I am privileged for all the wrong reasons.

I'm aware that I am privileged purely because of a number of purely coincidental chances, but the one which I want to address in this post is the fact that I'm currently better off in a number of situations than literally half the population. That's right, I'm privileged purely because I was born with a penis. Mind you, the world doesn't seem to differentiate between how functional or picturesque said penis is, but just because I was born with it, suddenly I have a number of benefits which the unfortunate half of the human race don't; namely the mind-boggling opportunity to have a choice as to whether I want to have a child or not.

Malta, a country where divorce was only legalised after years of neglect on the issue, followed by a year of intense debate only in 2011. Fine, we were a bit slow on that but we have it now all's well and good. Then only three years later in April 2014 we made the huge leap from being as progressive as an 87 year-old Eastern European village lady working a loom with a look in her eyes that says she's seen too much, to legalising LGBTQI Civil Unions (DON'T SAY THE WORD MARRIAGE!). Again, fine, well done to the government for realising that it isn't a crime to love someone. Round of applause there.

Now, for the love of all that anyone holds holy, why on earth in a country where literally everyone's business is everyone's business can't we get past the idea that women deserve as much opportunity to contraceptives as men do? It is baffling to me that in 2017, seen as one of the most progressive countries in Europe, we not only JUST got the Morning After Pill in pharmacies this month, but a number of pharmacies and medical professionals, and here I do use the term 'professionals' extremely lightly, are actually refusing to hand it out on moral grounds? Am I missing the invention of a time machine taking us back to the late 1600s where women were only slightly higher than dogs on the social food chain?

Let me preface the following paragraphs by assuring you that all the information I'm getting is from the World Health Organisation, and not local lobby groups or my personal opinion, which in Malta are as widely cited as Oxford publications. For one thing, let's call it what it is. It's an Emergency Contraceptive Pill, not simply an everyday Morning After Pill leading to the inherent moral decline of civilisation as we know it with all Maltese women suddenly running rampant on the streets looking for literally anything to stick up inside them. It is not easy on the body, it is not a pleasant free-flowing, over the counter, no-holds barred condom supplement. The looks and stigma against the very audacity of asking for something legal is enough to stop any young woman in her tracks. It's an emergency second to last resort in case, oh I don't know, the condom breaks or someone rapes a

drunk woman. Let's not call it sexual misconduct, or unwanted advances, it's rape. Apparently a large number of this country still believes that rape is entirely a woman's fault which kind of makes me very fortunate to be a man considering if I happen to get drunk and force myself on a woman it's OK because it's only natural for a man to want to spread his seed while it was probably what she was wearing anyway.

The following are reasons why having an Emergency Contraceptive Pill is necessary in all pharmacies as detailed by the WHO:

• When no contraceptive has been used.
• In cases of rape or coerced sex when the woman was not protected by an effective contraceptive method.
• When there is a contraceptive failure or incorrect use, including:
• condom breakage, slippage, or incorrect use;
• 3 or more consecutively missed combined oral contraceptive pills;
• progestogen-only pill (minipill) taken more than 3 hours late;
• desogestrel-containing pill (0.75 mg) taken more than 12 hours late;
• norethisterone enanthate (NET-EN) progestogen-only injection taken more than 2 weeks late;
• depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) progestogen-only injection taken more than four weeks late;
• the combined estrogen-plus-progestogen monthly injection given more than seven days late;
• dislodgment, delay in placing, or early removal of a contraceptive hormonal ring or skin patch;
• dislodgment, breakage, tearing, or early removal of a diaphragm or cervical cap;
• failed withdrawal (e.g. ejaculation in the vagina or on external genitalia);
• failure of a spermicide tablet or film to melt before intercourse;
• miscalculation of the abstinence period, or failure to abstain or use a barrier method on the fertile days of the cycle when using fertility awareness based methods; and
• expulsion of an intrauterine contraceptive device (IUD) or hormonal contraceptive implant.

Bear in mind some of these mentioned reasons don't apply to this country because there are contraceptives here that have never been in the country except if a foreigner were using them.

And now, Lord help us all, the political debate is turning on the issue of abortion. Remember how I previously mentioned the ECP was a second to last resort? Yeah here's the last resort. Don't moan, don't cry, don't recoil in abject terror. The fact of the matter is that, if all else fails, abortion is kind of effective in eliminating unwanted pregnancies. Let's take a look at that phrase for a second, "unwanted pregnancies". How are a gaggle of post-menopausal Catholics and middle-aged male parliamentarians leading this debate? I'm not saying they don't have the right to an opinion, far from it, please try to substantiate the debate with pros and cons and make it healthier and fruitful, but don't lambaste all women who feel, and rightly so, that they have a choice as to whether to carry out a pregnancy to full term when they obviously aren't ready for potentially the most physically and mentally traumatic biological experience all for the joys of saying they took part in the miracle of life.

21.6 million women per year go through unsafe abortions. 47,000 women per year die due to complications caused by unsafe abortion accounting to 13% of all maternal deaths. And those statistics are from 2008, almost a decade ago. It isn't getting any better. The procedure is invasive, it's painful, it's traumatic and it's risky but if it were regularised the risks would be greatly reduced and Maltese women would stop having to catch the Catamaran to have an abortion in a dingy basement in Sicily by someone who's had his medical license revoked but is very assuring when he speaks about how he knows what he's doing.

I cannot and will not try to change anyone's mind on whether they favour abortion for themselves or their loved ones, but I feel it is my duty as a man who cares deeply about a number of friends and family members who might one day find themselves in a situation where they have no other option. At least consider that your opinion and personal feelings are not the be all and end all in this debate. At least consider that women deserve to have a choice. At least, especially if you're women yourselves, have the common decency to your own gender to make it as easy as it is for me, the privileged half of society, to decide that I am not ready to have a child right now.