ROME — Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government wants to allow anti-abortion groups access to women who are considering terminating their pregnancies, reviving tensions over abortion in Italy 46 years after it was legalized in the overwhelmingly Catholic country. .
The Senate was voting Tuesday on legislation tied to the European Union’s COVID-19 recovery funds that includes an amendment sponsored by Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party. The text, already approved by the Chamber of Deputies, allows regions to allow groups “with qualified experience in maternity support” to have access to public support centers where women who are considering abortion go to receive advice.
For the right, the amendment simply fulfills the original intent of the 1978 law that legalized abortion, known as Law 194, which includes provisions to prevent the procedure and support motherhood.
For the left-wing opposition, the amendment marks a reduction in the right to abortion that, according to its opponents, would occur after Meloni’s elections in 2022.
“The government should realize that they keep saying that they absolutely do not want to boycott or touch Law 194, but the truth is that the right opposes women’s reproductive autonomy, fears women’s choices regarding maternity, sexuality and abortion,” Cecilia D’Elia, a Democratic Party senator, said at a protest this week against the legislation.
Under a 1978 law, Italy allows abortion on request in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, or later if the woman’s health or life is in danger. It provides for the creation of publicly funded counseling centers to advise pregnant women about their rights and the services offered if they wish to terminate the pregnancy.
But easy access to abortion is not always guaranteed. The law allows health care personnel to register as conscientious and refuse to perform abortions, and many have done so; important women sometimes have to travel far to have the procedure done.
Meloni, who campaigned under the slogan “God, country and family,” has insisted he will not repeal the 1978 law and simply wants to fully implement it. But she has also prioritized encouraging women to have babies to reverse Italy’s demographic crisis.
Italy’s birth rate, already one of the lowest in the world, has been falling steadily for about 15 years and hit a record low last year with 379,000 babies born. Meloni’s conservative forces, heavily backed by the Vatican, have mounted a campaign to encourage at least 500,000 births annually by 2033, a rate that demographers say is necessary to prevent the economy from collapsing under the weight of Italy’s aging population.
Meloni has described left-wing opposition to the proposed amendment as “fake news,” recalling that Law 194 provides for measures to prevent abortions, which would include advising pregnant women about alternatives. The amendment specifically allows anti-abortion groups, or groups that “support motherhood,” to be among the volunteer groups that can work at counseling centers.
“I think we have to guarantee free choice,” Meloni said recently. “And to guarantee free choice you must have all the information and opportunities available. And that is what Law 194 establishes.”
The new tensions over abortion in Italy come against the backdrop of developments elsewhere in Europe going somewhat in the opposite direction. France celebrated International Women’s Day by inscribing the guaranteed right to abortion in its constitution. Last year, overwhelmingly Catholic Malta voted to relax the EU’s strictest abortion laws. Polish lawmakers moved forward with proposals to lift a near-total ban on abortion enacted by the country’s previous right-wing government.
At the same time, the Italian left fears that the country could follow the path of the United States, where states are restricting access after the US Supreme Court struck down landmark legislation that had guaranteed access to abortion nationwide. .
Elly Schlein, leader of Italy’s opposition Democratic Party, told a women’s conference on Tuesday that the country needs to establish a mandatory percentage of doctors willing to perform abortions in public hospitals, “otherwise these rights will remain only on paper.” .