Raphael Vassallo A petition which claims to number 39,000 signatures, collected by the Gift of Life Foundation and presented to parliament on 3 December 2007 by MPs Michael Asciak (PN), Anglu Farrugia (PL) and Jose Herrera (PL), has not since been subject to parliament’s rigorous petition verification process, MaltaToday has discovered.
In fact, the signatures have to date not even been counted, still less checked for errors or duplications.
In reply to questions by this newspaper, the clerk of the House of Representatives, Ms Pauline Abela, explained that – contrary to normal parliamentary procedure where petitions are concerned – this particular petition was tabled during the adjournment, and not during the time normally allocated for petitions.
“Once the document was not tabled during the time for petitions, the regulations listed in the House’s Permanent Orders do not apply and for this reason there was no need for any verification of the document,” Abela explained.
It therefore transpires that the document in question (numbered 7855) is not recognised by Parliament as a petition at all.
And yet, the same unverified petition is repeatedly invoked as an argument in favour of a controversial Constitutional amendment, actively backed by the current Nationalist administration, aimed at putting any future discussion on abortion beyond the reach of Maltese parliament.
The proposal to entrench an abortion ban in the Constitution was first floated by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi during a press briefing in 2005. Afterwards it was taken up by former Justice Minister Tonio Borg, who embarked on a personal initiative to drum up popular support by inviting ‘all of civil society’ to agree with his government’s proposal in writing.
However, the original proposal encountered resistance among a growing liberal section of the public, which expressed consternation at a perceived attempt to silence minority views using legal means. Subsequently, Gift of Life embarked on its own campaign for a different Constitutional amendment, which argued in favour of ‘full protection’ for the human from the moment of conception, without entrenching the relevant section of the Criminal Code.
The petition tabled in Parliament was the fruit of this second campaign.
The debate has so far polarised Malta, with supporters of the amendment arguing that the human embryo at present lacks legal protection - in spite of law which renders abortion a crime punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment.
Among the opponents’ main arguments, on the other hand, is that the Constitution should not be used as a means of straitjacketing Maltese identity by limiting discussion on minority issues – as it had been in the 1960s, with the inclusion (upon the insistence of Church authorities at the time) of the controversial Article 2, which defines ‘the religion of Malta’ as ‘The Roman Catholic religion’.
Opponents also fear that such a Constitutional amendment will pave the way to copycat amendments - including one prohibiting divorce, with some observers already arguing in favour of a similar Constitutional provision to prevent its introduction to Malta.
The controversy now appears poised for reawakening, following comments by Tonio Borg in an interview with MaltaToday last Sunday.
Borg claimed that that it is still his wish to see the right to life of the unborn entrenched in the Constitution: “Contrary to the media’s perception that this is my crusade, I say that it’s the whole Cabinet’s intention to find a two thirds majority to entrench abortion in the Constitution on the same lines as the Irish did…”
The Irish Constitutional amendment, enacted in 1983, has since been the subject of fierce debate: largely on account of the s-called ‘X-Case’, when a 14-year-old Irish statutory rape victim was prevented from travelling to the UK to abort. The girl was placed under house arrest, and subsequently suffered a miscarriage,
The same Irish amendment has since had to be amended on several occasions by means of expensive national referenda, having found to be ambiguous in practice.
Any comments?
If you wish your comments to be published in our Letters pages please click button below. Please write a contact number and a postal address where you may be contacted.
