As-yet unpublished guidelines on the sale of the morning-after pill should be reviewed, government whip Godfrey Farrugia insisted yesterday in parliament. 

Dr Farrugia argued that there was political consensus that the law defined life from conception and accused the Medicines Authority of forgetting what the law said.

Last month, the authority said that emergency contraception would be made available over-the-counter and would not require a doctor's prescription. 

In doing so, Dr Farrugia said, the country was adopting the flawed model employed abroad in countries where people do not have access to a doctor.

He asked what would happen in cases where the morning-after pill was needed in the early hours of the morning, when pharmacies are closed. He warned people might start purchasing the morning after pill as a precaution.

Dr Farrugia insisted that no one could be an environmentalist and also be "anti-life", saying that embryos were vulnerable and had no voice "like, if not more, than cats and dogs." 

He quoted a 2011 paper which stated that an active ingredient in Ella One, ulipristal acetate, could prevent the implantation or kill an implanted embryo. He said that the text made it clear that the Ella One pill was abortive.

Dr Farrugia said the pressures of modern day life were causing Maltese society to slowly lose its moral code that “we have always cherished” and “the moral conduct that has always distinguished us”.