135 doctors file legal protest calling for review of Malta’s abortion ban after US woman's ordeal
A group of 135 doctors in Malta have signed a legal protest calling for a review of the country’s blanket ban on abortion and demanding "empathy" following the ordeal of an American tourist who suffered an incomplete miscarriage while visiting the country.
Andrea Prudente, who was 16 weeks pregnant, was reportedly denied a request to terminate her non-viable pregnancy because of Malta’s strict abortion ban, even though she was at risk of infection or heavy bleeding.
Late on Thursday, her private insurance organised her medical evacuation to Spain where she was being treated.
Gynaecologist Isabel Stabile, who filed the protest in court on behalf of the 135 doctors, says this medical scenario happens to two to three women each year in Malta.
"Most women living here do not have private insurance to help them evacuate to get their much-needed treatment abroad. Our laws are neglecting these women, risking their lives needlessly," Stabile said in a statement.
The Mediterranean island nation is one of the few Western states that has a total ban on abortion, after the republic of San Marino decriminalised the procedure last year and other overwhelmingly Catholic countries such as Ireland and Italy legalised it.
In a similar case to Prudente's, a Canadian woman had to be flown out of Malta in 2014 to terminate an unviable pregnancy, according to the Times of Malta.
The legal protest filed on Monday argues that Malta’s laws put doctors in an impossible position.
"This criminalisation is also prohibiting the doctors from attending to the necessary care in cases where complications may arise in a pregnancy and therefore cannot adhere to international standards," it reads.
"Doctors in Malta refuse to accept this legal situation," Stabile said
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