At the beginning of June, the Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities of the European Parliament approved a resolution (accompanied by a report - rapporteur Anne E.M. Van Lancker) on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, in which it called for the legalisation of abortion throughout the EU so as "to make it safe and accessible to all" in order to safeguard women's health.

The bishops of Malta expressed their serious concern about this re-commendation which will now be decided by the European Parliament on Thursday. The bishops stressed that the Catholic Church is against abortion without any reservations.

We believe that the majority of Maltese citizens support this line, as does a sizable part of European society. Indeed while 19 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted in favour of the Resolution in the Committee on Women's Rights and Equality, 11 voted against.

The vote on Thursday, which will be held during a full meeting (plenary session) of the European Parliament, will show the extent of the support for abortion in that institution. It will not, however, resolve the issue either way.

If the motion is defeated, the pro-abortion lobby will try again at some time in the future. If it is approved it does not mean that current or future EU member states are obliged to legalise it. That remains a national prerogative over which the European Parliament has no say at all.

The European Parliament has no power to force a country to legalise abortion. In this and similarly controversial matters (such as euthanasia and divorce) it can only pass resolutions.

For abortion to be legalised in Malta, the Maltese people must consent to it in the first place, whether Malta joins the EU or not. Staying out of the EU is not a safe guarantee against the legalisation of abortion.

A strong national lobby in its favour may yet convince the people of our democratic country to accept it just as lobbyists have done in many other Catholic and non-Catholic countries all over the globe.

Furthermore it is also important to note that pro-abortion lobbyists do not limit themselves to the European Parliament or the national level. They made more than their presence felt at the fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995 and the UNCPD Cairo Conference in 1994.

The Council of Europe

Another major inroad on the question of abortion in Malta may come from an unexpected quarter: the Council of Europe of which Malta has been a member since 1965. In this case the challenge is even bigger since Maltese citizens have acquired the right to individual petition to the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Thus any judgment in that Court in favour of abortion, remote and unrealistic as it currently sounds, may open a national Pandora's Box. But we will return to this argument later on.

The life of the hermit is not safe

The scriptures recount how a hermit's life is no guarantee that one can keep out of harm's way. Our Lord was, after all, seriously challenged and tempted by the devil while he was fasting in the desert.

In international affairs and often at the risk of unpopularity, Malta has often stood up for its principles. It is precisely by being part of the world, proud and conscious of our peculiarities of language, territorial size, culture and moral standards that our identity as such is affirmed not by hiding from it.

Abortion as a last resort

To be fair in this argument, it is important to note that abortion lobbyists have come a long way in their thinking. They no longer advocate the right of unrestricted resort to abortion. That is why they have become stronger contenders.

What is needed are well thought-out and refined arguments to engage them, with the aim of achieving the truth - not drastic measures such as isolationism often hinted at by those who have perhaps lost the capacity to think in innovative ways.

Pro-abortionists urge governments to improve education on sexual behaviour and contraception in order to decrease the level of "unwanted pregnancies". They also strongly oppose those who promote abortion as a means of controlling population growth.

They support the legalisation of abortion in order to stop the illegal abortion racket, which often endangers the lives of women and mostly young ones at that.

As much as the writer of this piece personally disagrees with abortion absolutely, it is prudent to notice that pro-abortionists have mellowed their arguments considerably, making them more convincing to a wider public.

In October 2000, during a Council of Europe seminar in Bratislava, Dr Johanne Sundby from Norway, the rapporteur of a working group on "Sex Education and Reproductive Health" had this to report:

"Abortion, especially unsafe abortion, is a central adolescent girl health issue. Young people, especially young women, are vulnerable. Abortion rates are always high in adolescent populations if there is a general high abortion rate. Unwanted or unplanned pregnancies are more common among young women not yet established in lasting relationships, and a pregnancy may interfere with plans for education or entrance into the job market.

"Young women often have less money to pay for an abortion, and in countries where there are legal and financial restrictions on abortion, young women may resort to less safe, clandestine or back-street abortions. If complications arise, young women have a longer latency period before seeking care, and may fear punishment or blame, or even imprisonment, by health care workers or parents. There are many factors that determine how many abortions will occur in a population."

It is arguments such as these which have to be given an answer. No matter how much we may be tempted to retreat from the world, these dilemmas will not disappear. We have to take them on and face them.

What the Maltese bishops should worry about, and we know that they have been concerned about this problem for a long time, is how to educate the Maltese people on sexual matters and above all abortion.

We are happy to note that this is being actively pursued in our Church and state schools alike. Schoolchildren are already getting a good dose of education in these matters and that is good. We need to see what more can be done.

However we must also worry about ensuring Malta's economic well-being, for the problems which the bishops justly worry about most, stand to multiply more in a situation of economic stagnation than in one of affluence. Poverty is the beginning of most evils.

We need also to take stock of another matter for it is claimed that while abortion is not permissible in Malta, many Maltese women have been resorting to this 'service' overseas, in countries where it is legal, and (according to the grapevine) some illegal ones are also performed locally.

The problem is here. Parliamentary resolutions in Brussels, Strasbourg or Valletta will not help solve it. Anti-abortion laws will not stop it. Nor will the legalisation of abortion do much good. Nor will isolationism do. But we need to move forward.

An advance in Strasbourg

Any advance made in the Council of Europe in Strasbourg by the pro-abortionists will have immediate effect in Malta for many reasons.

No major inroads have been achieved so far within this organisation comprising 40 member states including Malta. But the Council's fabric is being tested by the pro-abortionists and the ground is being prepared for future advances.

At a Council of Europe forum held in Tallinn in 1997, the Council's Deputy Secretary General stressed that "terminating a pregnancy should never be considered as a form of contraception... Everything should be done to reduce as far as possible the need to resort to abortion. The means may be an effective family planning or contraception policy".

However, the general sense expressed by many in Europe is that abortion is strongly connected with a person's freedom of choice and a woman's health. We do not want to make many hypothetical questions about this, but what would Malta do if abortion gains ground in the Council of Europe? Leave the Council perhaps?

We conclude by arguing that it is good that the bishops have shown their concern. There is a side to Malta's role in world affairs that only they can properly tend. They have done well to enter the public debate, to insert this item in the political agenda.

But it would be wrong for anybody to be misled into thinking that staying out of the EU is a panacea for all present and future ills. It is just as bad as saying the opposite, namely that membership is the key to resolving all our troubles.

As we have argued frequently on this page, ease of transport, improvements in telecommunications, the arrival of more than a million tourists a year, Maltese travelling overseas, trade in goods and services, the Internet, satellite communication and many more similar factors are influencing not only our moral attitudes but also the kind of 'regime' we want to live under.

Abortion and many other more or less evil or controversial practices are banned from Malta. But it's a far cry from saying that they are not happening on our isles or that people will not simply travel overseas to obtain them. We need to educate more and ration-ally convince individuals that there is a better way forward than resorting to abortion or some other thing.

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