The common description of the morning-after pill as "emergency contraception" is often misleading, since it fails to accurately describe its possible abortive action. The confusion is further aggravated by the current attempt to redefine pregnancy as occurring after implantation.

It is a basic fact of human embryology that life begins at conception. The morning-after pill may delay or prevent ovulation, or if fertilisation has occurred, it may prevent the implantation of a newly conceived human being.

The available scientific evidence for this "post-fertilisation effect", or early (chemical) abortion, is moderately strong, regardless of when in the menstrual cycle the hormonal "emergency contraceptives" are used. The resolution by the youth Parlia- ment fails to consider serious issues when allowing for chemical abortion in cases of rape. These being:

1) that a claim of rape may be fabricated to cover up an illicit affair or often to hide the evidence of sexual abuse - thus there is no guarantee that the unborn child was conceived in following rape;

2) even if the child is conceived in a situation of rape, allowing for abortion in such cases implies that the unborn child's right to life diminishes because of a criminal act committed by its own father before it even came into existence;

3) evidence shows that women who have been raped and have kept their babies rarely regret doing so, while the majority of women that have had an abortion after being raped mostly regret it.

The introduction of abortion for special circumstances has always been the first step to legalised abortion on demand in other countries. It is for this reason that Gift of Life has been lobbying for a clarification of the right to life in the Constitution of Malta.

Gift of Life notes with contentment that Joseph Muscat, Opposition Leader and leader of the Partit Laburista, is unequivocal in his stand against abortion.