Government, Opposition clash over legal notice on IVF-related paid vacation leave
The Government and Nationalist Party yesterday locked horns over a legal notice introduced last May which grants vacation leave to infertile women and lesbian couples who are seeking gamete donation treatment abroad.
Although the legal notice was introduced on 30 May of this year, it did not receive media attention, possibly because it fell a few days prior to the general election on 3 June.
Last Thursday, the Nationalist Party filed a motion to contest it, following new Nationalist Party Leader Adrian Delia’s swearing in as MP. The motion by the PN contesting the legal notice argues that the terminology in the latter differs from that in the Embryo Protection Act.
The legal notice allows 60 hours of paid leave to the employee who is undergoing treatment and another 40 hours to the other prospective parent.
In a press release sent on Thursday evening, the Nationalist Party said, “The Opposition, through the Spokesperson for Health Stephen Spiteri and Parliamentary Whip David Agius, forwarded the motion to Parliament to assure that the legal notice put forward by the government does not break the law. Actually, the legal notice breaks the Embryo Protection Act. This is because the Embryo Protection Act speaks about ‘prospective parents’ and ‘procreation by assisted medication’.
“The Opposition did not oppose this legal notice to remove individual rights. On the contrary, with this motion the Opposition is assuring that the actual law is not broken,” it said.
Prime Minister finds motion ‘offensive’
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat then expressed his views on the motion yesterday morning, stating that he finds the objection “offensive.”
Replying to questions by the media following a press conference at GO plc, Muscat said that he cannot understand the PN decision. “I cannot understand it, it is offensive,” he said. “I await the debate in parliament to challenge the position and to try and understand it.”
‘The Government wants to impose surrogacy, gamete donation’ - PN
In a statement later on in the day yesterday, the Nationalist Party issued a press release stating that the Government wants to ‘impose surrogacy and gamete donation’.
“The Labour government wants to impose surrogacy and gamete donation through the legal notice it has published,” the Party said, adding that, “it had done so without any consultation, as confirmed by the Prime Minister in comments made this morning. With what he said, the government is breaking the current law.”
For its part, the PN said that it is in favour of an open discussion on ethical issues. “The PN does not want the government to decide on its own, and in this regard it had presented a motion to change the legal notice published by the government. As it is now, the legal notice breaks the current law and imposes surrogacy and gamete donation,” the PN said.
The PN added that it is in favour of an extra 100 hours of leave to couples who are being medically assisted for procreation purposes, and this measure should be introduced “as soon as possible.
“The Opposition cannot be an accomplice in the breaching of the law and in decisions on ethical issues without any discussion,” it concluded.
Equality Minister says ‘they are two different laws’
Later on in the day, Equality Minister Helena Dalli said that the law the Nationalist Party is objecting to and the law the legal notice is attributed to “are different laws.”
“We are talking about two different laws,” she said, speaking at a news conference in the Parliament building centered on the topic; “the law about foundations of work and that of IVF.”
She said at first she thought the objection of the Nationalist Party towards the law granting vacation leave was fake news. “I thought it was fake news when I read it,” she said, adding that the Nationalist Party, “is the same party which agreed that there cannot be discrimination against someone based on their sexual orientation. One thing is not agreeing with the other.
“To have arrived at the decision about this legal notice we held consultations with the employments relations board and there was an agreement with social partners, the government, employers and unions,” she said. Dalli added that the people in question already experience hardships as it is difficult for them to have children “these people need empathy,” she said.
Health Minister Chris Fearne, also present at the conference, said that the motion placed yesterday is a “regressive motion” by the Nationalist Party. “PN wants to take us back in time,” he said. “This is discrimination when it comes to medical treatment, IVF is a medical treatment and no medical treatment should be restricted because of sexual orientation.”
He added that the Labour Party electoral manifesto stated that the party wants to change the law in order to give the right to anyone needing medical treatment. “We want to change what is bad into what is good,” he said.
Asked by media present whether the Ministers are considering paid vacation leave for women going abroad to get abortions, both Ministers said “no.”