It was left to Bishop Vincenzo Labini to fire the last salvo against abortion before Napoleon booted the Order out of Malta. Labini, the last non-Maltese bishop of Malta, enjoyed the reputation of a liberal and is said to have sided with the French revolutionary invaders against the Order. Yet his edict of June 14, 1788, elaborate, inordinately long, erudite, passionate and perhaps slightly hysterical, is the Magna Carta in the defence of unborn life. It was printed as a broadsheet at the government printing press and it makes all previous pronouncements sound shallow and perfunctory. The scourge of abortion had already been formally condemned by the Church synod of 1709.

A Caesarean Section, by Francesco Furini.

Labini starts by stating that his intervention on abortion was brought about by various zealous parish priests who reported to him that Malta was not exempt from these “funesti disordini” (calamitous derangements). He ordered that parish priests should, with all due decency and modesty, in a manner that would not cause scandal, draw attention in their sermons and teachings, to what a grave misdeed procured abortion was. That was one of the most detestable crimes as the foetus is alive, and it made abortion a true and treacherous murder, a wickedness the most horrid that can ever be committed against another person, especially if carried out by the mother, as the foetus ends deprived not only of earthly life, but, even more pitifully, of eternal life. Those guilty of abortion incur the highest degree of excommunication, previously reserved to the Pope in Rome and now delegated to bishops. If those guilty are in holy orders, they will forever forfeit all ecclesiastical benefices, endure degradation and be handed over to the civil authorities to suffer the death penalty.

A 17th century anatomical drawing of a foetus in the womb.

The bishop quoted the Council of Elvira, one of the earliest councils of the Church, held at the beginning of the 4th century AD, and its ferocious decrees: any woman who had procured her child’s abortion, however repentant, was to be forever deprived of absolution, even on the point of death. Her only hope of salvation rested on her contrition and the mercy of God. Labini observed that not even heretics, those guilty of witchcraft and the apostates who had reneged the faith attracted such censure.

Guilty of abortion, the bishop observed, were not only those who deliberately willed it and carried it out, but also all those who indirectly, by their acts or omission, ended up procuring it. These included brutal husbands who beat their wives and negligent mothers who, during pregnancy, carry out excessively strenuous work, walk long distances, do not eat enough, choose foods that excite desires, are intemperate or prone to violence, or love dancing. The involuntary abortions resulting from this behaviour was almost equally sinful.

And then fringes of a social conscience show through: poverty can be one of the causes that leads mothers to contemplate abortion – the faithful were exhorted to assist destitute pregnant mothers with free food and medicine to help them avoid having to undertake heavy duties incompatible with their state. Parish priests should look out for these indigent mothers and discreetly and privately offer them help; if they are not in a position to, they should inform the bishop who will ensure that, in the utmost privacy, the mothers would be “consoled and assisted”.

Bishop Vincenzo Labini’s edict of June 14, 1788, elaborate, inordinately long, erudite, passionate, and perhaps slightly hysterical, is the Magna Carta in the defence of unborn life

Labini added that according to the most eminent and learned physicians, the ensoulment of the foetus happens almost immediately after conception. The aborted foetus must be examined to see if it is well formed or shows sign of life, in which case it should be baptised immediately; but even still-unformed and putrefied foetuses should be conditionally baptised. Abortions being frequent and priests not being always available instantly to baptise, midwives should be examined twice yearly as to their ability to administer baptism in their stead, and new spouses should not be allowed to get married unless they showed they had learnt how to baptise their offspring.

The next subject touched upon is the death of a woman with child. The baby should be drawn out, preferably by Caesarean section, and instantly baptised.

The people had to be taught that if a pregnant woman appears to be in danger of death, the servants or relatives should immediately inform the parish priest that he may make arrangements for a Caesarean to be carried out the moment she was certified dead, as medical science had shown that sometimes the baby survived the mother even for days. Labini extended this obligation to any person, even not of the household, who came to know of the imminent death of a pregnant woman.

The parsley plant, said to have abortive effects.

If the surgery could not be carried out immediately, a warm cloth should be placed on the dead woman’s womb and a perforated cannula inserted into her lungs to ensure that fresh air still reached the baby. Labini granted 40 days’ indulgence to all those who reported the commission of an abortion, to those who facilitated the Caesarean section and to those who baptised the aborted baby.

The reference to Caesarean section needs some clarification for the modern reader. Today this surgery is performed on living mothers to ensure that both the mother and the baby survive. Though practised since antiquity, this was only carried out on dead mothers, to try to save the baby. No Caesarean by a European doctor successful for both mother and child is recorded before the 1820s. In Malta it was only in 1891 that Dr Giovanni Battista Schembri, professor of midwifery, performed the first ever Caesarean on a live mother, in which both woman and baby survived.

Parish priests had to ensure they learnt who of their parishioners was secretly pregnant – usually unmarried women – when the last sacraments were administered. Should they come to know this during confession, they had to coerce the penitent to repeat it out of confession to enable preparations for a Caesarean to be carried out. This should happen in the utmost privacy, but if the mother refused to divulge her secret pregnancy, then she should be denied the last sacraments “of which she is obviously unworthy, as she prefers her worldly honour to the spiritual survival of her creature”.

The bishop was well aware that parish priests would meet resistance in discovering the secret pregnancies of moribund (unmarried) women, because of considerations of honour. They must first start with gentle persuasion, then with demands, then with threats and finally by bringing in the police, as the baby could not be cheated of a Caesarean and baptism. Should the family be too poor to employ a surgeon, the priest had to pay himself for his services, and then be reimbursed by the bishop.

Portrait of Bishop Vincenzo Labini, courtesy of Rev. Archpriest Fr Robin Camilleri, Senglea.

The parish priests were not to believe the assertion of midwives and doctors that the baby was already dead inside the uterus. This is often said to avoid Caesarean surgery, while infinite cases were on record where babies who were presumed to be dead, were, after the operation, then found to be alive. Parish priests were ordered, under spiritual sanctions, to refuse Christian burial to women who resisted the operation when there were reasonable grounds to believe that they were pregnant before they died.

Priests were always to be at the ready to have available a nurse, midwife, doctor, barber (surgeon) or other person who was able to carry out a surgical section. In fact, the priests themselves should have in their possession the instruments required, so they could immediately be used.

These instructions applied not only to Catholic mothers, but also to non-Catholics and infidels. If the baby appeared to be on the point of death, he should be baptised directly when still in the uterus, and then, if extracted alive, be baptised again conditionally.

Bishop Labini excommunicated all those who took part in procuring an abortion, or did not confidentially report those who were participating in one, or the secret pregnancies of women about to die, and thus deprived the baby of the grace of baptism through a Caesarean section. These penalties only applied if the pregnancy had already run for 40 days, though eminent physicians held that the ensoulment of the foetus occurred much earlier.

Labini’s edict had to be published and explained to the people, even repeatedly, by all parish priests, and had to be given publicity each subsequent year, on the Sunday following the feast of the Holy Innocents, namely, December 28, to commemorate the massacre of all newborn babies ordered by Herod.