The current debate on abortion, especially in the context of the new legislation, is problematic because it is largely based on misinformation and much of it, deliberate misinformation.

So, what are the scientific facts?

Much has been made of the possible scenario where a mother is at risk of dying during pregnancy. This is largely a myth in our health system.

I have been a pathologist for 33 years and there has never been a case during this time where a woman lost her life because an abortion was not performed for medical reasons.

My obstetrician colleagues will bear me out on this. There has been no case to our knowledge in living memory of such a scenario.

Clearly, a law to address this is, therefore, hardly a pressing issue.

Can medical complications cause a pregnant woman to die as a result of being pregnant?

Of course, extraordinary scenarios can happen and will continue to do so but these are exceptionally unusual cases and one has to struggle to find such cases in the literature. The most often quoted one is the case that Pierre Mallia mentioned in his article a few Sundays ago, where an Irish  woman died of sepsis following premature rupture of membranes in the second trimester.   

I would surmise that it is unlikely anyone reading this article will ever hear of such a case in Malta during their lifetime. 

What everybody fails to mention is that death due to sepsis following a medical abortion (and I am not referring to backstreet abortions here) is actually much more common than sepsis following spontaneous membrane rupture in early pregnancy. Maternal deaths during the first trimester, whether naturally or through medical abortion, are virtually unheard of.

Maternal deaths during the first trimester, whether naturally or through medical abortion, are virtually unheard of- James DeGaetano

An ectopic pregnancy is a potential risk to the mother in the first trimester. Management in such cases does not really fall under the umbrella of abortion. I have not come across a mortality in this circumstance in my professional career. 

Maternal mortality needs to be explained at this point. Maternal deaths have occurred and will unfortunately continue to happen.

Thankfully, in Malta, due to the excellent healthcare afforded to pregnant women, maternal mortality is one of the lowest in the world. There has not been a maternal death for the last 12 years and there has been a total of two in the past 20 years, unlike what has been published by pro-abortion lobbyists.

The crucial point here is that maternal deaths, in the overwhelming majority of cases, occur during childbirth or in the subsequent weeks (six weeks) thereafter and,  therefore, arguing for a medical abortion to save a mother’s life is not even an issue in this scenario.

In the rare instances where a mother’s life is potentially in danger towards the latter stages of pregnancy, the baby is delivered (naturally or by Caesarian section) and not aborted.

There are essentially no instances, medical or psychiatric, where a baby needs to be aborted in the third trimester to deliver the best health care possible.

Our health professionals have always delivered excellent medical care to mothers and this ambiguous law does not make sense except as a prelude to introducing abortion by stealth. 

James DeGaetano is a consultant pathologist.