The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, in an air of menace, compared the protection of the unborn child to torture.
Newsroom (February 16, 2022, 8:35 PM, Gaudium Press) “It is time for the authorities to repeal provisions penalizing abortion, develop comprehensive regulation of women’s access to legal and safe abortion, and improve the availability of sexual and reproductive health services,” Dunja Mijatovic wrote to the Maltese government in a report published last Monday. Mijatovic is the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights.
The Commissioner’s statement, looking threatening, compared the protection of the unborn child to torture and said that such protection denied basic rights to women.
In line with this, the Commissioner advocated restricting the right to conscientious objection of health professionals.
The Maltese government’s response was swift.
While assuring to support “sexual and reproductive health services,” the government rejected that these services include “an intrinsic right” to abortion of an unborn child.
It also claimed that Malta’s pro-life laws do not imply danger to women’s lives: “If the life of the mother is in danger, everything possible is done to save both lives, applying the principle of double effect (as in the case of ectopic pregnancy). According to the Commissioner’s own report: “[…] in its response to the Commissioner’s remarks, the government pointed out that in the last ten years, no maternal deaths or complications following natural or illegal abortions have been recorded.”
The Maltese government also claimed its autonomy in regulations in this regard.
With Infocatólica information.
Compiled by Zephania Gangl
