A small group of pro-choice campaigners gathered in front of parliament in a sit-down protest calling for MPs to debate a private member s bill to decriminalise abortion.
The group of around ten activists, carrying placards saying women should decide their own fate and my body, my choice sat in a row outside the Valletta building on Wednesday evening.
In an unprecedented move last week, Independent MP Marlene Farrugia presented a bill proposing that a woman is not penalised for having an abortion, which currently carries a maximum three-year prison term.
However the House Business Committee, which decides the agenda of the House, has so far failed to list it for debate. A request for abortion to be discussed within parliament s Health Committee has also been rejected.
Health committee turns down Farrugia s request to discuss reproductive rights
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Criminalising abortion doesn t save unborn lives It just exposes women to danger
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Updated 8.31 with request for health committee debate rejection
The agenda-setting House Business Committee made no reference to a private member s bill to decriminalise abortion when it met on Monday.
A request for abortion to be debated within parliament s health committee was rejected.
Independent MP Marlene Farrugia gave notice of the bill last week but it is up to the committee to decide if and when it would be put on the agenda of the House.
Leader of the House Chris Fearne and government whip Glen Bedingfield listed bills and motions due to be debated in the coming two weeks in parliament but made no mention of the private member s bill.
The Commissioner for Standards in Public Life insisted on Monday that his role is to bring about change and he did not entertain any arguments by people under investigation that they were only doing what had been done for years.
Speaking before the House Business Committee, George Hyzler also defended his appointment as a former politician, saying that decision had clearly been taken because the holder of the post needed to understand how politics and politicians worked.
Hyzler served as a Nationalist Party MP between 1995 and 2003.
Labour MP Glen Bedingfield last month repeatedly insisted that the appointment of a former politician undermined the credibility of the office, which he accused of being partisan in its actions.