Tough lobbying by a four-member Maltese parliamentary delegation failed to stop a pro-abortion resolution from being approved in the Council of Europe in Strasbourg yesterday.

The endorsement, which has no legal bearing on Malta or any other member state of the CoE, calls on member countries which, like Malta, still ban abortion to decriminalise it and make it available to all women who choose to terminate a pregnancy.

A total of 185 of the 318-member assembly cast their vote at the end of yesterday's three-and-a-half-hour-long debate, considered to be one of the longest in the assembly's history.

The resolution was adopted with 102 votes in favour, 69 against and 14 abstentions.

The three Maltese members with voting rights, Nationalist MPs Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Robert Arrigo and Labour MP Leo Brincat, voted against the resolution. The Maltese delegation also included Labour representative Joe Debono Grech.

Malta has three votes in the CoE parliamentary assembly, two for government MPs and one for an opposition MP.

Visibly disappointed, the members of the Maltese delegation told The Times immediately after the vote that the resolution does not do any good to the image of the assembly.

"I am totally disgusted, not only by the way the vote went but also by the poor level of the debate," the leader of the Maltese delegation, Dr Pullicino Orlando, said.

"Over the past days we all lobbied hard with members of our different political groups to try to convince everyone that abortion is also about the rights of the unborn child and not only those of women.

"We tried our best but, evidently, this was not enough as we are a small delegation. The vote shows that the pro-choice lobby was more organised than the pro-life one," he said.

The majority of member states of the CoE already allow some form of abortion, and this was evidently reflected in the debate and the final vote.

From the 47 member states of the CoE, only Malta, Andorra, Poland and Ireland still completely ban abortion. A number of other member states have restrictive rules but still allow some form of abortion.

"The prevailing situation in Europe was reflected in the vote," Mr Brincat said.

"Personally, I thought that the vote in favour of abortion would be even larger when you consider the number of pro-abortion speeches made during the debate. However, we still managed to make our point clear that Malta will not in any way legalise abortion. We are in favour of the family and the rights of the unborn child," he insisted. If this resolution was to be taken seriously, we would not have been here today were it not for our parents' pro-life choice," Mr Arrigo pointed out.

"Today, the CoE tried to play God. We obviously can't do this as we are so small next to God. Who are we to decide to terminate a life?" he asked.

"We are pro-women, men and the unborn child. All three are in the equation, not only the mother," he said.

The resolution was moved by the assembly's Committee for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men following its preliminary adoption last month when Malta was in full electoral mode.

According to the resolution drafter, Austrian Socialist MP Gisela Wurm, the resolution aims to give women their rights.

In the opening of the debate, the Socialist rapporteur said that a ban on abortions does not result in fewer abortions but leads to clandestine abortions that are more traumatic and more dangerous. She called for all CoE member states to give this right to women.

The majority of the 28 speakers who took part in the debate spoke in favour of the resolution.

Swedish MP Carina Hagg described the situation where abortion is illegal as disrespect to women. She invited Maltese and Polish women to go to Sweden and have "a safe abortion" there.

The only MPs who spoke against the resolution were the Maltese, the Italian, the Irish and the Polish representatives.

In his address, Dr Pullicino Orlando called the resolution misleading and criticised the rapporteur for suggesting that abortion is a right.

"There is no European or international document speaking on the right of abortion," he stressed.

He also criticised the way in which the draft resolution was pushed through the CoE committee thanks to speakers and experts who had "a clear pro-choice approach".

"A society that destroys its young is condemning itself to oblivion," Dr Pullicino Orlando concluded.

Mr Brincat said Malta is unanimously against abortion. "The issue never featured and will never feature on our agenda.

"Our position is unequivocal and this is solely the result of our deep commitment in favour of the rights of the unborn child rather than the outcome of sheer political opportunism," he said.

This is the first time that the CoE called for the decriminalisation of abortion since Malta became a member of the assembly in the mid-1960s.

Malta has always vehemently opposed any imposition of abortion on its territory in all international fora including the CoE, the United Nations and the European Union, as it believes that this is something for an individual country to decide.

During its negotiations for EU accession, Malta also insisted on a special protocol inserted in the Treaty of Accession to make sure abortion in Malta remains illegal.

Gift of Life yesterday called on the government and the opposition to react to the vote taken to decriminalise abortion.

"In a shameful attack on our island as well as other European pro-life countries, the Council of Europe has voted to uphold this appalling resolution against human life.

"This is an attempt at imposing values that are incompatible with higher Maltese family values," Gift of Life said.

The NGO said it was deeply concerned at the long-term repercussions as the pressure now placed upon Malta in favour of abortion is now greater than it has ever been.

It expected Malta to respond with the same determination and absolute resolve in favour of human life as the movements in favour of abortion have done against life at the Council of Europe.