An unexpected proposal to decriminalize abortion in Malta has stirred up a polarized debate about an issue long considered taboo in the country with the strictest abortion laws in the European Union.

Independent lawmaker Marlene Farrugia caught many by surprise earlier this month when she presented a bill in Parliament calling for the removal of paragraphs in the criminal code that make it a crime punishable by up to three years in prison to have an abortion or assisting a woman in having one.

Though the law is rarely enforced, the Home Affairs Ministry says the last person jailed for abortion was in 1980, backers argue it acts as a deterrent.

Farrugia disagrees, saying that the fear of reprisal and punishment prevent women from seeking counselling and help in Malta, where surveys show public opinion remains firmly against abortion.

“Decriminalising abortion is not promoting abortion,” Farrugia told The Associated Press.

“We are not saving lives of women; we are not saving lives of potential children. Punishing and condemning and judging is not getting us anywhere,” she said.

The once-conservative Catholic island nation has liberalized some laws in recent years, legalizing divorce 10 years ago and same-sex marriage in 2017.

Though abortion rights groups in Malta have called for decriminalizing abortion, both Farrugia and the Parliament clerk said they weren’t aware of anyone presenting any bills to that effect before.

The bill is unlikely to advance through Parliament, where one major party has declared itself against decriminalization and the other implied it wants a debate in society rather than a vote in Parliament, but supporters say it has sparked a conversation that is long overdue.

While Farrugia insists her bill wouldn’t legalize abortion, just remove the penalties for it, opponents dismiss that nuance, saying it would open the flood gates to abortions in Malta.

“We are very concerned because this takes away all the legal protection of the child in the womb. And that makes Malta the extreme abortion capital of Europe,” said Miriam Sciberras, Chairperson of the anti-abortion group, the Life Network Foundation Malta.

She stressed that no women had been imprisoned over this issue for the past 40 years.

“If we really care about women, we first let them be born,” Sciberras said.

Abortion has been legalized in nearly all EU countries, though Poland this year restricted its abortion ban following a constitutional court ruling.

The only exceptions allowed under the Polish law are when the woman’s life or health is at risk or if a pregnancy results from rape or incest.

In Malta, the law doesn’t allow for any exceptions, but in practice doctors apply the “moral principle of double effect,” whereby the death of a fetus is viewed as an unintended consequence of efforts to save a woman’s life.

Malta’s Archbishop, Charles Scicluna, has also weighed in on the discussion and delivered a homily in what was an indirect response to the notion of decriminalizing abortion.

“A mother’s womb is dear and holy, it is there that human life grows,” he said on May 13.

“Let us pray for the womb to remain a place of life, not a place where killing takes place.”

Doctors for Choice estimates at least 300 women residing in Malta have abortions every year, either by traveling to countries where abortion is legal, including Britain, Italy or the Netherlands, or obtaining abortion pills.

One woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being prosecuted, told AP she got in touch with an international organization that helped her obtain abortion pills.

She was worried about any potential side effects from the pills but said she wouldn’t have sought medical help right away had she needed it, out of the fear of being caught.

“If something goes wrong, you’re stuck,” she said.

“People should be able to find the support they need in the country. Not everyone has the financial means to travel abroad.”

Some people in Malta were surprised that the bill was introduced by Farrugia, who describes herself as “pro-life.”

She insists that there are other articles in Maltese law which would still result in abortion being considered illegal, and that her bill would just mean that the threat of prison time would be removed.

“I never perceived a woman who resorts to abortion as a criminal,” she said.

“I am still totally in favour of nurturing life and of saving every life possible.”