Fifty years ago today, on 22 January 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States decided the infamous case that came to be known worldwide as Roe v Wade, thereby decriminalizing abortion throughout the entire United States of America. It violated every known scientific fact of embryological development at the time and simultaneously instituted a hitherto unknown partisan split within the members of the Supreme Court that remains clearly evident today. A full half-century later, on 24 June 2022, in Dobbs v Jackson, the same Supreme Court rescinded that decision but the ideological fault lines, within the Court itself, show no signs, as yet, of retreating.
Dar Tghanniqa t’Omm, run by Life Network Foundation (Malta), has, in the meantime, been operating for four years. In the course of this time literally dozens of women, several of whom were beset by truly appalling circumstances, have found refuge; an environment within which they could safely see through their pregnancies and, last but not least, a means by which they could regain a long-lost sense of self-worth. Forty-five little children and babies, who would otherwise have been destroyed, have lived and thrived in an atmosphere of care and love. As community and social standards decay in every direction, the need for this, and similar, havens grow daily. This very week, through a massive amount of hard work, the unceasing input of charity organisations and the vital contributions of various benefactors, no less than seven small apartments have been added to the organisation’s portfolio in the next phase of expansion to accommodate the unceasing growth in numbers of society’s most needy.
Abortion, in common with all forms of evil and wrongdoing, has been with us always but it is no secret that, as society succumbs to a steady dulling of moral awareness, its practice grows in tandem with the numbers of those happy to provide the service. The mission objective of Dar Tghanniqa is carried out in direct confrontation of the pressure upon women to kill their unborn children and it is undertaken for one reason alone – women deserve better than abortion.
The current Administration is, even now, on the threshold of a historic first in Malta – the decriminalization of abortion. We are reassured, in customary fashion, that this is not intended to introduce abortion. This, despite the experience of innumerable countries, everywhere.
We have one of the best maternal records anywhere in the world. We have uniquely competent practitioners in this field and we have reason to be proud of their achievements. They have no doubt that the proposed legislation will introduce abortion. But we are reassured, in customary fashion, that this is not the intention and it will not happen.
These reassurances ring more hollow every day.
Even now it is not too late to rethink the amendment. Would the Administration not, deservedly, receive vastly more public acclaim were they to direct their efforts, instead, towards combatting the very circumstances that induce mothers-to-be to seek out barbaric solutions to their problems? Would Administrative focus not be vastly better directed on efforts such as those of Dar Tghanniqa and others?
“The evil that men do lives after them …”
Ivan Padovani
San Pawl tat-Targa