The argument about abortion is an argument we need to have, away from the emotion of individual cases and with respect to all people who have an opinion about abortion.

Shutting people up is not the way to conduct any argument about any subject, least of all abortion. Furthermore, asking questions to clarify what the abortion lobby really means is hugely important.

Some of those who agree with abortion will immediately say I am a man, I don’t have a vagina, so I have no right to an opinion about abortion. It’s a ploy the pro-abortion lobby uses to shut up half the population. Taken to its logical conclusion, it means that in a referendum about abortion men wouldn’t have the right to vote.

Shouldn’t we rather respect each other and argue civilly and respectfully in full freedom? We were all fertilised eggs, embryos and foetuses once, so we could all have been victims of abortion, which would have taken away our very ability to live.

Away from emotive slogans and arguments about the specific case we had a few weeks ago, the pro-abortion lobby needs to be asked: at what stage of pregnancy do you believe abortion should be legal? Before 35 weeks of pregnancy or 25? 15? 12?

This question about ‘when’ is related to the pro-abortion lobby’s repetition that abortion is some kind of fundamental ‘right’. Now, in many countries abortion after the 12th or 14th week of pregnancy is actually a crime. Assume the abortion lobby in Malta would agree that abortion would not be illegal before 12 weeks of pregnancy. So how can an abortion that would logically be a crime at 13 weeks be a fundamental ‘right’ at 11? If there exists a fundamental right, it is the fundamental right to live, not to terminate life.

The countries that have ‘introduced’ abortion treat it as not illegal if it is carried out before a certain period of pregnancy.

That institutes an exception to the rule that abortion is wrong and illegal but it certainly doesn’t make abortion a fundamental ‘right’.

In fact, many countries, even those where abortion is not illegal before a certain number of weeks of pregnancy, make sure doctors have every right to refuse to carry out an abortion. The fundamental ‘right’ is for a doctor to refuse to perform an abortion, not abortion itself.

We were all fertilised eggs, embryos and foetuses once- Eddie Aquilina

The pro-abortion lobby should also be asked about the effects of abortion.

That lobby typically argues that human life does not start at conception and then chooses an arbitrary number of weeks when they think life starts. Let’s again assume they’ll opt for 12 weeks. So what actual difference in effects would there be between an abortion at 11 weeks and one at 13 weeks? Of course, the effects would be exactly the same.

Another question the pro-abortion lobby needs to be asked is whether abortion should be introduced by a democratic decision in parliament (perhaps after a consultative referendum) or whether such a change should be decided upon by a court.

This was actually the subject matter of the landmark judgment of the US Supreme Court on June 24 in the case named Dobbs.

Despite the brouhaha after that judgment, the Supreme Court did not decide about abortion; it only decided which institutions should be able to introduce or outlaw abortion and in what circumstances. In the US, the Supreme Court has decided that it should be democratically elected state assemblies, not courts, to have such jurisdiction.

Ultimately, the argument about abortion is an argument about all of us, about our lives.

That’s another question members of the pro-abortion lobby should be asked: do you believe your mother had some ‘right’ to abort you? Do you really believe that when you were a fertilised egg or embryo or foetus you were just part of your mother’s body, like an appendix or a wart or a nail to be cut off? 

I believe no one had the right to abort me, at whichever stage of pregnancy, and I wouldn’t have liked to be aborted, whether I was just a fertilised egg or an embryo or a foetus, at one day or 39 weeks, for the simple reason that I wouldn’t be here enjoying this wonderful life.

All those arguing for abortion should at least celebrate the fact that they were not victims of what they now want to introduce.