More to campaign than abortion (1)

As a female, I have been following the Gift of Life campaign with particular interest.

I do not object to how the exponents promote their ideas. On the other hand, I wish to disagree to a significant extent with the ideas which the promoters of Gift of Life wish to impose on us Maltese females. I am personally against the legalisation of abortion in our country. Moreover, a female should ponder deeply and consider all the pros and cons properly, before going abroad to have a pregnancy aborted. I say this because I fear that, if abortion were to be legal in our country, many would opt immediately for the easier way out, rather than consider giving the gift of life to their unborn child.

What worries me intensively, though, is the way in which the promoters of the Gift of Life wish to anchor their beliefs in Malta's Constitution. The unfortunate statement, namely, "I call on the government and the Opposition to work together to clearly protect, through our Constitution, the right to life of the unborn child from the moment of conception", which is found in the petition that has been circulating on our island, implies more than just a stand against abortion. It implies a clear position against the "morning-after pill", and other contraceptive methods such as the coil. Worse still, it is obliging our government to take a clear stand against those couples who wish to have recourse to IVF treatment, as there are no laws to date which guarantee that all fertilised ova (whereby conception would have occurred) will be implanted in a female who would wish to become a mother.

I therefore request all females to note that there is more to this Gift of Life campaign than taking a clear stand against abortion.