Pro-LGBTQ+ yet anti-abortion: What’s behind Malta’s differing stances?

The tiny Mediterranean island is one of Europe's most progressive on LGBTQ+ rights, but at the same time, it has a near-total ban on abortion. What is the reason for this dissonance?

By Clea Skopeliti
28/06/2025

When Belle de Jong shared her experience of having an abortion on national TV in Malta in 2021, she became the first woman in the tiny Mediterranean island nation to do so publicly.

The reaction to her interview reflected how this aspect of healthcare remains deeply divisive on the staunchly Catholic island, which has the EU's most restrictive abortion law.

Continued: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/06/28/pro-lgbtq-yet-anti-abortion-whats-behind-maltas-differing-stances

UK / Northern Ireland – We deserve five-star reproductive rights

MPs missed a chance to remove the threat of prosecution from anyone helping families make decisions about their own lives. With the far right on the march, it’s time to defend our rights.

By Emma Campbell
June 28, 2025

Campaigners were celebrating last week as the UK parliament took the first step to defend reproductive rights. But, as an abortion activist working here in Belfast, I was frustrated at a lack of willingness to fix the problems with the amendment. Even if it becomes law, the work that I do every day helping people here in Northern Ireland would still see me facing criminal charges if I did it in England and Wales.

I’ve been fighting for reproductive rights for 15 years and helping people access abortions much longer. When we started talking about removing the threat of prosecution from people making decisions about their lives and their families, non-governmental organisations around us were convinced we would never change the law in our lifetime. But when we’re striving for change we need hopeful imagination.

Continued: https://goodlawproject.org/emma-campbell-we-deserve-five-star-reproductive-rights/

Going abroad to get an abortion, a struggle for thousands of women in Europe

“Exporting Abortion”, a transnational investigation, reveals that more than 5,000 women in Europe have to travel abroad each year to access abortion services due to obstacles they face in exercising this right in their home country.

20 May 2025
Francesca Barca, Translated by Ciarán Lawless

On 24 April of this year the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) My Voice, My Choice came to a close. The initiative attracted around 1.2 million signatures: a remarkable success for an ECI – a mechanism that calls the European Commission to propose a legal act in an area where the member countries delegated powers to the EU, provided it collects enough signatures. The campaign demanded a financing mechanism to guarantee safe abortion care for all those without access to such services.

Current laws and practices, it seems, are far removed from what civil society knows to be the reality.

Continued: https://voxeurop.eu/en/abortion-abroad-struggle-women-europe/

Inside a Czech Abortion Network Offering Pregnant Women from Poland a Lifeline

Apr 29, 2025
By Tamara Davison

Eva Ptasková was waiting in a dimly lit parking lot near the Czech-Polish border at 4 a.m. for someone she’d never met.

“It was empty and dark,” Ptasková recalled about the unusual mid-pandemic encounter, adding that she kept her colleague on the phone for safety.

Eventually, a figure exited a taxi and clambered into Ptasková’s car — a woman from Poland, who had traveled to the neighboring Czech Republic for an abortion. With just hours to spare before the appointment, Ptašková listened to the woman recount her life story as they drove through the night. It was the first time the Polish woman, who was already a mother to a young baby, had left her homeland.

Continued: https://www.moretoherstory.com/stories/inside-a-czech-abortion-network-offering-pregnant-women-from-poland-a-lifeline

Over 5,000 women in Europe have to travel abroad for abortions each year

Legal, bureaucratic and social obstacles are still faced by women, even if they live in countries where abortion is legalised.

7 Apr 2025

THOUSANDS OF WOMEN have to travel to neighbouring countries in Europe to access abortion care due to barriers faced at home.

A cross-border investigation, Exporting Abortion, exposes this stark statistic for the first time, following an extensive examination of data and personal testimonies across Europe.

Our analysis found that more than 5,000 women travel from their home countries every year due to the difficulties they face in accessing abortion care. In 2023, that number was at least 5,860.

Continued: https://www.thejournal.ie/investigates-exporting-abortion-europe-6666436-Apr2025/

Malta – ‘We all know someone who has had an abortion’

The performance is a love letter to Malta

Mar 2, 2025
Esther Lafferty

Acclaimed play Blanket Ban is coming to Spazju Kreattiv this month. Esther Lafferty speaks to writers and actors DAVINIA HAMILTON and MARTA VELLA about the upcoming performance.

This Friday, the long-awaited show Blanket Ban, written and performed by Davinia Hamilton and Marta Vella, arrives on stage at Spazju Kreattiv. It was conceived in 2020, after the first pro-choice rally had taken place in Malta and as assistance from the Abortion Support Network became available in Malta.

“We wanted to contribute to this movement for change and asked ourselves what we could contribute as performers and activists too,” explains Vella.

Continued: https://timesofmalta.com/article/we-know-someone-abortion.1105833

02.03.2025

Film, Art, Books

Abortion Suppo

Abortion Support Network

JD Vance decried as extremist over attack on UK abortion clinic safe zones

US vice-president’s comments, part of a wide-ranging tirade against Europe, called inaccurate and misogynistic

Alexandra Topping
Sat 15 Feb 2025

JD Vance has been labelled an “extremist” after he launched a broadside against the UK’s efforts to protect women seeking an abortion.

The US vice-president’s criticisms of UK and Scottish policies on safe access zones around abortion clinics – part of a wide-ranging tirade against Europe on Friday – were derided as inaccurate and misogynistic by a number of groups, politicians and governments.

Heidi Stewart, the chief executive of Bpas, the UK’s leading provider of abortion services, said safe zones – buffer areas of 150 metres around abortion clinics designed to stop women being harassed with leaflets, shown pictures of foetuses, or having to pass by vigils – were vital to protect women’s access to essential healthcare in an “overwhelmingly pro-choice country”.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/15/jd-vance-decried-as-extremist-over-attack-on-uk-abortion-clinic-safe-zones

Siege days are over: how Northern Ireland came to lead the UK on abortion

The chilling atmosphere of pickets and protests at clinics has given way to a new ‘gold standard’ of care

Rory Carroll, Ireland correspondent
Thu 21 Mar 2024

The family planning advisers at Shaftesbury Square still remember the days of siege when anti-abortion protesters staked out the front and rear entrance of their office in central Belfast.

Some pickets would splash holy water on the doors and daub salt crosses on the pavement while others would thrust leaflets with pictures of babies and foetuses at woman entering or leaving the building, and sometimes follow them.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/21/how-northern-ireland-came-to-lead-the-uk-on-abortion

Malta – Forty, pregnant, and seeking an abortion

A trend is emerging in Malta among women aged 40 and over, who already have children and who experience unintended pregnancies despite using contraception. The Journal catches up with Doctors for Choice - Malta’s Dr Natalie Psaila.

The Journal
Jan 16, 2024

If you think that unwanted pregnancies are exclusive to teenagers, think again.
“An emerging trend that we’re observing is among individuals aged 40 and over, who already have children, who say that they have used contraception, but still experience unintended pregnancies,” reveals Dr Natalie Psaila, a Maltese doctor who make it to the BBC’s top 100 inspirational women in 2023.

These women confirm using CE certified condoms but, despite these precautions, they still get pregnant, she pointed out. “These condoms shouldn’t fail easily but no contraceptive is fail-proof. This is why these couples are getting pregnant. Condoms have about 10% failure rate. Something like the pull-out method – a favourite with the Maltese – has a 40% failure rate.”

Continued: https://thejournal.mt/forty-pregnant-and-seeking-an-abortion/

In the three years since Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruling, Abortion Without Borders has helped more than 125,000 people in Poland to access safe abortion

Wednesday, October 25, 2023

In the three years since Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruling, Abortion Without Borders has helped more than 125,000 people in Poland to access safe abortion with more than PLN 3,675,000 (€823,290) in funding.

During the last year (from 22.10.2022 to 22.10.2023), Abortion Without Borders groups helped 46,773 thousand people from Poland to access abortion with more than PLN 1,675,031 (€375,250). More than 1,235 of these people traveled abroad to access a second or third trimester abortion.

Continued: https://womenhelp.org/en/page/1577/new-data-from-abortion-without-borders-in-the-three-years-since