‘No, we have not made history’ – Labour sources furious about ‘abortion bill’

Although Bill 28 was unanimously approved in parliament on Wednesday, a Labour MP told Bonġu that the government has “not made history”.

This was a reference to Prime Minister Robert Abela’s words “We’ve made history” in his first reaction to the newly introduced abortion amendments.

The wording ‘We made history’ was also used when the previous Labour government under Joseph Muscat introduced same-sex marriage in 2017.

“No, we have not made history, and trying to put this mess on the same level as truly progressive bills we introduced, disgusts me”, the Labour MP said.

“At one point we were told that there were efforts to include an actual abortion bill in our 2027 electoral manifesto”, they added.

This again confirms information this newsroom received from two top Labour sources earlier this year.

The MP further hit out at Robert Abela’s “various u-turns” and questioned how their party could allow itself to be “blackmailed by the President”.

Similar comments were published by MaltaToday and Times of Malta, which also granted Labour sources anonymity.

On Wednesday, Parliament unanimously voted in favour of the watered-down Bill 28, which pro-choice groups called “a step backwards”.