While pregnant mothers should be given all the psychiatric care necessary, abortion should never be confused with psychiatric treatment, a group of three anti-abortion organisations have said.

The Life Network Foundation in collaboration with Doctors for Life and I See Life are organising a protest against the introduction of abortion, which will be held today starting from in front of Castille Square, Valletta at 3pm.

The three organisations have said that the legislative amendments presented by government on the controversial abortion bill will open the door for the introduction of abortion in Malta.

The government says its aim is to provide more legal certainty for doctors who terminate a pregnancy when a woman’s life or health is at serious risk.

But the term ‘health’ includes also serious mental health conditions, which is what sparked most of the controversy from anti-abortion groups, experts, and academics, as well as the Nationalist Party.

They have argued that the wording of the law does not discern and specify which mental health conditions constitute the right to abortion. They say that what the government is doing is opening the way to introduce abortion on a wider scale.

Contacted by The Malta Independent on Sunday, the organisations said that they are not objecting to providing further legal clarity in situations where a doctor is required to perform a medical intervention to save a mother’s life, even if, as an unfortunate consequence, the unborn child is endangered or lost.

They said that these situations occur every year, and no mother has lost her life for over a decade in these heart-breaking situations, as the priority was, and always will be, given to the mother.

The groups are concerned with the amendment tabled in Parliament, which goes well beyond the declared objective of the government, being to provide legal protection for the current medical management when such situations arise.

“This bill extends the possibility of a medical intervention, beyond what is necessary to save mothers in life threatening situations. As explicitly stated by Health Minister Chris Fearne, cases relating to mental health will be included and this is the basis for abortion on demand in numerous countries,” they said.

The groups said that while mental health is of paramount importance, it is not an excuse for abortion.

“For this reason, as organisations that seek to protect both lives, we endorse and promote the legal text proposed by the Group of 80 experts, as this provides the necessary legal clarity without introducing abortion,” they said.

The Group of 80 Experts had appealed to government to adopt this version to the law in Parliament, which reads as follows:

“No crime is committed under article 241(2) or article 243 when the death or bodily harm of an unborn child results from a medical intervention conducted with the aim of saving the life of the mother where there is a real and substantial risk of loss of the mother's life from a physical illness."

Conversely, the government’s wording of the amendment is as follows: 243B. No offence under article 241(2) or article 243 shall be committed when the termination of a pregnancy results from a medical intervention aimed at protecting the health of a pregnant woman suffering from a medical complication which may put her life at risk or her health in grave jeopardy.

Prime Minister Robert Abela has repeatedly denied that the amendment would open doors to abortion in the country, saying that abortion would not enter Malta under his tenure. But he and his government have been accused of trying to introduce abortion by stealth.

The groups were asked why the amendments are being interpreted as an introduction to abortion when government has said that there is no intention of changing the law which prohibits abortion, but rather add a clarifying additional clause.

The groups said that this is a major concern.

“The government has proposed a text that local and foreign experts have interpreted an opening to abortion, despite Government’s denial,” they said.

They continued that instead of leading to certainty, ambiguous terms were used which will allow for reinterpretation and the consequent altering of established protocols to accommodate this.

“This amendment will mark the start of an inexorable attrition of Malta’s protection of the unborn child,” they said.

“The text used in the government amendment is similar to that used in countries like the UK, Australia and New Zealand where the law of the land permits abortion on demand. It should be sobering to all MPs that this was not the original intention of the proponents of the UK law but nonetheless it came to pass,” they warned.

The UK now terminates over 200,000 unborn children a year.

The groups said that the hurried approach being adopted by the government does not suggest an intention to dialogue with the aim of settling on the optimal text. Instead, the government is trying to rush its proposal into law preventing any of the mature discussion Abela has repeatedly mentioned, they said.

Asked what outcome the groups expect from the protest, the groups said that they hope that public pressure will induce government to seriously reconsider its position.

“The government has no mandate to introduce abortion and cannot do so by stealth,” they said.

The groups added that The Group of 80 Experts adequately provided a solution which allows for the legal protection of the mother and the doctors caring for her in life threatening situations and limits the possibility for abuse.

They continued that the government has no mandate to go beyond this, and this is the message they want to send with the petition and emails to the Prime Minister and all MPs. This is part of an initiative they have rolled out through salvani.eu, together with the upcoming protest on Sunday.

“We urge all the people of good will to stand up in this important hour and join us in our appeal to the Government to reconsider its position,” the groups said.

Over 450 doctors have signed the petition supporting the academics’ abortion law clause.