Health Minister Chris Fearne has revealed that one of the proposals he will be presenting to Cabinet as part of a revamped national sexual health policy will be access to contraceptives through the National Health Service (NHS).

In comments to The Malta Independent on Sunday, Fearne was asked for his personal position on the provision of free contraception to reduce unwanted pregnancies as well as reducing the rate of sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

“At the health department we are working on a sexual health policy. We already have one but it was formulated some years ago and we feel that it is time to update this policy.

“One of the policies we will be working on is the use of contraceptives as well through the National Health Service, meaning free of charge. This is one of our proposals we will be presenting to Cabinet in the coming months so that it would eventually be made national policy,” he said.

Asked to clarify the contents of what will be proposed, Fearne said:

“I can’t tell you what is in the policy before discussing it with Cabinet, but we will address the use of contraceptives.”

Last month, Equality Minister Helena Dalli expressed her personal support for providing free contraceptives for the purposes of reducing unwanted pregnancies and STIs. Around the same time, the Women’s Rights Foundation had made a number of recommendations on sexual health issues. One such recommendation reads: “Subsidising contraception should be considered as a public health investment and should be extended to cover all brands and methods of modern contraception. Requirements for third-party authorisation that impede access to contraception for adolescents under the age of 16 should be removed.”

 One recommendation which was subject to heavy controversy was a call to decriminalise abortion to save a woman’s life, to preserve a woman’s physical and mental health, in cases of rape and incest and in cases of fatal foetus impairment.

This was met with heavy and harsh criticism from a wide spectrum of society, crossing the political, religious and ideological divide. A survey carried out by MaltaToday found that an overwhelming majority of people of all ages and backgrounds are flatly against abortion.

Further to this, healthcare professionals such as the head of the GU clinic back in 2016 clearly stated that STIs are on the rise in Malta.

With these issues in mind, The Malta Independent on Sunday asked a number of politicians for their views on wider access to contraceptives to help reduce the birth rate and therefore the rate of Maltese women who travel abroad for abortions or who access abortifacient pills online. The issues surrounding STIs have also been highlighted.

Alternattiva Demokratika’s Carmel Cacopardo estimates that roughly 300 to 400 women travel abroad to get abortions, stressing that statistics are only available for those who travel to the UK. It is not known how many women travel to other countries or those who procure abortifacient medicines online.

Parliamentary Secretary for Consumer Protection and Valletta 2018 Deo Debattista, who is also a medical doctor, agreed with the provision of subsidized contraceptives to reduce unwanted pregnancies and STIs, and called for an effective educational campaign to be launched to accompany the provision of contraceptives.

The Nationalist Party on the other hand, or rather the spokesperson for health Stephen Spiteri had said, when asked for comment: “The Nationalist Party is open to hear the people and discuss in the Parliamentary Group all issues that are brought forward.

“Indeed the first thing should be an independent study on birth control measures as contraceptives and how these will affect our society in 15 or 20 years’ time. This is not a decision that can be taken hastily and not backed with statistics.

“The National Party is still in favour of contraceptives as a means to avoid sexually transmitted diseases.”

The reply could therefore be interpreted as the PN’s hesitance to take a stance on the use of contraceptives to avoid unwanted pregnancies without a study analysing its “effects on society”.

Watch the Health Minister’s replies on www.independent.com.mt