Blanket Ban

The small country of Malta has one of the strictest abortion bans in Europe. This archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea boasts a population of 574,000, a long history of colonial occupation, and a deep identification with Catholicism. Though abortion is illegal and stigmatized, there is a growing network of activists and providers who are helping people gain access to abortion pills or leave the country for care. In recent years, more and more people have been speaking out and sharing their abortion stories. 

Davinia Hamilton, an award-winning Maltese writer, performer, and longtime activist, has collected many of these stories in a docu-play called Blanket Ban. Blanket Ban, co-written and performed with Marta Vella, was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2022, in London in 2023, and in Valletta, the capital of Malta, in March 2025. It was an Offie Award finalist and is currently being developed into a limited TV series. You can check out more of Davinia’s work here — and read on to hear her thoughts on Maltese reproductive justice. —Anne Rumberger

ANNE RUMBERGER What has changed in the abortion access landscape in Malta in recent years?

DAVINIA HAMILTON This summer, we had a case where a woman received a suspended sentence for taking abortion pills. She was hemorrhaging, so she went to the hospital and told their medical staff that she had taken the pills. Although the staff weren’t under any legal obligation to divulge, they went to police, and the woman was charged and convicted. You can get up to three years in prison if you have an abortion — the same if you are a medical professional who helped someone get an abortion, plus you can lose your medical license. This woman didn’t get jail time, but it’s going to be on her record and have material consequences for her life.

There used to be an abortion ban under all circumstances in Malta. In 2023, the law was changed to allow abortions only if the pregnant person’s life was in immediate danger. In the case of fatal fetal abnormalities, too, you cannot access abortion unless your life is in immediate danger. Some women who can afford it will go abroad to have an abortion if they have a fatal fetal anomaly. The Abortion Support Network is one of the organizations that helps them with funding and booking appointments and accommodations. 

The introduction of pills by post has changed the access landscape, even though it’s not legal. Last year, 600 packets of abortion pills were shipped to Malta — which doesn’t sound like a lot, but then you remember that there are only about half a million people living in the country, so it’s actually a pretty big figure. And that’s not even counting the people who have gone abroad for abortions. People are learning more about where to get abortion pills, how to take them, and at what point they stop being available, but they are still committing a crime in the eyes of the law.

AR What was the impetus for loosening the abortion ban in 2023?

DH In 2022, an American woman on her babymoon was denied abortion care in Malta while miscarrying. She developed sepsis and needed to be airlifted to Spain to terminate her pregnancy. There was such an outcry that a law was passed in 2023 that made an exception to “protect the life of the woman.” But in some ways, the new legislation is worse — or just as bad as it was before. Now that the government has legislated exceptions to the abortion ban, you need three doctors’ permission to get a life-saving abortion and you might find yourself in a position where the doctors on call at the hospital are not pro-choice. So the law doesn’t feel like it’s done much.

AR It just gives them an excuse to regulate abortion even more. Some states like Texas have passed laws claiming to “clarify” state abortion bans, but they are really just restricting access even further and spreading more fear and confusion.

DH I will say that the pro-choice doctors in Malta are phenomenal; they’re some of the leaders of the pro-choice movement. Doctors for Choice is a great organization that brings together doctors who care about abortion access. They can’t perform abortions but they can provide information. They really take care of their patients and direct them to places that can help. 

AR What influence does Catholicism have on attitudes toward abortion?

DH The church has a lot of influence on Maltese culture. It’s an interesting mix of progressive capitalism, very overdeveloped with low unemployment, and a really traditional streak when it comes to things like gender roles. We really love the story that St. Paul brought Catholicism to Malta in 60 AD. I have my own theory about why Catholicism has played such an important role in Maltese identity in the last half of the millennium; I think it has to do with whiteness and aligning ourselves more with Europe than with North Africa. 

It’s a confluence of Catholicism and also a sense of outraged sanctimonious misogyny that has come together to give us the situation we’re in now, where women are blamed for everything, including men’s desires. There was a time when I was younger, having grown up in a Catholic environment that was very oppressive, that I railed against Catholicism and thought it was the bane of all existence. But I don’t believe that anymore. I don’t believe in shitting on other people’s faith. Catholicism in and of itself isn’t the problem. There are amazing people who are Catholic and who are committed to love and care and goodness and solidarity. Unfortunately, what we’re seeing [in abortion bans] is not that.

AR What is the origin story of your play Blanket Ban? What was your experience speaking to people about their abortion stories?

DH In 2019, my friend and co-creator Marta and I watched coverage of the first ever pro-choice rally in Malta. We were sitting at my kitchen table in London reading about the rally and we thought we could offer a different angle — no one was talking about it in the Maltese theater. Then the COVID-19 lockdown happened; Marta moved back to Malta and I stayed in London. We decided to keep working and to do as many interviews as we could with people about their abortion experiences in Malta. Having to do interviews remotely gave us access to people who would otherwise not have spoken to us because there wasn’t the correct level of anonymity for them, or because they would have had to travel to meet us. It opened up a world of people for us to speak to. We spoke to activists and doctors and lawyers and journalists. We started asking around in our communities, because we all knew people who had abortions. We offered to keep them anonymous to protect their identities. 

We wanted to use documentary theater to allow people to speak their truths in a context where they’re not usually allowed to speak. We took some liberties, but the words were theirs. It’s an innovative form of theater. I also have a background in journalism so I thought I could put my interview skills to good use.

AR What is theater’s role in encouraging cultural change and advancing the politics of reproductive freedom?

DH When we were performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, it was right after Roe was overturned. We had a lot of American audiences who were understandably very emotional. They were both grateful and horrified watching it. They felt seen but also like, “oh god, this is coming to us too.” After every single performance we’ve done, wherever we are in the world, we’ve had people come and share their experiences with us. There is a real need for safe spaces where people can talk about their abortions.

Theater is the anti-hot take. We live in a culture where attention spans are very short and you have to make your point in a minute for a TikTok video so that people don’t scroll away. That doesn’t leave any space for nuance, or difficult conversations, or being in that grey area. And theater does, because you just have to sit down with the lights out and listen. You have to take an hour and sit with something potentially uncomfortable. Art is supposed to make you feel things — whether they’re good or not. Because it’s not “real,” it lets you feel things in a way that is safe and contained. If we can’t make art about uncomfortable things, then there’s no point in doing it. Life is complicated, life is sometimes uncomfortable, life is not neat. We can’t reduce everything to binaries and morality. Theater helps us explore these complications.

AR The best theater provokes strong reactions, unexpected reactions. That can change people’s perspectives.
DH One of the great things about Blanket Ban, especially when we performed it in Malta, was that there were quite a few people who I know who came to watch the play and said things to me like, “I still don’t agree with abortion, but that story you told about that woman’s experience made me so mad.” We’re telling them about what’s happening in their country every day. Are you happy with things as they are? And if not, will you join us in this fight?