Malta’s Jane's — the underground abortion stories no one talks about
Some years ago I got a phone call from a friend on a summer evening, she wanted to come over and talk to me and wouldn’t tell me what the matter was. I was worried and agreed to meet her straight away.
We stood outside the house because the conversation was private and she didn’t want my parents to hear. Her sister was pregnant and desperate, the contraception had failed and being a first year university student it was as if her world was coming to an end before it had even started.
In Malta abortions are not legal, my friends sister had tried running it off and was now considering throwing herself off the stairs in a desperate attempt to miscarry. I looked into my friends terrified face and agreed I would make some calls to figure out whether we can get the necessary abortion pills organised. I agreed to commit a crime because I believed and still believe that women do not have to have a forced pregnancy, because this woman deserved a chance at making her own choice.
A day later however despite my offer to help she’d decided that waiting would only make it worse and so she drank herself senseless and indeed threw herself down the stairs hard enough to trigger the miscarriage. She could have broken her neck instead she had her stomach pumped and a few bruises, at the hospital…
