The Life Network Foundation is challenging the sale of the Morning After Pill on the local market, saying this was is illegal in terms of Maltese law.
By means of a judicial protest, Miriam Sciberras and Klaus Vella Bardon, chairperson and vice-chairman of the foundation respectively, together with Suzanne Vella, Mariella Catania, Martha Fitz and Marisa Gatt, personally and on behalf of Save the Embryo Protection Act (Malta) Group, filed the judicial act against the Superintendent for Public Health and the Medicines Authority.
On January 20, the Superintendent had approved the use and over-the-counter sale of the MAP, acting upon the advice of the Medicines Authority.
A Joint Committee of the House of Representatives had been set up, purposely tasked with advising the legislator on the effects of this medicinal product. However, scientific studies and findings, documented in papers laid before the Committee, had been completely ignored, the protesting parties argued.
Women must know that [emergency contraceptive pills] ... may at times inhibit implantation of a fertilised egg
Before the First Hall, Civil Court, the protest declared that the potentially abortive effect of this pill has been scientifically proven. Quoting one of the world's leading authorities on the subject – James Trussell, director of the Office for Population Research at Princeton University – it was pointed out that "to make an informed choice, women must know that [emergency contraceptive pills] prevent pregnancy primarily by delaying or inhibiting ovulation and inhibiting fertilisation, but may at times inhibit implantation of a fertilised egg”.
This destruction of life did not only violate the right to life as safeguarded under article 2 of the European Convention, but also constituted a criminal offence in terms of Malta’s criminal laws, the protest said.
It added that the UN Convention on Children's Rights, to which Malta is a signatory, declares that the child must be given "appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth."
Lawyers Tonio Azzopardi, Ramon Bonett Sladden and Louise Ann Pulis signed the judicial act.
This is not the first judicial protest filed in an attempt to stop the MAP. Last January, Dr Sciberras and Dr Vella Bardon of Life Network Malta had filed a protest against the Medicines Authority.