March 13, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – The government of Gibraltar has announced that due to the ongoing global coronavirus crisis it is delaying a referendum on whether or not the territory will accept new abortion legislation.
The vote had been scheduled for March 19 but will now be rescheduled for a time when “there will be no risk to any age group entitled to vote.”
Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula and has its own laws governing abortion. Abortion remains a crime in Gibraltar under Section 162 of the 2011 Crimes Act of Gibraltar and carries with it the sentence of life imprisonment. That being said, no woman has been sentenced under this provision.
In July 2019, the Gibraltar Parliament voted to allow abortion before the 12th week of pregnancy where the mother’s mental or physical health is deemed to be at risk, and later in pregnancies when the unborn child suffers from an undefined “abnormality.”
But a pro-life petition, signed by more than 6,000 people, helped convince the parliament to hold a referendum on the new law.
Earlier this week, the government advised elderly people and people with underlying health conditions that they should keep movement to a minimum, avoid large gatherings and only leave their homes if absolutely necessary. The government said that such advice “may appear to contradict the call to a vote by universal suffrage which could then lead the result of the Referendum, whatever it may turn out to be, to be called into question.”
Chief Minister Fabian Picardo has spoken to leaders of both the pro-life and pro-abortion campaigns, with all reportedly agreeing that a delay is the best course of action.
“Slowing the inevitable spread of the virus in Gibraltar requires us to act decisively and to adapt on a dynamic basis to the circumstances as they develop. I believe this is the right decision for the difficult weeks ahead,” Picardo said.
Patricia Parody, chairperson of the Gibraltar Pro-Life Movement, said, “We concur with the decision taken by the Chief Minister to postpone the referendum in view of the current public health emergency. During this unsettling time, it is important that the whole of Gibraltar pulls together and supports each other.”
Last month, Dr. Anthony McCarthy of the UK pro-life group the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) told LifeSite that “the proposed changes to the law make it clear that abortion on demand is the real goal” for those pushing abortion in Gibraltar.
“We know from bitter experience what happens when ‘grounds’ for abortion are used to make the practice more palatable and how social abortion becomes the norm, together with explicit lethal discrimination against any unborn child with disabilities,” McCarthy said.