Doctors for Life, said in a statement on Monday morning that “Doctors signing the Judicial Protest for changes to Malta’s abortion laws had no access to the document before signing.”
DfL said that it has “become aware of the content of a Judicial Protest regarding abortion to be submitted today in Court by Prof Isabel Stabile in the name of a number of doctors.”
It added that the Judicial Protest “requests doctors be given carte blanche on abortion.”
The Professor had advised that the Judicial Protest had been signed by 135 doctors.
DfL expressed concern on two points, namely:
“The judicial protest is not requesting a refinement of the law so that it is more explicit in permitting therapeutic abortions covered by double effect, ensuring that doctors can perform delivery of the foetus for women in life threatening conditions. (This is the current practice already and legal experts consider this to be permissible by the law in its current form). Instead the judicial protest is requesting that article 243 is removed entirely therefore allowing any doctor or practitioner to perform any kind of abortion for any reason.”
The second point made by DfL, it that is “lamentable that doctors signing the form to include their names were not automatically shown the judicial letter itself or a full explanation of what would be specifically requested. The judicial protest letter was still being drafted whilst signatures were being collected and was not even ready by the last day of signature collection. This means that doctors signing the judicial letter may not actually be in agreement with such a drastic change in the law, which is much broader than required to address the issues pertinent to this case.”