Josie Muscat’s conservative views blaming today’s liberalism for many of our society’s ills may have a sound basis, although claiming that the so-called morning-after pill, by temporarily altering the function of the womb’s inner lining, amounts to “abortion by the back door” ( January 16), is perhaps carrying things a bit too far and too close to hysteria.

A couple of decades ago, we had a similar controversy about the claimed abortive potential of the various types of contraceptive intra-uterine devices.

We have to accept that we are not a theocracy (like an Islamic State) but a parliamentary democracy, so parliamentarians and their delegated committees decide on matters such as which contraceptive devices or hormonal tablets can be openly marketed.

We also need to accept that times have changed and social change cannot exactly be put into reverse. In Muscat’s and in my youth we did not go abroad with girlfriends nor sleep with them in our parents’ homes. The contraceptive pill and condoms were illegal and a tourist was taken to court for wearing a bikini at a popular beach – this was “swinging Malta 1960s vintage”.

Has liberalism gone too far? Perhaps it has. Many seem to have concluded that corruption is not only acceptable but is actually part and parcel of astute commercial sense. And if this is the case, permit me to feel that fretting about the unproven claims that contraceptive devices and hormonal tablets are back-door abortions is unconvincing. For the women who use them, this is a private matter and the intention is obviously to avoid an unwanted pregnancy not to abort unborn kids.