"When my wife gave birth to our stillborn son, she turned to me crying and said sorry as if it was her fault," PN MP Ivan Castillo said in Parliament on Monday.

Recounting a personal experience in parliament on Monday, Castillo said that the couple had already lost their first pregnancy due to complications and thus "were extra careful during the second one".

However complications arose during the 7th month and his wife was put on a drip to start labour and give birth to their stillborn son.

"There were no tears of joy when my son was born, but tears of sorrow", he said.

Visibly emotional, Castillo urged the government to amend its abortion law amendment bill. The wording of government's proposed new clause has been a point of controversy, and the Nationalist Party, as well as Malta's bishops and many others have come out against the government's wording in the bill.

He said that it personally hurts him when "we don't trust the medical team" with the lives of such pregnant women, as when he was in this situation they were at the forefront with their treatment trying to save both the baby and mother.

"We want to give hope, and the option to remove an embryo should never be given...we want babies to be born". 

He said that the pain of losing a baby does not go with time as even when the couple witnesses a child playing a football game, it resurfaces.

Quoting local studies showing that only 27 local adoptions have taken place in the last decade, Castillo said that the country should look at its adoption laws.