A small group of five pro-choice activists staged a protest down the road from Castille, Valletta, welcoming Mediterranean Leaders with the central banner saying that “women and girls are just incubators” in Malta.

Other banners included slogans such as “my body; my life; my choice”, “trust women”, and “abortion is illegal in Malta under any circumstances with no exceptions for rape incest or woman’s life at risk. #NotAnIncubator”.

The debate on abortion has been heating up on social media, and the Government has frequently said that it has no mandate to introduce abortion, with the Opposition having made it a central theme of their campaign strategy to make clear their pro-life stance.