Government backbencher Deo Debattista yesterday urged the government to set up a “pro-life” clinic to provide psychological help to women considering an abortion.

Speaking during the adjournment, Dr Debattista said many women were not being helped to the full and problem cases needed urgent assistance, including easier access to adoption.

It was true that both the government and the NGO Gift of Life – Hope provided useful services but it was not enough to legislate against abortion if women in two minds about whether to have one failed to get psychological help.

The establishment of a pro-life clinic would be a quantum leap, not only to help the expectant mother but also to protect the unborn child.

Dr Debattista lauded the government for its IVF programme through which, he said, three babies were born last year.

Malta’s birth rate stabilised during the last five years to between 9.5 and 10.1 per 1,000 persons or 4,000 births a year.

The establishment of a pro-life clinic would be a quantum leap for mother and child

Low birth rates have been recorded throughout Europe and many governments were offering women incentives to have more babies. However, he said, he could not understand how on one hand women were being encouraged to have more children and on the other hand they were free to abort.

In Malta, he underlined, there was unanimous agreement between the political parties that abortion was a no-go area.

The abortion rate in Europe was 12 for every 1,000 women of child-bearing age, meaning that one in every three pregnancies did not proceed.

The only records of Maltese women resorting to abortion overseas was from the UK Department of Health, which showed an annual average of 61 abortions between 2009 and 2013.

It was not known how many women resorted to abortion in other European countries but Rebecca Gomperts [the Dutch pro-choice campaigner] estimated that some 300 expectant Maltese mothers aborted every year, Dr Debattista said.

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