days.  

“Abortion will remain prohibited and illegal,” he said. 

He said the government was not removing any clauses that make abortion illegal.  

anyone who said otherwise, he said, was not being honest.  

He said the question was a simple one: "Do you want doctors to be free to take the necessary clinical decision to save your wife, your sister, or your daughter’s life?"

Abela said Health Minister Chris Fearne had consulted medical experts in the field while the State Advocate had been roped in to look at the legal ramifications.  

The mother’s life, he said, is not the subject of political convenience or posturing.  

On the flip side, Abela said Opposition leader Bernard Grech was exhibiting “disgusting disrespect” towards women. 

He was referring to a speech before the House last week during which Grech appeared to mock Andrea Prudente, the US woman at the centre of the abortion reform.  

Earlier on Sunday, PL president Ramona Attard said the common denominator in the PN was opposing reforms and social progress.  

She said so many were feeling hurt by the way the national debate on this matter was unfolding.  

These women, she said, were survivors and the PL would be there for them.

PN: 'Hysterical' Abela is trying to trick the people 

In a reaction, the PN said Abela was trying to make abortion legal, despite having no electoral mandate to do so. 

Deriding his speech as "hysterical", it said that Abela should immediately withdraw the legal amendments from parliament. 

If he failed to do so, the PN said, he would go down in history as the prime minister who used trickery and anti-democratic means to introduce abortion to Malta.