Matic Slaughter of Human Rights
The Matic report was yesterday endorsed with 378 votes in favour, 255 against and 42 abstentions. The Maltese MEP vote was as follows: Alex Agius Saliba, David Casa and Roberta Metsola voted against, Cyrus Engerer voted in favour, and Josianne Cutajar and Alfred Sant abstained.
The Life Network Foundation, Doctors for Life, The Malta Chamber of Pharmacists, Malta Unborn Child Platform and various other had alerted the Maltese Members of the European Parliament as well as Maltese members of Parliament and/or issued press statements criticizing this report and urging them to defend the rights of conscientious objection of professionals to abortion and to defend the principle of subsidiarity and reject the Matic report.
The Matic report is a radical proposal framed in women’s rights language that seeks to undermine fundamental freedoms in many European countries today. It makes a frontal attack on the right to freedom of expression, the right to freedom of conscience, the right to freedom of religion, the right of parents as primary educators of their children, and, above all, the right to life for all people.
It recommends state-funding for abortion as well as an end to the possibility for medical staff to resort to conscientious objection concerning the termination of pregnancies.
It requests that in member states sex education be made compulsory in primary schools, following the guidelines of the WHO, which might not be acceptable to many parents.
This is an alarming threat to freedom of expression. It also breaches the principle of subsidiarity whereby decisions are taken by the individual states. The sensitive topic of abortion should be discussed by the Maltese people and decided at a national level, and not imposed by some EU agenda. It should be emphasised that the Malta Protocol was included in the Treaty of Accession so that matters relating to abortion would always be decided by the Maltese people and no one else.
The endorsement of this report strengthens our resolve to work further in promoting the real issues setting women back in society, to increase our support to pregnant women and to educate to save lives.
The results of prolife work are visible and can be counted. They are women empowered, women restored, and newborn babies; new lives that give hope to a Europe facing a demographic winter.
Press Release by Life Network Foundation Malta
Photo by The Climate Reality Project on Unsplash
