Looking back at 2018 | Reproductive rights: a glass floor is shattered

“Disastrous… pathetic, irrational, dogmatic, misogynistic.”

The words Lara Dimitrijevic uses to describe the state of support women in Malta receive when it comes to reproductive rights exude not just boldness, but confidence on a subject many thought was taboo in Malta even up to just five years ago.

The 2010s have been an important decade for Malta: a national campaign to end censorship in the arts, the legalisation of divorce, same-sex marriage and gay adoption, gender identity rights and wider access to IVF.

But crucially, women’s rights have never received the attention they deserved except in the last years when national feminist manifestations and rallies against gender-based violence strengthened this agenda. Dimitrijevic’s Women’s Rights Foundation has been at the forefront of this debate. It hasn’t broken the glass ceiling. It has shattered the floor of complacency, and for once, those speaking about abortion are finding a different audience ready to hear, even though an outright majority in Malta say they are against abortion.

Malta is the only country in the EU where abortion remains illegal, but at the same time, hundreds of women leave Malta each year to have abortions overseas, typically in the UK or Italy. “We still allow only dogmatic, abstinence-only groups access to our schools to give information about sex. This is in itself unacceptable in a country with a high teen pregnancy rate and where STDs are on the increase… Support for women in need of abortion (or post-abortion) is non-existent. Our laws as they stand now, go against all international conventions and recommendations by WHO and health-related bodies,” she said.

Data from the National Obstetrics Information System shows that in 2017, girls between the ages of 15 and 19 made up 3.3% of recorded births for that year in Malta. That same year, the GU clinic saw 5,380 patients being tested for STDs with a total of 2,428 infections being diagnosed.      

Malta’s abortion taboo is surrounded by a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ mentality, a no-go area for the Maltese and a politically untouchable subject: Catholic sensitiveness against abortion means there are no votes to be won; a lack of awareness on backstreet abortions, or complacent acceptance that women can fly to the European mainland for abortion, make it a “non-issue”.

In February 2018, MaltaToday polled the Maltese to find that 95% are against unrestricted abortion in the first three months (12 weeks) of pregnancy – the results don’t fare much better when throwing particular circumstances, such as rape, age or health factors into the mix, only 12% of Maltese people agreed that in these circumstances abortion should be made readily available – while 82% of Maltese people disagreed, proving that Malta still has a long way to go, in eradicating the taboo surrounding the subject.     

This is reflected in the way politicians in Malta talk about abortions – in March, Nationalist Party MP Edwin Vassallo slammed calls for abortions asking whether the Maltese people were striving to be animals like other countries aboard. “By striving to be the same as countries abroad, it only means that we are striving to do wrong as happens abroad and to be animals like others. Because you need to be an animal to think that killing a vulnerable person is acceptable,” Vassallo, a conservative MP who has also reached out to religious-minded voters, said.

Then in September, the Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation for Social Welfare Services Alfred Grixti complained about the WRF’s march against femicide saying it was “ironic” to have a pro-abortion organisation at the forefront of the march. “They should always be pro-life. I believe you cannot choose this. It’s ironic that you march against violence on women and then remain in favour of abortion,” Grixti said.

So will the island ever truly be ready for such an emotive debate on abortion, which will undoubtedly rock Maltese society? Well, Dimitrijevic says, whether the Maltese are ready or not, it simply does not matter, it just means women must fight harder.    

“It does not matter if Malta will ever be ready for abortion. These rights do not belong to the State, nor majority opinion. Rights belong to an individual, in the case of abortion – to women, and to nobody else… women in Malta will have to fight harder, for if history teaches us anything, it is that this has always been the case. Women had to and still have to fight for their rights. History also tells us that women eventually win, every time, and in the case of abortion in Malta, it will be no different. I promise you that much.”

2018 wasn’t entirely negative in terms of the abortion debate. More of an “eventful year” according to Dimitrijevic when it comes to the level of the discussion.

“Just until a year ago even a slight mention of the big ‘A’ word was shouted down. The campaign for emergency contraception exposed that ignorance and dogmatism rule in this country when it comes to sexual and reproductive health and rights, but it also made inroads in awareness for many women (and men too) on how bad the situation is. Now, there is an increasing number of people that are ready to speak about it openly and rationally and are not afraid to come out in favour of choice, completely or partially.”

Dimitrijevic added that the referendum in Ireland to decriminalise abortion has now put the spotlight on Malta – in her own words making the island a “pariah state” in the European Union when it comes to women’s rights. “The Irish referendum also gave rise to a new, fresh wave of activism on abortion rights across the world and in Malta too.”

While abortion remains a topic most Maltese people would prefer to just not talk about – the WRF doesn’t plan on ending the conversation anytime soon. Dimitrijevic said that the WRF will be organising a number of workshops and meet-ups for women on contraception, on their experiences and needs – it is also holding meetings with international partners, to develop strategies in the field of education and prevention issues related to sexual and productive health and rights. Lastly, they are working on legal strategies that can, and “will” be used in order to “expedite change.”