{"id":257308,"date":"2021-11-16T10:38:07","date_gmt":"2021-11-16T16:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=257308"},"modified":"2021-11-15T19:56:18","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T01:56:18","slug":"malta-pro-life-hate-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/malta-pro-life-hate-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Malta police crack down on pro-lifers, alleging ‘hate speech’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

The largely pro-life country of Malta, located south of Sicily, has been facing pressure<\/a> to legalize abortion and euthanasia<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0abandon its deeply-held principles. Activists are working to make abortion legal in the island nation, though pro-life Maltese citizens are continuing to stand strong \u2014 even as police have begun cracking down on pro-life advocacy as “hate speech.”<\/p>\n

Emma Portelli Bonnici is a candidate running for office with the Nationalist Party (PN). In a press conference<\/a>, she promised free contraception and morning-after pills within six months if her party is put into power. She’s also openly pro-abortion<\/a>, and filed a police report<\/a>\u00a0against a priest, Father Andrew Borg, for alleged “hate speech.” She says Borg referred to her as \u201cHitler, a satanist, a murderer, a butcher and a criminal.”<\/p>\n

Simon Debono, the administrator of a pro-life Facebook group for Maltese citizens, is likewise claiming that pro-life advocates are being arrested<\/a>. As reported<\/a> by LovinMalta.com:<\/p>\n

… a woman in her 60s whose daughter had just given birth… told Emma Portelli Bonnici to \u201cget lost, we don\u2019t need people like you in our country\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201c[Bonnici] burst out crying at the depot and the officers ended up apologising and told her they were just following orders,\u201d Debono said. \u201cShe said it was free speech, not hate speech, fair comment against the murder of innocent babies in the womb.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Activists block traffic in protest against harvesting and experimentation on aborted children<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Simon Mercieca, a history lecturer, also wrote an op-ed<\/a> criticizing the supposed double standard.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Dom Mintoff had allowed his thugs to use violence in the 70s and the early 80s, his party ended up spending 25 years in opposition. Now the PN is using violence, not through thugs but through the courts and the police. This is worse than the violence of Mintoff\u2019s days because it is being used by PN candidates against Nationalists. These are sins that cannot be forgiven,” he said.<\/p>\n

Pro-life countries like Poland and Malta face immense pressure from abortion groups to liberalize abortion and other pro-life laws, despite the best efforts of activists fighting back to preserve their country’s values.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The largely pro-life country of Malta, located south of Sicily, has been facing pressure to legalize abortion and euthanasia\u00a0and\u00a0abandon its deeply-held principles. Activists are working to make abortion legal in the island nation, though pro-life Maltese citizens are continuing to stand strong \u2014 even as police have begun cracking down on pro-life advocacy as “hate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":251546,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7,5,3473],"tags":[19,14168,14174,498,14172,909,838,10221,14169,3833,14171,14173,14170],"yoast_head":"\nMalta police crack down on pro-lifers, alleging 'hate speech'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The pro-life nation of Malta is facing pressure to legalize abortion, and now police have begun cracking down on pro-life advocacy as "hate speech."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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