In an era of post-truth, people who are pro-life have been branded anti-choicers, whilst people in favour of killing unborn children have been hailed as pro-choice.
In an era of post-truth, values have gone out of fashion. The nanny government has chiseled away at parents’ rights and duties to educate their children and instil basic values in them. In this era of disinformation and lies, the one who is hated the most is he who speaks the truth.
Gone are the days when integrity and backbone counted in politics. Gone are the days when parties had ideologies to look up to. Promising everthing to everyone is the easiest thing to do. Populism does not need strategy. Neither does it need intelligence. When things are not delivered, populist politicians always find a scapegoat to deflect attention and responsibility.
Populist politicians do not appeal for reason or logic. They appeal to emotions. They inflate incidents that are likely to boost their agendas. They twist them and misinterpret them in order to suit their narrative.
In Malta our populist government tried to legalise abortion by stealth. This move back fired big time when internal surveys showed that the vast majority of the population is pro-life, creating a massive u-turn. The people were satisfied that the issue was laid to rest.
Then came the non-binding resolution of the European Parliament advocating that abortion should be included as a fundamental human right available to women as part of sexual and reproductive health. The resolution was daring enough to imply that even the right of conscientious objetion of doctors and nurses should be done away with.
One of the proponents of this resolution was none other than our very own Maltese Labour MEP, Cyrus Engerer.
And how hypocritical can we all be? In all laws on in vitro fertilisation, fertilised eggs in a test tube are called embryos. This means that legally and scientifically, legislators accept the fact that a fertilised egg is alive, and that thus, life begins once an egg is fertilised by a sperm. So what is different from a live embryo in a test tube to a live embryo in its mothers’ womb?
Once legislators accept that life begins from conception, they should also realize that for every expectant mother, there are two sets of competing rights – those of the mother and those of the unborn child. It is disappointing to note that the rights of the father, who would be the other party who participated in the conception of the unborn child, do not feature in anywhere.
But that does not matter. We need to be seen to be doing something femminist. We need to be seen to be innovative and progressive, even if that means being against life. All we need to do is start using malign terminology against people who are in favour of life. Once you dehumanise your adversaries, once you label them as conservative, out of touch, anti-choice and unreasonable, your mission will come nearer to completion.
And where does that leave the honest citizen? They become pawns used and abused to reach politicians’ goals.
Where does it leave the unborn child? Since the child has no voice and no vote, it will be left solely at the mercy of the mother, with no legal protection whatsoever.
