Gonzi defends PN abstention, plays abortion card

Former prime minister Lawrence Gonzi has come out in defence of Opposition leader Simon Busuttil’s stance to abstain on a civil unions bill that accorded the right to same-sex couples in a union, to adopt children.

His declaration – stating that the PN parliamentary group “could never go along” with this part of the law because “there is no right to adoption” – is in contrast to comments he gave in the 2013 elections to MaltaToday, where he seemed open to the idea of gay people adopting if they are vetted by social workers.

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“The main interest is that of the children,” he told MaltaToday in 2013. “The experts’ assessment in an adoption should be built on the children’s interest. I know of situations where spouses who had children together, broke up because one of them was gay, and that now these children are now being brought up by a gay family. This is a reality happening today ‘on the ground’.

“So I think that in this case, we should not go into the matter of who has the right to adopt, because sometimes even a married husband and wife are not the best solution for an adopted child, which is why sometimes their applications are turned down. So experts must decide what is in the best interest of the child, without any prejudice… and from what I understand, the PN’s and Labour’s position on this matter are the same.”

So what has changed?

In an opinion penned for The Times, Gonzi now says he is being quoted “in a manner that is unacceptable to me and to the values I have championed all my life.”

He said that when the PN in government drafted a civil partnerships and cohabitation bill, this did not include adoption rights.

“Heterosexual couples do not have a right to adopt. It is only children who have a right to be adopted by the best possible adoptive parents. It is indeed very sad that this government has subjected the child’s best interests to those of someone else,” Gonzi said.

“It is only children who have a right to be adopted by the best possible adoptive parents. It is indeed very sad that this government has subjected the child’s best interests to those of someone else. This has always been my stance and I resent the fact that some people want to spin this in a manner that suits their myopic political agendas.”

Gonzi said that the new civil unions law “discards” the child’s best interests and “contradicts” the adoption law’s provision to a child’s right to be adopted by the best parent or parents possible.

He has also defended the PN’s abstention as “a valid answer to the disservice done to the adoptive process and vulnerable children”.

Gonzi did not fail to play the abortion card, a familiar political device during elections. “The floodgates are wide open… Yesterday the government was forced to clarify a statement made earlier by Civil Liberties Minister Helena Dalli which could have been interpreted as an indication that abortion was a possibility under this Labour government. The statement denied this. But I am not convinced. We have heard similar denials before which have since proven to be unfounded.”