A joint meeting of Parliament’s standing committees on health, social affairs and family affairs brought out a plethora of inconsistencies in Maltese law.

It was also held that lowering the age of consent to sexual activities from 18 to 16 would not necessarily bring about more teenage pregnancies. If anything, it would give youths more legal protection while reducing criminalisation.

Perhaps the strongest words of warning came from gynaecologist and obstetrician George Buttigieg, who said that early exposure to semen, especially with promiscuity, could lead to problems later, such as cancer of the uterus.

The meeting, chaired by Health Committee chairman Etienne Grech (PL), heard that, in spite of having one of the highest ages of consent, Malta had the highest rate of teenage pregnancies.

The experts giving their opinions to the meeting pointed out a huge number of inconsistencies in legislation, including the fact that, by law, a couple under 18 could marry but not have sex.

Joanna Cassar, a senior lecturer on youth and community studies, said that in a 2012 survey by the Department of Health on Maltese youths’ sexual knowledge and attitudes, 41 per cent owed up to having started being sexually active at the average age of 15 and 65.7 per cent said that, having started to be sexually active, it was very difficult to say no.

The majority of them said they used condoms.