I am very flattered that Tonio Borg seeks my consent to his proposal to amend the Constitution, addressing his article Pro-life Politicians to me personally. He does not need my consent because I am not a member of Parliament and he has not requested my approval as a citizen in any respectable vote. How come he is so insistent on having little old me on board? Should he ever propose to have a respectable vote on the matter there would be some questions I would want him to answer before he can enjoy my support:

How many abortions does he anticipate his constitutional amendment will prevent in real terms? If none at all, why is he making such a fuss?

Does he realise that it is highly probable that Malta has a higher abortion rate than Finland with a per capita annual average of 60 performed in the UK and probably more elsewhere? How will the changed wording in the Constitution change this?

Will his campaign secure public funds for the establishment of a national agency providing information and non-directive counselling in the case of a crisis/unplanned pregnancy? Catholic counselling? Are not unbelievers candidates for abortion? More or less? Is our concern only for the foetuses of Catholic women?

Is he willing to document abortion statistics in Malta and from Malta in order to gauge the extent of the challenge and to compare his abortion reduction performance with that of his colleagues abroad or is he willing to pretend that the problem does not exist because he has successfully exported it?

Why are the prohibitions of child abuse, murder, genocide and of many other heinous crimes mentioned in the Criminal Code not also entrenched in the Constitution?

What difference does he see between a Constitution and a Criminal Code? Is he a lawyer?

Does he not have any democratic qualms about the non-secrecy of his support-my-crusade campaign tactics and about the validity of the result of his non-secret non-vote? Does he have any misgivings about exploding his democratic credentials in this way? Is he more Christian than Democrat or just fundamentalist opportunist?

Does he propose to adopt his present method of constitutional amendment to lock the door on divorce also? Will the Maltese not be asked to make their voice heard on the issue?

Does the pro-choice minority, he and I oppose, have a right to vote and lose in a referendum on the issue? Does he have any qualms about the moral violence perpetrated on people he has demonised for holding views opposed to his and mine? If not, does he not deserve the tag fundamentalist?

Does he have any idea of the political extravagance implied by the creation out of the blue of the abortion issue when it was not an issue at all, of the pro-choice debate taking place away from media earshot? The pro-life position was more secure before he started his crusade; is there anything other than electoral opportunism that drives him to systematically return to this issue on the eve of elections?

Before proceeding to entrenchment in the Constitution does he intend to amend the Criminal Code provision on abortion in order to prevent the prosecution of surgeons or physicians performing abortions in the event of ectopic pregnancy or essential cancer treatment for the mother? If so will he not be the one to have introduced the first exception to our laws' absolute prohibition of abortion, an extreme draconian situation found only in Malta and El Salvador and noted by the United Nations? Of course the law is very reasonably ignored; is that sufficient, safe for all future time?

Does he ever expect me to forgive him for having smeared my name with his innuendos and his political chess playing on this issue when he is personally aware from a brief encounter with me that I am profoundly pro-life and that it hurts in a very special way when I realise that I am suspected by many to be pro-abortion?

Will he accept a one-to-one televised discussion with me on this issue if he is so keen to discuss it with me or is he afraid that I will be able to clear my name of all his party's slanders and make out his campaign to be the ineffectual sham it is?

Does he know of any Maltese political party other than Alternattiva Demokratika that has had occasion to record its pro-life stance on multiple occasions in formal documents on an international level? Does he know of any political party more extensively and deliberately misrepresented on this issue? As deputy leader of the PN, when does he propose to apologise for his party and its outrageous smear campaigns?

Until he does answer these and many other questions he will not have my support to his proposal. What I keep in mind on matters that have a profound, personal, moral significance for me is that I am morally accountable not to Dr Borg, nor to any potential voter but first of all to myself and then to my children. One day they will be old enough to ask me about abortion and about public stands I have taken on the issue. I want to be able to tell them that I have always been consistently pro-life in a serious manner, keeping in mind tangible reality and not virtual political fabrications, considering the issue with compassion and tolerance while holding fast to my pro-life beliefs; that I have done all in my power to prevent abortion and have never been satisfied to be seen to be pro-life while ignoring the tragedies hidden by political hypocrisy and electoral opportunism.