VALLETTA, Dec 4 (Reuters) – A large picture of a baby in the womb was placed outside the office of the Prime Minister of Malta on Sunday as protesters called on the government to stop plans to amend the the country’s strict anti-abortion laws.

The protest, the biggest in years, attracted several thousand people including the highest Catholic Bishop of Malta and the head of the conservative opposition, but it was led by a former president of the centre-left, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca.

“We are here to be the voice of the unborn child,” said Maria Formosa, a 19-year-old university student, one of the speakers at the rally. “Through abortion, life is always lost.”

Traditionally Catholic Malta is the only member of the European Union that prohibits abortion in all circumstances, even when a woman’s life or health is endangered by her pregnancy.

Last week, Health Minister Chris Fearne tabled an amendment in parliament that would make doctors no longer risk up to four years in prison if their intervention to help women with serious health problems causes t – end of pregnancy.

To date, no doctor has been prosecuted on such charges.

The centre-right opposition, the powerful Catholic Church and some NGOs have described the law as unnecessary and paving the way for full liberalization of abortion, a claim rejected by the centre-left ruling Labor party.

The Government of Prime Minister Robert Abela has a comfortable majority and no disagreement was seen within it, but the opinion poll shows a large majority against abortion, particularly among the elderly.

The move to change the abortion rules came after an American tourist, Andrea Prudente, was denied a request in June to terminate a non-viable pregnancy after she started bleeding profusely.

Her doctors said her life was at risk and she was eventually transferred to Spain where she had an abortion. She later sued the Maltese government, asking the courts to declare that the ban on abortion in all circumstances violates human rights.

The case has not yet come to trial.

Reporting by Christopher Scicluna; Editing by Alvise Armellini and David Holmes

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