Under a law dating to 1724, women who procure an abortion risk being imprisoned for up to three years
, who died in 1939, described Malta as “Malta Cattolicissima”. Today, that is not quite as true as it once was. The first schism with Catholic doctrine came in 2011, when divorce was legalised after a bitterly fought referendum. For the past four years, Malta has retained its top spot inpeople in 49 European countries. Same-sex couples now have equal marriage and adoption rights.
A fledgling grassroots movement is now positioning itself to break the taboo. “We want to normalise saying the word ‘abortion’,” says Lara Dimitrijevic, the founder of the Women’s Rights Foundation, an. In 2016 the foundation filed a judicial protest, signed by 100 Maltese women, claiming that the nationwide ban of the morning-after pill was a violation of their human rights. The pill was legalised soon after.
Even trying to organise is difficult. When the Republic of Ireland overwhelmingly voted to repeal its abortion ban in May last year, Maltese activists began copying tactics from their Irish counterparts, replicating their strategy of setting up an association of pro-choice medical doctors. But in Malta most of its 51 members chose to remain anonymous.
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