Malta – Doctors need guidance on reporting abortion cases, lawyers say

Abortion is illegal in Malta, but current situation is open to legal interpretation

Claudia Calleja
May 17, 2025

Lawyers are calling for clear guidelines to help doctors determine whether they should report abortions, warning that the lack of policy is leading to subjective interpretation.

Abortion is illegal in Malta except when performed by doctors to save a woman’s life. But there is no explicit legal requirement for doctors to report abortion cases to the police, resulting in some doctors doing it and others not.

Continued: https://timesofmalta.com/article/doctors-need-guidance-reporting-abortion-cases-lawyers-say.1109636

17.05.2025

News

Daniel Bianchi

Doctors For Choice Malta

Emma Portelli Bonnici

Lawyers for Choice

Malta Medical Council

Mater Dei hospital

Professional Secrecy Act

Most abortion police reports come from doctors at Mater Dei Hospital – data

Abortion is illegal in Malta, except when performed by doctors to save a woman’s life

April 2, 2025
Claudia Calleja

Four of the seven abortions reported to the police in the last decade were flagged by doctors at Mater Dei Hospital, according to police data.

Since 2014, the police received seven reports of abortions. Four reports were made by doctors, two by partners and one by a family member.

While the circumstances that led to the doctors’ reports are not clear, concerns have long been raised that fear of legal repercussions deters women from seeking medical help after undergoing an abortion.

Continued: https://timesofmalta.com/article/most-abortion-police-reports-come-doctors-mater-dei-hospital-data.1107549

02.04.2025

News

Catholic hospital

Doctors For Choice Malta

hospitals calling police over abortion

Malta – 2022 in review: A health crisis that sparked an abortion debate2

Malta’s blanket abortion ban has been questioned many times in the past... but 2022 saw its most serious challenge yet

Claudia Calleja
Jan 1, 2023

Abortion: a word that is guaranteed to spark a tense debate. Throughout the years, Malta has been nudged into considering its introduction but has held firm against. In 2013, the International Commission of Jurists told the UN that Malta’s blanket ban on abortion puts women at risk of torture and cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment. Nothing happened.

Three years later, the UNs Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended the decriminalisation of abortion “in all circumstances”, urging the government to ensure adolescent girls have “access to safe abortion and post-abortion care services”. Several international appeals persisted, including from the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights. Nothing happened.

Continued: https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/2022-review-health-crisis-sparked-abortion-debate.1004578

Andrea Prudente: imperilled US woman set to travel to Spain after abortion refusal in Malta

By Joshua Askew
23/06/2022

The life of a US woman is in grave danger after Maltese doctors refused to grant her a potentially life-saving abortion following a medical emergency, her partner Jay Weeldreyer told Euronews.

Andrea Prudente, who was on holiday in Malta with Weeldreyer for a "babymoon" holiday, suffered a premature breaking of her waters on Thursday.

Continued: https://www.euronews.com/2022/06/23/barbaric-maltas-abortion-law-threatens-us-womans-life-say-doctors

US woman left traumatised after Malta hospital refuses life-saving abortion

‘Desperate’ tourist who fell foul of country’s total ban fears for her life if complications set in while she waits for transfer to UK

Megan Clement and Weronika Strzyżyńska
Wed 22 Jun 2022

Doctors have denied an American woman on holiday in Malta a potentially life-saving abortion, despite saying her baby had a “zero chance” of survival after she was admitted to hospital with severe bleeding in her 16th week of pregnancy.

Despite an “extreme risk” of haemorrhage and infection, doctors at the Mater Dei hospital in Msida told Andrea Prudente that they would not perform a termination because of the country’s total ban on abortion.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jun/22/us-woman-left-traumatised-after-malta-hospital-refuses-life-saving-abortion