Aileen Scerri, Sliema
Morning-after pill
It would be a very sad day for Malta should the morning-after pill be legalised for rape victims, as the resolution approved at the special sitting of the Youth Parliament suggested.
The morning-after pill destroys the creation of a new life. Conception would have taken place and the pill destroys it. Let no prospective mother be deceived.
Being raped and bearing the aggressor's child is very traumatic, and psychological and financial help should be provided; however, never was a wrong put right by another wrong. Initially the victim might do anything to get relief, but ultimately she would have to face not only the trauma of being raped but, worse, of killing her own offspring.
Ironically, the same Youth Parliament is against abortion which might confuse some individuals, especially traumatised victims. The morning-after pill destroys life just as abortion does.
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Joe Xuereb
Sep 28th 2009, 19:23
Aileen Scerri, am I to assume that you would never put yourself in a rape situation?
S Keyes
Sep 28th 2009, 13:58
Rape or no rape a women has the right to choose if or when she becomes pregnant. The state should play NO role in the decision other than giving people the education to deal with the issue and the freedom to choose for themselves.
Raymond Cachia
Sep 27th 2009, 22:26
@ Maria Vella
You are right on!
As a person who worked for years in Family Court abroad, I can tell you of litanies of cases where unwanted children become wards of the State while their deadbeat fathers (and mothers sometime) run from their responsible and the law..
Unless a child is planned for, wanted and loved, PLEASE do not bring them into this world.
Emma Xerri
Sep 27th 2009, 21:41
@ Gerrie Cowie
Just as I thought, you did not blog on the recent news article of a 12 year old Yemeni girl dying after 3 days of labour, child trying to give birth to a child. Your silence was deafening, yet here you have the audacity to preach to us on the sanctity of human life. Such Hypocrisy!
I guess not ALL human life is sacred to you and your kind. In fact, if it is female life it is near worthless (unless of course it is carrying a potential embryo - preferably a male embryo).
H. Rogers
Sep 27th 2009, 21:22
Most of you commenting here are men - would you bring up a child as your own if your wife/partner was raped? How would you both feel ? I would like to ask the men on here this question.........? What would YOU do in this situation?
Chris Reiff
Sep 27th 2009, 20:19
Ms. Scerri. When you, god forbid, become a rape victim, tell me what you do. Rape victims should have the choice.
edwin formosa
Sep 27th 2009, 18:49
We are speaking about abortion which is the abstract word meaning the clinical poisoning or surgical dismemberment of unborn children. And it includes also partial-birth abortion that is the delivery of babies feet first in the last trimester of pregnancy (that's right - up to the day the baby could be naturally born), then punctures their skull before the head is free of the birth canal (which is why this infanticide is called partial-birth abortion). Which reason cited below justifies it?
nella bencini
Sep 27th 2009, 18:10
Mamma Mia Aileen what a mentality!! I can't believe you said all that. Thumbs up to Ramon Casha. He couldn't have said it better.
Maria Vella
Sep 27th 2009, 17:21
If it is debatable when the start of life is I do not understand how some can be so sure that life exists a few hours after intercourse. Children are a wonderful thing at the right time within the right framework of their parents' life. It is sad and tragic to try and bring up an unwanted child. A human being should be brought to life with great responsibility, because he/she should never feel extra. Children should be given life because they are loved, not loved because they were given life So maybe better no life than one which promises hope and never gives it.
wenzu vella
Sep 27th 2009, 16:17
Aileen,
You remind me of a very good friend of mine very religious in her thoughts like you. She had two daughters one of them, being human, made a mistake and when it was found that she was pregnant she asked for my advice, she knew that I was not religious, and because I believe in the freedom of choice of the individual I declined to be involved.
I live in the State of Victoria, Australia, where abortion is legal and free, the decision was that it was best for them to use the service provided.
Joseph Calleja
Sep 27th 2009, 15:55
Morning pill, birth control pill etc should all be left up to the woman.
A WOMAN HAS A RIGHT TO CHOOSE She should be left alone to make that decision, If she needs advice I'm sure she will ask for it. This is not a third world country?
We are free to do good and not evil. Mr Zammit save this line for the politicians.
Joseph Calleja
Sep 27th 2009, 15:41
Joe Zammit , nice sermon... If abortion pills, condoms etc were allowed and readily available in Malta and sex education were in the curriculum you would not need the morning after pill. Even so it is
Luca Bianchi
Sep 27th 2009, 15:33
@ Joe Zammit: it is pitiable to impose on others your beliefs. I can't quite comprehend why on Earth many Maltese think they can do so.
I believe, and by no means am I saying this is a cast-iron fact like you've tried to depict your statement, that women, who will eventually have to deal with the racist child. And that might cause to her a sever trauma, apart from the uneasiness.
You know, Mr. Zammit, resorting to Biblical gospels might eventually turn to be counterproductive. I'm flabbergasted, indisputably.
Gerry Cowie
Sep 27th 2009, 15:28
Abortion is indeed a personal issue - very personal to the human person who is aborted.
Rape is always the extreme example put forward, and it's very sad that it happens at all.
Not all those who are victims of rape in fact decide to have abortions. Happily they decide to keep their children. If you check the internet you will find there is even a book containing stories of their experiences.
Because some see life as just another commodity it's easy for them to decide that the other victim of rape, the unborn child, doesn't get a look-in. As in any other abortion situation a life is all too easily extinguished.
The morning after pill, by causing the womb to reject a fertlised egg, which is human, thus causes an abortion, or as some like to dress it up, a miscarriage.
It's insult to those of no religious belief to suggest this is merely a Catholic issue. One doesn't need to be religious to respect life from conception to natural death.
Life begins at conception. It cannot be cheapened just to suit pro abortionists' arguments and reduced to a ball of cells! The womb is a place of safety!
Ramon Casha
Sep 27th 2009, 15:01
The moral implications of the morning after pill are identical to those of using contraceptives. A fertilised egg is not a person. Did you know that, even without any contraceptives or morning-after pills, the majority of fertilised eggs naturally fail to implant and are lost when the woman has her next period? That's how insignificant it is.
Raymond Portelli
Sep 27th 2009, 13:49
How ARROGANT!
Who are we to impose our will and belief on other people? If the option is there, then it should be available to everyone, not only women who are raped. Everyone must carry the burden of consequence. Be that deciding to go through with a pregnancy or aborting one.
I am personally anti abortion and hope to God I am never faced with a situation where I will have to advise anyone I care for on the subject. That is my opinion, formed from my personal perspective on life and I am hugely ignorant as to the lives led by the vast majority of the population as I am only intimately involved with a negligible percentage, as can be said by every single one of us.
Why do we adopt an absolute position when ours is one of ignorance? Let those who experience rape make the decision, not those who discuss it, let them keep their words for support.
Counsel your children and those you love and hope you have done a good enough job to influence their values in a positive way. If we all did that, this wouldn’t even be a topic for discussion.
John carmel Navarro
Sep 27th 2009, 13:10
This is certainly a very emotive subject here in Malta I feel people elect to hide rather than face facts. To overlook the circumstances surrounding a pregnancy as a result of a rape is unbelievable those who profess to be Christian would rather further punish the victim than allowing a termination. Having a whole page advert in the newspaper against the morning after pill is sad; it just shows that there is very little compassion. This is a time to take stock of which road we want to take either the one that takes us to the Middle Ages or the one that brings us to the present time. Please I repeat just spare a thought about the victim who was rapped, before one starts to pontificate.
Anthony Borg
Sep 27th 2009, 13:00
Too many people are missing the point over abortion . A person should have a choice. Her choice, not dictated by someone who has a different opinion. If you do not want an abortion do not have one, but no one should have the right to impose their will on others. Its called civil liberty.
If the rape Victim cannot have an abortion or the morning after pill, she becomes an unmarried mother. The goverment has signalled that they want to stop her financial benefit.
So make up your mind and be clear what the consequences would be. Maybe some may say that a rape victim should be exempt and still gets welfare assistance. Fine. Lets create another loophole. All girls that become pregnant will start claiming that they have been raped.
Please think things right through before you write about these things. Knee jerk reactions to some news and hasty legislation will often have unwellcome results.
M. Debono
Sep 27th 2009, 12:44
@ Adriano Spiteri
"Abortion and Divorce - the same topic. Personal choices yet some want to dictate what others can or cannot do: all based on their own cretin mentality, in many times a religious one."
Is killing a human being and divorce for you the same topic??
Do not mislead yourself in thinking that abortion is not the killing of a human being.
"Conception does not mark the creation of a new human-being" - Ehhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! I hope you're joking. Conception marks the beginning of a new life. People who are in favour of abortion give a date - usually 3 months - when the foetus is considered a human being. This is ignorance and egoism at its very best.
Adriano Spiteri
Sep 27th 2009, 11:42
Abortion is a personal decision, more critical when rape is involved.
Your rationale simply forces a student to ruin her life by having to endure the physical, mental and financial stress that rape inflicts on her. That would not only ruin her studies but moreover her life-long dreams by having to mother an undesired, unplanned baby alone.
Abortion and Divorce - the same topic. Personal choices yet some want to dictate what others can or cannot do: all based on their own cretin mentality, in many times a religious one.
Who in the end gives the electorate a right to vote in favour or against a PERSONAL choice?
Conception does not mark the creation of a new human-being. It leads to a process that in turn creates that. This living chemistry cannot be called a person if it is not in a state to live by its own if extracted. It's formation, environment, maturity and nutrition is purely dependent on the mother as is the decision to keep or terminate it.
I do hope fewer would-be mothers opt for abortion for other reasons. Nevertheless the pill should be suggested in cases of rape.
david reiling
Sep 27th 2009, 11:27
this is plain stupid and disgusting - the morning after pill should be allowed 100% - how dare this person say that women who are abused via rape must have the rapists child - its bad enough being defiled with all the mental and psycholgical trauma but to have lifelong reminder of it is catholicism gone mad. It is my belief that at the stage of the morning after a foetus doesnt exist!!!!!!there fore no life can be terminated anyway.
by the way - its would not be her offspring itsthe rapists child conceived via forced sexual assault.
Joe Zammit
Sep 27th 2009, 11:24
We are free to do good and not evil. Abortion, be it morning-after pill or otherwise, is evil. A person who loves God does not resort to any form of abortion because abortion is always the killing of an innocent person.
If a woman takes the pill, she is abusing of her freedom. And if she abuses of her freedom she renders herself a slave to sin.