Gozo Bishop Mario Grech is urging Malta to make its voice heard over the ambiguity of a clause in the international Convention on the Rights of People with a Disability that could possibly allow a mother to abort her disabled baby.

Mgr Grech said the clause aimed to promote the human rights of the disabled, but he felt Article 25, which spoke about services related to reproductive health, was ambiguous.

Article 25 states: "State parties shall provide people with disabilities with the same range, quality and standard of free or affordable health care and programmes as provided to other people, including in the area of sexual and reproductive health and population-based public health programmes."

It adds that disabled people would also be provided with health services they need "including early identification and intervention as appropriate, and services designed to minimise and prevent further disabilities, including among children and older people."

Mgr Grech described these paragraphs as an ambiguous formula, which could translate into abortion.

"What should be a tool of justice to defend the rights of disabled person, can be used so that a parent, who knows the baby in the womb has a disability, can kill the child," he said.

"Although we're a small country, we have a voice... and our country should make it heard so that we will be truly in favour of life, even when the person has a disability," Mgr Grech said.