The Women’s Rights Foundation, that spearheaded the ongoing morning after pill debate, have slammed the parliamentary committee for recommending that the morning after pill be given only through a prescription. The group has also taken umbrage to the recommendation that doctors may deny women the right to emergency contraception on “the basis of morality.”

In a statement, the women’s rights group said:

ADVERTISEMENT

“Women’s Rights Foundation participated and followed closely the discussion held by the joint parliamentary committee with regards to Emergency Contraception. We have from the very beginning questioned the reasoning behind the need for members of parliament to interfere into availability of medicine, when such matter is clearly decided by the Medicine and Licensing Authority.

“We have heard arguments claiming that emergency contraception is abortifacient, a false and misguiding untruth that has been clarified by the the Chairman of the Medicine Authority and other well renowned medical professionals.

“We have also recently read that the Medical Authority recommended that emergency contraception be provided over the counter and therefore without the need for prescription. This is in line with the recommendations of the European Medicine Authority, European Commission, WHO, United Nations and others.

“And yet despite the overwhelming scientific consensus, our Members of Parliament recommend that not only should emergency contraception be given by prescription only, but also that medical doctors have a right to object on the basis of their morality.

“Which brings about to seriously question, what was the point in recommending that emergency contraception is licensed as "prescription only", if not to exert undue political pressure on the Medicine and Licensing Authority to act as puppets on a string rather than an independent authority? If parliament wants to decide on how medicines are licensed and dispensed, it should abolish the relevant authorities and undertake the job itself.

“Considering that some members of the committee found it difficult to discern between hard scientific evidence from "evidence" by what could only be termed dogma driven snake oil salesmen, this possibility leaves us terrified.

“We are indeed opening a dangerous can of worms, by insisting that Emergency Contraception is to be available via prescription only, and by permitting doctors to act as conscientious objectors. In this regard, the European Court of Human Rights has already declared that there is no right to conscientious objection when dispensing a licensed medical product. Implementing this recommendation will thus potentially expose doctors and the state to litigation.

“All that aside, it is clear from the entire debate that the rights of women was completely absent from the minds of the members of the committee who all voted in support of the recommendations. There was no word mentioned about the obligation that the state has towards women in Malta, which rights are clear in the laws and international treaties that Malta has signed and ratified.

“Which brings us back to where we started from. The current lack of availability of Emergency Contraception in Malta and the inappropriate access that has been recommended by the parliamentary committee, is in breach of women's rights. The state and its actors have been given a chance to correct the wrong but, judging by the recommendations of the joint committee, have failed to do so.

“As Women's Rights Foundation, we reiterate that the parliamentary committee's recommendation to make emergency contraception available by prescription only is disregarding scientific and clinical evidence and is recommending an action that harms women's health by denying them appropriate access to a product that can prevent an unplanned pregnancy.

“We have waited patiently in the hope that our members of parliament would have at least considered the rights of women and given that not once, were these rights even taken into consideration, we are not excluding further legal action.”