Pullicino Orlando dubs Nationalist MP ‘ignorant’ over abortion scare

Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando spelt it out for his conservative colleague, MP Edwin Vassallo, when he described the latter's claim that those who introduced divorce to Malta would also introduce abortion as "ignorance".

Pullicino Orlando, who piloted a successful divorce bill with Labour MP Evarist Bartolo and Labour candidate Deborah Schembri, made his reaction public on his Facebook wall. Edwin Vassallo's statement was reported in an interview to Sunday newspaper Illum, in which he told the paper "those who introduced divorce will be the same people who will want abortion."

On his part, Pullicino Orlando took the statement to imply that he was in favour of abortion, saying that he had already made it clear he was absolutely against abortion in a speech he gave to the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe.

In his speech on the CoE's draft resolution for the decriminalisation of abortion, Pullicino Orlando argues against the "right" to abortion: "rather than discussing ways of facilitating the demise of our society, we should discuss ways of encouraging and helping women who find themselves faced with the dilemma of whether they should destroy the life in their womb to avoid doing so."

Edwin Vassallo is the chairman of the parliamentary social affairs committee. His conservative influence has seen him reopen the debate on in vitro fertilisation in 2011, after a report by Jean-Pierre Farrugia's select committee on IVF called for a law that allows the freezing of embryos.

He has recently published a book on Catholic values and the Nationalist Party's principles: a response to the party's updated 'basic principles'.