The problem with former finance minister Tonio Fenech is he reads English but cannot comprehend it (‘A beacon for life’, December 22).

This is what I wrote in my article of December 13 about women’s rights:

“PACE [Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe] Commissioner Nils Muiznieks, in the Maltese context, I’m not so sure this is an issue that it should, or needs to, address…

“The practical arguments are clear. It is a fact that those relatively few Maltese women who want an abortion – perhaps around 100 each year – obtain one by taking a flight to the United Kingdom or Italy and having it performed there. This has been the way for decades. Abortion by those who want it is, therefore, already available in practice.

“The issue is entirely pragmatic. Is there a burning need for abortion in Malta on practical or humanitarian grounds? The figures don’t appear to suggest there is. While I can see that, as a matter of principle, as Commissioner Muiznieks stresses, the humanitarian and compassionate women’s rights arguments to bring Malta into line with the laws of other advanced Western democracies are compelling, it is overridingly a matter for Maltese women to decide.

“Maltese women who want a termination can already get it. Maltese women are already exercising freedom of choice and freedom of conscience unshackled by moral paranoia. But if women feel that the current arrangements discriminate unfairly against those who cannot afford to go abroad, formal steps to introduce a law on abortion should be examined.”

Please note the word “examined”. The above remains my position.