Women in Malta seeking an abortion during the pandemic are being forced to procure their own miscarriage or keep an unwanted pregnancy, even when the child has a severe abnormality.
Overseas charities have reported large increases in requests for abortion pills from women in Malta during the pandemic. Women On Web, an online community based in the Netherlands, received 45 pill requests in March and 47 in April, up from 18 in February, with three women who requested abortion pills saying they had been raped by their partner during lockdown.
Abortion Support Network, a UK-based charity, recorded an increase in requests from an average of seven a month before the pandemic to 13 each in March and April and 19 in May.
Malta is the only country in Europe that bans abortion in all circumstances, even in cases of rape, incest, or when the mother’s life is at risk. Abortion is punishable with up to three years in prison.
It is estimated that between 300 and 400 women from Malta travel abroad for an abortion each year, with the UK often their country of choice. In 2019, 58 women from Malta travelled to the UK for an abortion, up from 45 the previous year.
But with flights restricted and quarantine rules in place, women have been unable to leave the country and some have taken illegal abortion pills at home in lockdown.
Doctors from Mater Dei, the only NHS hospital in Malta, have seen a surge in the number of women turning up in A&E suffering from incomplete miscarriages, from what they suspect are self-induced abortions using pills illegally bought online. They have also witnessed women forced to deliver abnormal foetuses that they wish to terminate, including a baby with severe brain defects.
Prof Isabel Stabile, who runs a private gynaecological practice on the island, said she was deeply concerned by the increasing number of women falling victim to what she called the country’s “draconian abortion laws” during the pandemic. She is the only outspoken pro-choice gynaecologist in the country, so many women feel comfortable reaching out to her.
“The women I’ve spoken to have felt trapped. I was able to help one woman with a severe foetal abnormality reach the UK but many have not been able to and have had to continue with their unwanted pregnancy,” she said.
Maria Debono (not her real name), 31, was rushed to Mater Dei hospital in May after she felt faint with loss of blood after taking medical abortion pills at home alone at seven weeks of pregnancy. “I just felt so scared and alone. I was losing so much blood and didn’t want to go to hospital but my friend persuaded me to go,” she said.
When she arrived at A&E, doctors were so concerned that they told her they may need to operate. Debono feared the repercussions, so she lied to the doctors and said she had not taken anything. After some tests, the doctors told her she had “retained products of conception” left inside her womb and recorded it as an incomplete miscarriage.
“I’m completely traumatised by what happened, that I put my life in danger and I could be labelled as a criminal,” Debono said.
She believes the pill dosage she bought online was too weak and did not expel the foetus properly. However, the bleeding stopped and she was able to return home.
A gynaecologist from Mater Dei hospital who does not wish to be named said: “What’s most dangerous is that women can’t trust the healthcare provider to discuss these things. If someone is bleeding heavily, we need to know what caused it so we can treat them properly. Most of the time taking the tablets is safe but there are risks.”
Stabile said: “I firmly believe that the lack of abortion services on the island means that our medical authorities are falling short of the highest evidence-based standards recommended by international guidelines.”