Poland recently introduced a near-total ban on abortions, but it doesn’t foresee criminal charges against the woman, although they can be filed against the doctor who performs one and others who assist her. The Mediterranean island nation of Malta is one of the few Western states that has a total ban on abortion, after the republic of San Marino decriminalized the procedure last year and other overwhelmingly Catholic countries such as Ireland and Italy have legalized it. “We hope we will have a response from the respective ministries and the state,” said Lara Dimitrijevic, founder and director of the Women’s Rights Foundation, during Wednesday’s protest. Their case has been bolstered since the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner recently found that Malta’s blanket abortion ban puts the rights of its women “at significant risk.” The activists said Wednesday that if there is no response to their initial judicial protest, they would launch a court case and would be prepared to take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights. The filing doesn’t automatically lead to a court case, but the Women’s Rights Foundation filed a judicial protest six years ago as part of an ultimately successful campaign to legalize emergency contraception in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country. The petition by the Women’s Rights Foundation names the Maltese health minister, parliament’s secretary for equality and reforms and the state advocate in asserting that the country’s absolute ban on abortion violates the fundamental human rights of Maltese women of child-bearing age. Toting banners reading “I decide,” “Abortion is a woman’s right” and “Abortion is health care, not a crime,” the activists protested on the steps of Valletta’s legal courts after filing the complaint. ![]() ![]() ![]() VALLETTA, Malta (AP) - Abortion rights activists filed a legal protest in Malta’s courts on Wednesday demanding the legalization of abortion in the only European Union member where the procedure is criminalized.
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