The Malta Unborn Child Movement - MUCM - made up of 44 Maltese organisations, has formally congratulated the two sides of the Maltese parliamentary delegation which attended the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg last month and which dealt with the resolution on abortion. It applauded the very active and firm stand of the Maltese delegation in favour of the rights of the unborn child, and the fact that all members of the delegation spoke very strongly against the resolution, and ultimately voted against it. Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Robert Arrigo represented the government while Leo Brincat and Joe Debono Grech represented the opposition.

The resolution called for the decriminalisation of abortion in all the Council of Europe's 47 member states. This in spite of the fact that the Brussels-based CARE-Europe had written to the members of the parliamentary assembly saying it was saddened that a process which started with a call to consider "abortion and its impact on women" from a concern about all the negative effects of the high rate of abortions in some European countries had ended up with a draft resolution calling for abortion-on-demand to be made a right.

On April 22, Pierre Portelli chaired a discussion on Net TV with Dr Pullicino Orlando and Mr Brincat on what went on, on those fateful days in Strasbourg.

The members of the Maltese delegation made reference to the "superficiality" of the highly charged "biased", "amateurish" and "rushed" CofE report to make it "an unconditional right" for women to do abortions - to kill unborn children.

They criticised the stance taken by the proponents of the resolution, especially its rapporteur, an Austrian woman MP, to speak only on what they alleged to be the right of women to have an abortion without making any reference to the right to life of the unborn child, to the right of the father of the unborn child to have a say in the matter and to the right of personnel in the medical and para-medical professions who, on a matter of conscience, refuse to be part of the killing process.

They also disclosed that only 185 of a total of 609 members of the CofE PA, that is about 30 per cent, voted on the resolution, and that only 102 members voted in favour of it. This means that only one sixth of all the members of the PA voted in favour of the resolution. It emerged also that "feminist extremists dominated the debate" in Strasbourg.

Consensus seemed to have emerged during the discussion on Net TV on the need to set up a permanent Maltese lobby group on the unborn child and abortion, and similar issues, to meet regularly and be much more prepared for future debates of the sort which took place at the latest Council of Europe PA. The positive effects of inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue on this issue, even in the established lobby group in Malta, were also gone into.

It was also said that a properly organised local lobby group could be in a position to make fresh and concrete proposals on this subject which eventually can reach the PA of the Council of Europe at the appropriate time.

The members of the panel spoke also about the great need to strengthen the existing local services for women who would be contemplating an abortion. The need arises, therefore, for more specific material, financial and human resources to reach Aġenzija Appoġġ for this purpose, and for the Gift of Life Foundation to be given more substantial material and financial support, also by the national authorities, to enhance and expand its programme Hope, to consolidate its counselling and material support services for women contemplating an abortion, or have already done so.

The MUCM, of which the Gift of Life Foundation is a member, welcomes these suggestions and feels it is already in a very good position to make substantial contributions to an enlarged and structured local lobby group on unborn children and their parents built on initiatives MUCM has taken during the last couple of years.

For this purpose, MUCM looks forward to meeting the Maltese parliamentary delegation to the Council of Europe on this subject when the delegation is again set up formally after Parliament convenes again in a weeks' time.