What You Need to Know About Abortion in Malta 

What are the things you Need to Know About Abortion in Malta?  Abortion is discussed a great deal in Malta. There are pro-choice NGOs, activists and campaigns calling for changes to the law, and the subject appears regularly in our newspapers and social media feeds. 

But amid all the noise, it is worth being very clear about what the law in Malta actually says. 

Know about Abortion in Malta

The first thing you should know about Abortion in Malta is: Abortion remains Illegal. 

Under Article 241 of the Criminal Code, deliberately procuring a miscarriage is a criminal offence. The law continues to recognise that human life has value from conception, and that jeopardising such life is a criminal offence. 

There is, however, an important distinction that sometimes gets lost in the debate. 

Malta’s law provides an exception where a medical intervention is necessary because a pregnant woman is suffering from a medical complication that places her life at immediate risk, or her health in grave jeopardy that may lead to death, subject to the conditions laid down in Article 243B. In other words, Maltese law does provide for doctors to intervene to save a woman’s life. 

Then comes another claim worth clearing up: women are not routinely being sent to prison for abortion in Malta. 

The law treats abortion as a criminal offence, yes. But parliamentary information reported in 2021 established that no woman had actually been imprisoned for an abortion-related offence in the preceding 25 years. Since then, prosecutions have occurred, but outcomes have included conditional discharges, probation and suspended sentences rather than women being sent to jail. 

That distinction matters. The law continues to recognise abortion as an offence, while courts retain the responsibility of considering the individual circumstances of the person before them. 

And there is another part of the abortion conversation that receives considerably less attention: what happens when a woman wants to continue her pregnancy but feels she simply cannot cope? 

That is where organisations such as Life Network Foundation come in. 

And the help offered is not simply a sympathetic conversation and a pat on the back. 

Life Network accompanies women throughout pregnancy with counselling, emotional support and very practical assistance. If a mother cannot afford baby clothes, nappies, a cot, a pushchair or other essentials, we help provide them. If she is struggling to pay for necessary doctor’s appointments, we can help with those costs too. Financial difficulty should never leave a woman feeling that abortion is her only realistic option. 

And sometimes the problem is bigger than a packet of nappies or a medical bill. Sometimes a woman has nowhere safe to live. 

Life Network provides free accommodation for women who need housing, with support that can continue for up to three years as they work towards stability and independent living. Our homes are not merely a roof over someone’s head: they are intended to give mothers time, security and practical support while they build a future for themselves and their children. Life Network also assists mothers transitioning into independent living with necessities such as rent, household items and baby supplies. 

Life Line can be contacted on 2033 0023, while a 24/7 online chat is available through Life Line Malta. Support is confidential, and counselling is available during pregnancy, after birth and also for those seeking healing after an abortion. 

Because an unexpected pregnancy can be frightening. 

But frightened should never have to mean abandoned. 

And whatever side of the abortion debate makes the most noise, women deserve to know something very practical indeed: help exists, it is real, and they do not have to face pregnancy alone. 

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