78 Maltese abortions in UK last year
Maltese women had 78 abortions in the UK last year, figures issued by the Department of Health in Britain show, marking a steep rise from 38 in 2008.
Earlier in the year, the National Statistics Office said an annual average of 57 abortions was carried out on Maltese women in England and Wales in the past 10 years.
The highest number, 69, dates back to 2002 and 2007, while the figure dropped to 38 in 2008 - the lowest since at least 1990. No figures exist for abortions on Maltese women carried out in other countries, the NSO said.
In total, 6,643 abortions were performed on non-residents in the UK, its Health Department figures showed, while the total number of abortions for England and Wales was 189,100, compared with 195,296 in 2008.
The abortion rate was 17.5 per 1,000 resident women between 15 and 44, compared with 18.2 in 2008. It was highest at 33 per 1,000 women aged 19, 20 and 21, again lower than 2008.
The under-16 abortion rate was four per 1,000 women and 17.6 for under 18-year-olds, both lower than in 2008.
Most abortions - 94 per cent - were funded by the NHS; of these, 60 per cent took place in the independent sector under NHS contract.
The Health Department figures show that 91 per cent of abortions in the UK were carried out at under 13 weeks of gestation and 75 per cent at under 10.
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P. Vincenti
May 28th 2010, 13:55
Various people who are aghast at these figures have been rather condemning of women who have turned to abortion in this space. Women are under great pressure to abort and they suffer tremendously after, even if pro-aborts want this last fact to remain hidden. Compassion and hope is what these women now need. We need to work to help these women and not torment them. This does not take away the gravity of abortion but one must be fair in this regard. If you are pro-life, it hurts nobody to show a little compassion. Abortion is a lie perpetuated by those who are afraid of responsibility and who have usurped words like choice and freedom. Abortion is primarily promoted by men, generally to cover up their unwillingness to support the women they got pregnant in the first place an take responsibility for her and their child.
Gerry Cowie
May 27th 2010, 23:12
@Anthea Doughty
"The woman's body, the woman's choice"
Be very afraid if you are an unborn child - oh but you can't be because they say you do not exist!
So, the subject of rape is put forward as the usual one to use. Don't forget that many women who have been raped have chosen to keep their children too - very noble indeed!
"In this day and age it is all about human rights." - Whose human rights, exactly?
What poppycock and a weak argument which clearly favours abortion over the human right to exist! Why not actually try defending life instead of falling back on such nonsense!
"The woman has a right to decide what happens to her body" - But apparently not the slightest responsiblity towards the new life developing in her womb. A baby is not an extension of the woman's body by virtue of the fact that only women have the womb necessary to safeguard the development of that child.
Please do not devalue life to a cheap commodity any more than it already has been.
Everybody who has commented in these columns is alive today because their parents chose life.
Why not choose life?
anthea doughty
May 26th 2010, 20:49
The womans body, the womans choice I'm afraid. All the rights are hers, above that of the unborn foetus. I note that most of the comments ranting against abortion here are from men. Women seek abortions for many reasons, sometimes the pregnancy has been the result of rape, I could understand not wanting to give birth to the product of a violent assault! However, whatever the reason, especially in a day and age when it is all about human rights, the woman has the right to decide what happens to her own body.
Joe Zammit
May 26th 2010, 20:34
Christopher Xuereb, compare and contrast what you have said with the FACT that 98% of Maltese and Gozitans consider abortion as the killing of innocent persons and are against it. Our political parties and all our MPs are against abortion. The Catholic Church who embraces 95% of all Maltese and Gozitans is against abortion.
We are the people of life.
Christopher Xuereb
May 27th 2010, 07:42
Mr Zammit, your percentage figures may be out slightly but I agree that it does seem that the majority of Maltese oppose abortion. As to 95% of the population being Catholic...well, I suppose that is probably also true on paper and I expect that as I was baptised a catholic I am counted in that figure even if I long ago stopped believing in the utter nonsense that is religion. The fact remains, however, that there are a number of Maltese women who travel overseas for the purpose of terminating pregnancies and no amount of constitutional entrenchments will alter this. We can preen our moral feathers for all the world to marvel at but our show of morality is as hypocritical as it is delusional.
Gerry Cowie
May 26th 2010, 20:14
The pro abortionists can rant on as much as they like about religion, but that is just a huge insult to all those of no religious persuasion who still respect human life from conception until natural death.
Whichever way one chooses to dress up the issue, abortion is killing a developing human being which is in the "safety" of the womb and therefore under the life-and-death decision of the woman bearing that child.
This is not to do with fundementalists as another correspondent puts it! Those who are prepared to value human life and not allow it to be cheapened as a commodity are used to being attacked on this issue. Freedom does not come without a degree of responsibility. If it is fundementalist to defend human life then that is a poor choice of words.
There are two options here:- Either you defend life or you allow it to be terminated either directly or indirectly, ie you attack it.
Sitting on the fence with the "pro choice" argument - ie pro abortion by turning a blind eye under the guise of personal choice - is just not the answer.
Either you are for or against life. End of story!
Christopher Xuereb
May 26th 2010, 19:28
The anti-abortionists can rant, rail, fulminate and generally bore us with their moral clap trap (invoking as much nonsense as they like about god and jesus.... some of us stopped believing in Father Christmas and other fables a long time ago) until their moral outrage makes them blue in the face. The fact remains that Maltese women who need or want an abortion, thankfully have, to a greater or lesser extent, access to the service. I imagine a similar, if not greater, number probably travel to Sicily and Italy.
Joe Zammit
May 26th 2010, 16:34
'Pro choice' is a deceit. 'Pro choice' accepts abortion. 'Pro choice' is a facade for abortionists.
Where would 'pro choice' be if the person proclaiming 'pro choice' had been murdered by his or her mother as the result of a 'pro choice'?
Joe Tabone-Adami
May 26th 2010, 15:35
It is called "emancipation". It is called "choice". It is also called "freedom. But actually it is MURDER. Herod the Great was good at it!!
Wilfred L Camilleri
May 26th 2010, 15:16
You will get those with a million excuses why abortion should be legalized. They say it's a woman's choice but the truth is that no one has the right to terminate a life. Abortion, euthenasia, capital punishment, terrorist acts, suicide, murder - all barbaric acts. We are supposed to be a civilized society but there's nothing civilized about killing another human being, regardless of the circumstances or the excuses.
George Caruana
May 26th 2010, 13:44
Earth to Paul Vincenti...Earth to Paul Vincenti.... Reality is calling!!
We need rational understanding why these could not have taken place in Malta. The chances of saving some of these pregnancies would have been surely higher than this!!
Joe Zammit
May 26th 2010, 12:15
Maltese pregnant women are doing WRONG to leave our shores to terminate their pregnancy. Abortion is the killing of innocent persons and no mother-to-be has the right to kill innocent persons.
The baby is not the mother and the mother is not the baby. They are two different persons and no one should help any Maltese woman to go abroad to kill her innocent child. It's cruel indeed for a woman to resort to abortion.
Shame on those Maltese women who have committed abortion.
Christopher Xuereb
May 26th 2010, 12:06
This article conjures up in my mind's eye an image of Paul Vincenti and his fundamentalist cohorts foaming at the mouth and gnashing their teeth in fits of apoplexy. If they want to give the constitutional amendment they are browbeating our politicians into passing any real bite then they ought to go the extra yard. They should bully them into introducing legislation to force women leaving Malta to provide a urine sample for testing to determine whether they are pregnant. Those found to be 'with child' would, of course, have to provide another urine sample upon returning to these hallowed shores to prove that they are still ‘expecting’.
If a woman isn’t free to decide whether or not to carry a pregnancy in the interest of protecting the unborn child then why should we worry about further impinging upon a woman’s liberty when a number of them are travelling for the specific purpose of seeking a termination?
Helena Psaila
May 26th 2010, 12:39
How scary... Don't say such thoughts out loud Paul Vincenti might hear you and put them in his box of "good ideas".
CZARB
May 26th 2010, 13:14
Good idea. While we are at it we should implement some sort of court to focus on moral issues. There are some good examples of them in Afghanistan and Nigeria.
(Sarcasm)
Robert Vella
May 26th 2010, 13:41
"Let every woman who has committed abortion meditate on what God said to Cain:
"Where is your brother Abel?" (Where is the embryo/foetus that you had?)
"I know not," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?" (Am I my embryo's/foetus' keeper?)"
X' GHANDU X'JAQSAM?????
James De Giorgio
May 26th 2010, 14:01
The one I see foaming at the mouth is you Christopher Xuereb.
SAVE LIFE, OPT TO GIVE EVERY CHILD A CHANCE!
Michael Parlato Trigona
May 26th 2010, 15:58
Abortion ... "in the interest of protecting the unborn child" ??? ... dont lie to yourself and others, please! If you choose to be a spade, call yourself a spade. A loving biological mother or a second chance in an adoptive family or even being brought up by carers in a loving institution, would be my personal definition of "in the interest of protecting the unborn child". Forgive me but I fail to see how killing a foetus is in its interest and who are we to decide, anyway?
Joe Zammit
May 26th 2010, 12:02
Maltese women should consider giving their offspring to be adopted by childless couples. During pregnancies they can be helped in diverse ways to carry on their pregancy until they give birth. They should not listen to those who urge them to take a false step by resorting to abortion.
Every abortion is an injustice. Every abortion is the unjust killing of an innocent person.
Let every woman who has committed abortion meditate on what God said to Cain:
"Where is your brother Abel?" (Where is the embryo/foetus that you had?)
"I know not," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?" (Am I my embryo's/foetus' keeper?)
Then God said, "What have you done? Your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground! (Your child's blood cries to Me from the clinic where you have had the abortion).