Abortion right activists called for abortion to be decriminalised in Malta in the wake of a story that a 16-week pregnant American woman, who is suffering a miscarriage, had her request to terminate her pregnancy turned down in Malta. The NGO Young Progressive Beings held a protest outside of parliament on Wednesday afternoon, in which they demanded that no woman is sent to prison for having an abortion, and for abortion to not be politicised and be treated as a medical procedure. It said that the American woman's pregnancy was not viable, even though the fetus still had a heartbeat. “The woman and her family are being forced to watch and wait at Mater Dei, until she’s on the brink of dying.”They said that decisions regarding women's bodies should not be dictated by cisgender male politicians or by the clergy. "Regardless of whether the woman in question is airlifted to the United Kingdom, we believe it is of utmost importance to protest against the unnecessary & dangerous process caused by Malta’s criminalisation of abortion,” YBP said.

Source: The Guardian June 22, 2022 17:20 UTC