Pro-LGBTQ+ yet anti-abortion: What's behind Malta's stances?

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When Belle de Jong shared her experience of having an abortion on national TV in Malta in 2021, she became the first woman in the tiny Mediterranean island nation to do so publicly.

The reaction to her interview reflected how this aspect of healthcare remains deeply divisive on the staunchly Catholic island, which has the EU's most restrictive abortion law.

“I received literally hundreds of messages from (Maltese) women saying, thank you for speaking about it, either saying they had an abortion or implying it,” she told Euronews.

But de Jong, a pro-choice activist and journalist, also received a wave of messages calling her a “baby killer”, which she said mostly came from older people.

“(I also received) comments like, ‘If you don’t want to get pregnant, don't spread your legs’, or ‘Why didn't you just use protection?’ Which, obviously, can fail,” she added.

De Jong, who is from the Netherlands but has lived in Malta since 2017, underwent a termination while visiting her home country after her contraceptive pill failed.

While she said it had been the “obvious choice” for her at the time, she stressed the barriers that remain for women in Malta due to its draconian abortion law.

“People are afraid to Google things because imagine if the government finds out, many don't know where to get the pills, for how long you can take the pills … And after a certain point you will need to travel (to have a surgical abortion), meaning you need the money for that, you need to know where to go,” she said.

“And on top of all that, you can’t tell anyone. So it’s extremely isolating and scary, because you're constantly afraid of being investigated,” de Jong added.

While a shadow was cast over Pride celebrations this month in some parts of Europe, Malta continues to boast a reputation for advancing LGBTQ+ rights.

Last month, it once again came first in the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association’s ranking of European countries — a position it has held for a decade.

In recent years, Malta has advanced LGBTQ+ rights at a breakneck pace: since 2013, it has introduced same-sex civil partnerships, equal marriage rights, adoption rights for same-sex couples, a ban on so-called conversion therapy practices, and self-ID for trans people.

But this stands in sharp contrast with its near-total abortion ban: the nation of a half a million is home to the EU’s most restrictive abortion law, criminalising terminations even in cases of rape and foetal anomalies.

The gulf between the state of these rights appears entrenched in Malta, with experts telling Euronews there seems to be little political will to expand access to reproductive rights as the majority of the population is opposed to abortion.

FILE - Pro-abortion activists stand outside the Maltese law courts in Valletta, Malta, Wednesday, June 15, 2022

For Robert Attard, Malta LGBTIQ Rights Movement’s community outreach coordinator, the context of the nation’s advance in queer rights is rooted in the movement’s activism over the years and the end of a long spell of conservative governments.

“The LGBTIQ rights movement has been lobbying for equal rights since 2001 … Once the government changed, the calls for equal rights were quite successful,” he told Euronews.

Underlining the way society’s perceptions can at times trail legislation, Attard said Malta has progressed alongside the raft of laws enshrining rights for LGBTQ+ people.

“I believe if there had been a referendum for equal marriage in 2014, it would not have passed. But surveys show over half of the island is now in favour of equal marriage and adoption.

“Being a small island really, really works in favour of us in this aspect. Let’s say, a homophobic, very Catholic (person), realises her neighbour’s nice son is gay … Since the rights started rolling in, people felt more comfortable in their own identity and there was this visibility.” However, he noted that trans people on the island still face a higher degree of discrimination, while LGBTQ+ asylum seekers also face challenges.

Attard’s organisation is part of the pro-abortion Voice for Choice coalition, and he sees the queer and reproductive rights as connected.

“We acknowledge the idea of bodily autonomy and that our rights intersect. Also, there are LBT people who are affected by this (abortion) law as well,” he said, noting that abortion remains “taboo” and far more controversial.

“Malta is very family oriented — acceptance for civil partnership and adoption is much bigger. Children as young as 11 are shown anti-abortion propaganda at schools,” Attard added.

In Attard’s view, moving the dial on abortion is a much tougher sell on the Catholic majority island — a perspective shared by all whom Euronews spoke to.

Prof Marceline Naudi, associate professor at the University of Malta's Department of Gender and Sexualities, also attributed the intransigence on reproductive healthcare to “the primacy of the family” in Maltese society.

“Malta is very family-centred (and) LGBTQ+ rights, although they can be seen to challenge the 'traditional family' form, so to speak, don’t really impinge. When the rights took a leap forward, it was not seen as threatening the family.

“However, abortion is very clearly seen as (doing so). The anti-choice movement says ‘unborn children’ are part of the family,” Naudi added.

The advancement of these rights was helped by a minister who drove the policies activists had been demanding for years, Naudi told Euronews: “Helena Dalli, who then became European Commissioner for Equality, was pivotal in this moving forward.”

“There was a stronger political will to push for that than has ever been in abortion,” Naudi added.

De Jong agreed with this, adding that she believed that expanding rights like equal marriage "were not as controversial but look very good for politicians ... you like you're going forward as a country".

The country’s blanket abortion ban was slightly eased in 2023, after the case of a US tourist who had to be airlifted to Spain to undergo a lifesaving abortion captured headlines internationally.

FILE: The Son Espases University Hospital where a US woman who suffered an incomplete miscarriage while in Malta is hospitalised in Palma Mallorca, Spain, June 24, 2022

But while the legislation initially proposed would have relaxed the ban to allow for abortions in cases where there was a risk to the pregnant person’s health, it was subsequently amended to stipulate that they must be at risk of death to access an abortion — and even then, only after three specialists' consent.

Naudi considered this amendment to be “part of this right-wing backlash”, observed globally spanning the rights of women and minorities.

Dr Miriam Sciberras, CEO of Life Network Foundation in Malta, a group that describes itself as promoting "pro-life values in Maltese society", rejected the idea that the country's restrictive abortion legislation and advancement of LGBTQ+ rights were at odds.

"Malta is both pro-LGBT and pro-life — these views are not contradictory. Both are rooted in the belief that every human life has value and deserves dignity. Both LGBT individuals and unborn children have historically faced, and sometimes still face dehumanization," she told Euronews in a statement.

"Being pro-life means extending that same care to the unborn, who are also vulnerable and voiceless. A consistent ethic of human dignity includes all of us, born and unborn, gay or straight. Abortion eliminates a human life, the life of a child, gay or straight, period."

In a month that sees many European countries host Pride celebrations — Malta holds its events in September — the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) warned of a “backsliding”.

“Across Europe, we observe worrying developments of democratic backsliding, attacks on civil society and challenges to fundamental rights, including the rights of LGBTIQ people," FRA spokesperson Nicole Romain told Euronews.

“It is essential that all EU countries stay the course and respect fundamental rights. Because how we treat the LGBTIQ community is a litmus test for the strength of our democratic societies”.

One thing is clear: abortion bans do not prevent women from ending unwanted or unviable pregnancies altogether.

Prof Isabel Stabile of the University of Malta, who is a gynaecologist, told Euronews that some 600 pregnancies were terminated in Malta last year using abortion pills — a number that has risen in recent years.

Stabile is a member of the non-profit Doctors for Choice, which was founded in 2019 to provide information for those who want to end a pregnancy.

Healthcare professionals in Malta can give information about overseas abortion and refer patients to the Abortion Support Network without any fear of legal repercussions, their site states, noting that providing such information to patients is backed by the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice.

“We provide an information service through our website and have an abortion doula service,” she said. "Women can call us with questions about what's normal, shall I go to the hospital … We talk to somewhere between one and two women every day.”

The risk of prosecution remains a concern for women, she said. “For women, the legal risk is intense. If they go to the hospital, and for some reason, in some way, the fact that they had an abortion is revealed either through them or through a partner or whatever, then they are liable to a three-year prison term.

"It is a serious concern, we've had women prosecuted in the past,” she said, noting it is often the island’s “most marginalised” at risk, though there have been no imprisonments in over two decades. Doctors who carry out abortions outside of Malta's restrictive law are liable to a four-year prison term as well as the loss of their medical license.

Like others Euronews spoke to, Stabile said that in private, several representatives backed pro-choice positions — but were not willing to put their necks on the line politically.

The government tends to ignore Doctors for Choice, Stabile said. “The last thing it needs is women dying. It is far better to leave us alone, let us do our work, and not have a revolution on their hands.

“The abortion numbers have shot up in recent years, because it’s safe, it’s available. Abortion care is health care. It is also, unfortunately, illegal.”

Euronews has reached out to Malta's government for comment.

Three years after she went on TV to speak about her decision to end a pregnancy, de Jong led a campaign to garner Maltese support for a pro-choice European initiative. The My Voice, My Choice campaign aims to secure free access to abortion across the bloc.

She succeeded in collecting the required threshold of 4,230 signatures needed for Malta, noting that most preferred to do so online rather than in person due to stigma.

“The campaign was an eye-opener — it showed there was more support than we were aware of. Most of these people would never post about their pro-choice views on Facebook," de Jong said.

Still, she agreed with others that a public conversation is beginning to emerge on the island — and believed this has to grow before representatives will act.

“It's so important to change public opinion. Over the past six years or so, that discussion has, slowly but surely, started to come out,” she added.