Abortion key safes in Malta

Malta is the only European Union (EU) country to maintain a near-total ban on abortion.  Despite the ban, every year approximately 600 women in Malta use abortion pills.[1]

As recently as December 2025, the European Parliament confirmed again that access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), including safe, universally accessible and legal abortion care, is a fundamental right.” [2] In 2023, a Joint Ministerial Declaration called on the EU institutions and Member States to ensure “access to safe and legal abortion and to post-abortion care by removing barriers that hinder its exercise.”[3]

Malta continues to violate women’s rights; on Wednesday, March 11, the court in Malta again convicted a Maltese woman for doing a medical abortion.

To call attention to the violation of women’s rights in Malta, Women on Waves has placed several abortion key safes across Malta and Gozo. The lockers contain abortion pills, a set of two commonly used and effective medications. Women who are less than 9 weeks pregnant and in need of a safe abortion can email us to get the location and the code of the lockers.

The World Health Organisation and International Federation of Gynaecologists and Obstetrics support the use of telemedicine abortion services and self-managed abortions which are considered to be very safe and effective.[4][5]

The unveiling of the abortion key safes coincides with the participation of Women on Waves in the Malta Art Biennale. The Women on Waves installation can be viewed in the Malta Maritime Museum.

Women in need of an abortion can email Women on Waves (help@womenonwaves.org) to get the location and the code of a key safe.

For contact, please call, +31652052561

For more information about how to get an abortion in Malta please contact the Abortion Doula Support Service at +356 20341683 or +356 27782758. See https://www.abortiondoulamalta.com

https://www.voiceforchoice.mt/get-an-abortion

or

https://www.doctorsforchoice.mt/abortion-doula-support-service

[1] https://www.doctorsforchoice.mt/post/rising-demand-for-abortion-pills-in-2025-highlights-need-for-legal-reforms-in-malta

[2] European Parliament Resolution of 17 December 2025 on the European citizens’ initiative entitled ‘My Voice, My Choice: For Safe and

Accessible Abortion’ https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-10-2025-0338_EN.html

[3] https://www.igualdad.gob.es/wp-content/uploads/SRHR-MINISTERIAL-DECLARATION-SIGNED.pdf

[4] https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-SRH-22.1

[5] https://www.figo.org/FIGO-endorses-telemedicine-abortion-services