Former finance minister and current Nationalist Party MP Tonio Fenech used an opportunity to commemorate the victims from the Nazi Holocaust to condemn the practice of abortion, something he called a “modern-day holocaust”.
Mr Fenech’s comments were made during an address in Parliament to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day, celebrated on 27 January.
Rather than focusing on the horrific events that took place, he spent two minutes speaking about the Holocaust and then proceeded to say that people are trying to justify this “atrocious” practice. He stressed that the United States of America has seen in excess of 60 million abortions being carried out since the famous Roe vs Wade Supreme Court case of 1973 that made abortion legal under federal law.
“People try to argue that they are not killing babies or that they have the right to choose, but what if people started believing they had to right to abort babies they knew would be born disabled, or to allow abortion in a bid to control the planet’s over-population.”
He did not make any mention of the majority of abortions that are carried out up until the first trimester, at 12 weeks, and how many facets of well-established scientific communities (World Health Organisation, etc) that do not consider a foetus of that age to be a sentient, living baby. This is hotly disputed by pro-life groups, the religious community as well as certain sectors of the scientific community, who believe that life begins at conception.
The majority of countries around the world have legislated abortion in one form of another, either up to 12 weeks or in the case of rape or incest. Some also only allow such a practice when it is a matter of life or death for the mother. Women in Malta have no laws allowing them to seek out an abortion in any of the above scenario, not in the case of rape or a life and death situation.
Mr Fenech also said that a visit to Auschwitz, the German camp in occupied Poland, where countless of Jewish people had to endure endless suffering under the Nazi regime, really highlights what man is capable of in the pursuit of power, as well as in its fight for survival.
Education and Employment Minister Evarist Bartolo cautioned on the Holocaust Remembrance day becoming a meaningless, trivial day on the yearly calendar, and appealed for meaningful reflection. He also brought attention to the fact that it was not just the Jewish people who suffered, but all those sections of society where the Nazi leader, Adolph Hitler, considered to be lesser people. These included persons with disabilities and persons of colour. He called for all those who suffered to be in the thoughts and prayers of all those commemorating this day.