Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech has issued his clearest statement yet on his party’s views on abortion, saying that anybody who is in favour of abortion has no place within the PN.

In a six-minute rant on party radio station NET FM, Grech committed to a categorical anti-abortion stance and said that he would not tolerate anyone representing the party to be in favour of abortion.

“We cannot let Labour use delicate issues like these to cover for its own wrongdoings,” Grech said.

“The abortion issue is a closed book. This party was, is, will always be against abortion. It is a clear declaration I have made, that my predecessors have made, and it is our official position as laid down in the statute,” he said.

“Nobody, and I repeat nobody, as long as I am PN leader… I will permit nobody to be in favour of abortion and stay in this party or as a representative of the party,” he said.

The PN leader has consistently been against abortion and the party’s media has on more than one occasion tried to use the sensitive topic to its political advantage by suggesting that exponents within the Labour Party want to introduce abortion in Malta. It was in fact one of its more prominent campaign points during the 2019 MEP Elections. 

Grech said that true Nationalist and Christian-democrats are “obliged” to be against abortion, and that as long as he is the party’s leader, the party will be remain pro-life.

He also equated the public’s demands for environmental preservation and conservation with the choice to terminate a pregnancy.

“Are we going to talk about climate change, or the preservation of the environment for our future generations, but not be in favour of future generations themselves? We preserve a turtle’s eggs because we believe in that life, but not that of a newly-conceived baby? To us that is a human life and that is important: the PN is against abortion, without any doubt.”

He said that politicians must be actively against abortion and must do everything to assist and support couples undergoing challenges and considering a termination and show them that that is no solution.

Grech’s categorical statements throw renewed questions about the position of people who are declared to be pro-choice within the party, such as general election candidate Emma Portelli Bonnici - who has been one of the face's of the PN's proposals on the matters of sexual health in particular.

Portelli Bonnici has been the victim of incessant attacks over her pro-choice views, with a priest being amongst those recently insulting her.  The said priest went as far as comparing her to Hitler in a post on social media.