Public opinion concerning abortion in Malta

Abstract

Although abortion has had a long history in the lives of women and over time it has become increasingly disputable. Society started to question the morality on when the right to life applies and at what moment would a foetus be considered a person. Therefore, different views on abortion have been adopted. Nonetheless, people in Malta purposely avoid talking about abortion as it is still such a taboo subject. Having said that, a number of Women’s right organisations are playing a key role in pushing those in power to make safe and legal abortions accessible in Malta. This research explores the general public’s opinion regarding abortion in Malta and aims to analyse whether discrepancies in the opinions between generations or genders exist. To explore such research question, focus groups were conducted and analysed using thematic analysis. Overall, the abortion attitudes between females under 30 years and males under 30 years did differ, however, a similar attitude is adopted by both genders over 45 years. The findings portray that younger woman have a more ‘pro-choice’ attitude than younger males and the older generation.