A pro-life leader fighting to stop Malta from legalizing the killing of unborn babies reported her office was vandalized Tuesday.
The Times of Malta reports pro-life leader Miriam Sciberras said she contacted police after the front door of her dental clinic in Żabbar was smashed.
“All I have done is to work and speak to try and give these unborn babies a voice,” Sciberras wrote Tuesday on Facebook and posted photos of the vandalism. “Someone does not like that I am defending voiceless babies.”
Sciberras said she believes her office was targeted because she is a pro-life leader in the midst of a tense debate about abortion legislation in Malta.
Not deterred by the vandalism, she said, “I will not remain silent!”
On Monday, two pro-life Labour MPs, Rebecca Buttigieg and Randolph Debattista, also “received anonymous handwritten letters calling them disparaging names and accusing them of being ‘baby killers,’” according to the newspaper.
ACTION ALERT: To oppose this pro-abortion bill, Contact lawmakers in Malta.
Pro-life advocates across the world have suffered a wave of vandalism, arson, threats, harassment and other crimes this year, especially in the wake of the United States Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
Malta is one of the few countries in Europe that protects unborn babies’ right to life. Abortions are legal only if the mother’s life is at risk. This fall, MPs introduced a bill that they say would make the law more clear that abortions are allowed when the mother’s life is at risk.
However, Sciberras and many others say the language is too broad and elective abortions also would be allowed under a wide “health” exception. Many Maltese doctors, nurses and midwives also oppose the bill.
In late November, Parliament passed the first reading, and a second vote to advance the legislation occurred this week. The final vote likely will take place in the new year, according to the Times of Malta.
Earlier this month, approximately 20,000 people showed up to protest the legislation at a pro-life rally in Valletta organized by the Life Network Foundation and other pro-life organizations.
More than 450 doctors also signed a petition calling on Parliament to amend the bill and stop Malta from opening “the door for legal abortion” on demand, Newsbook reports. They urged Malta citizens to sign the petition, too. Written by 80 leading medical professionals, lawyers, ethicists and academics, it proposes amending the bill to ensure that Malta remains “limited to the current policy where doctors can always act to save the life of the mother, even if this results in the undesired death of the baby.”
The small European country has resisted international pressure to legalize abortion for years. Abortions are illegal in almost all cases in Poland, but Malta is the only European country that fully protects unborn babies from abortion.
Until recently, a number of European countries protected unborn babies by prohibiting abortions. However, Ireland abandoned its pro-life laws in 2018 and Northern Ireland was forced to legalize abortion 2019 by the British Parliament.
ACTION ALERT: To oppose this pro-abortion bill, Contact lawmakers in Malta.
