
Maltese lawmakers are expected to vote later Wednesday on legislation to ease the strictest abortion laws in the European Union, but pro-choice campaigners have withdrawn their support, saying last-minute changes make the legislation “vague, unworkable and even dangerous.”
The original bill allowing women access to abortion if a pregnant woman's life or health was in danger was hailed as a step in the right direction for Malta, an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nation. It was introduced last fall after an American tourist who miscarried had to be airlifted off the Mediterranean island nation to be treated.