Dutch doctor urges pro-abortionists to sue government

A controversial pro-abortion Dutch doctor is urging Maltese women who want to carry out an abortion to take the cue from a recent case at the European Court of Human Rights and sue the government for failing to legalise abortion.

Both the Church and the government hit back and insisted that human life must be respected and protected "from the moment of conception".

Rebecca Gomperts, who steers the Dutch floating abortion clinic Women on Waves, told The Times in an interview she estimates some 300 Maltese women were having an abortion every year, the vast majority of which take place overseas.

It was high time for women to challenge the government and a recent court case could be the key to legalising abortion in Malta, she argued.

Earlier this month, a woman whose pregnancy was wrongly terminated in a French hospital, lost her fight at the European Court to enshrine a foetus' right to life.

The French woman went to the ECHR after French courts said the doctor could not be prosecuted for homicide as the foetus did not have the right to life. The court also refused to extend the right to life to unborn foetuses, stating, among other things, that "the life of the foetus was intimately connected with that of the mother and could be protected through her".

Dr Gomperts caused a storm in Malta four years ago when she announced she planned to offer abortions on a ship moored in international waters close to countries where abortion is illegal.

She said it was futile for the authorities to turn a blind eye to abortion when this was still taking place.

Precise statistics of women having abortion are hard to come by, especially since most of them take place underground. However, figures released by the UK's Health Department show that 69 Maltese women sought an abortion in the UK in 2002, including one girl under 16 and four aged 16 or 17. A total of 190 Maltese women ended their pregnancy in the UK in the space of three years.

"It's not up to the state to decide. It's a scandal to have governments like that of Malta interfere in a woman's life," Dr Gomperts charged.

She said she deemed it discriminatory that only those Maltese women who could afford to finance their trip overseas could actually get an abortion. "This means that many would have no choice but to resort to underground abortion clinics, often deemed unsafe."

She said that a woman dies every five minutes somewhere in the world because of an illegal or unsafe abortion.

Dr Gomperts confirmed that a number of Maltese women had made contact with her in the last couple of years seeking advice on how best to terminate their pregnancy.

Asked whether her ship would visit Malta, Dr Gomperts said there were no plans for this, though it was a wish of her organisation.

A government spokesman said Maltese society values the dignity of the human being and embraces a pro-life policy. "We are proud of these values and we will continue to embrace them as the basis for our development of society," the spokesman said.

A spokesman for the Curia said that from the first moment of existence, a human being must be recognised as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.

Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, was gravely contrary to moral law, he explained. Formal cooperation in an abortion constituted a "grave offence".

The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. A person who procured a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae (automatic), by the very commission of the offence, and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law.

The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy, the spokesman said. Rather, it makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death as well as to the parents and the whole of society.

"The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation. Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being," the Curia spokesman said.