To life

Pro-life Day was celebrated in Malta and Gozo yesterday, the first Sunday in February, in what has become an annual event. Among other things it has also become an occasion to focus on resort to abortion by some Maltese girls or women who, for whatever reason known only to them, reject their pregnancy and take steps to terminate it.

Abortion runs counter to the fundament belief in life and in the rights of the unborn child.

Little wonder, than, that it comes up with greater emphasis in the period around Pro-life Day. The coordinator of the Movement for the Rights, Protection and Development of the Unborn Child, Tony Mifsud, referred to it in his Talking Point last Saturday.

He reminded readers that abortion is illegal in Malta (yet) one rarely, if at all, hears of cases of abortion being taken to court.

Mr Mifsud feels that one may consider a suggestion to introduce legislation to register an unborn child in the early stages of pregnancy.

Mothers, and others, including medical doctors would be asked to account for the well-being of the unborn child throughout pregnancy.

He recalled that on May 6 of last year the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice and Home Affairs, Tonio Borg had announced the "national proposal" to entrench the law on abortion, which makes abortion a crime, in the Constitution.

That proposal, whatever conviction, attitude or tactic underlay it, was and remains contentious.

To be pro-life, in favour of the rights of the unborn child and against abortion one does not to have to rest on constitutional provisions.

Flourishes such as that of Dr Borg serve more to trigger unnecessary controversy than to kindle and nourish pro-life sentiment and practice. On Pro-life Day it may be more fruitful to dwell on pithy points woven into a very strong message by Mr Mifsud in his column.

Point one draws on a book by Thomas Verney, an American psychiatrist and professor of human development.

In The Secret Life Of The Unborn Child, Prof. Verney says that by creating a warm, emotionally enriching environment in the womb, a woman can make a decisive difference in everything her child feels, hopes, dreams, thinks and accomplishes throughout life.

Point two builds on that statement.

Mr Mifsud wrote that an undisclosed number of unborn children in our islands may be suffering from grievous bodily harm, physical, mental or emotional... because of the consumption of drugs, alcohol and tobacco by their parents, in marriage or outside of it during, or before, pregnancy.

Point three is that there are fears also that would-be mothers and pregnant women are being exposed to chemical and toxic substances at places of work, maybe the home too, with great harm to them and their unborn children.

Such points will surely be in the Charter on the Rights, Protection and Development of the Unborn Child in the Maltese Islands drafted by the movement which Mr Mifsud coordinates, due to be published soon.

They are among key points that should be projected and explained as persuasively as can be and without hectoring as part of social education of our children.

The birth of every single baby is a repetition of the mysterious and beautiful miracle of life.

The example of each birth is the most eloquent and moving contribution that can be made in favour of life. No constitutional provision can come within a million miles of it.