During the 2022 election campaign, fears were raised in Italy that if the leader of the Brothers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, came to power, the far-right could put women’s right to abortion at risk. Meloni then promised that, should he come to power, he had no intention of revoking the abortion law, in force in Italy since 1978. But when he put a declared anti-abortionist, Eugenia Roccella, at the head of the Ministry of, soon it became clear that this argument would continue to be part of the public debate. While France has just recognized the freedom of women to have an abortion in the Constitution, the Italian Executive has not repealed the abortion law, but it has encouraged pregnant women who want to take the step.
The latest initiative that has put feminists on a war footing is to shield a package of amendments for the reception of European recovery funds in the Italian Chamber of Deputies, controlled by the right-wing government majority, which includes the possibility that anti-abortion associations they enter the clinics where women go to terminate their pregnancies, or simply to ask for information on how to do so.
Not only that: an amendment presented by the deputy Lorenzo Malagola, from Brothers of Italy, also provides that Italian regions can use post-pandemic European funds to organize services in clinics “without new or greater public expenses”, also involving “subjects from the third sector who have qualified experience in maternity support”. In other words, they will be able to use European money to finance these so-called pro-life or anti-abortion groups. Although the measure, formulated in an ambiguous text and hidden in a wide package, still needs to be approved this Thursday in the Chamber of Deputies and also receive the green light later in the Senate, since the right-wing coalition has a majority in two chambers it is given as a matter of course that it will go ahead.
In reality, Meloni has not broken his word, since during the election campaign he made it very clear what his government’s direction would be in this matter. She, who defines herself as “a woman, a mother and a Christian”, explained that they did not plan to revoke the abortion law, but they did “give the right to women who think that abortion is the only option that they have to make a different decision”. It is the same argument used by the deputy of his party, Fabio Rampelli, who says that the objective of this measure is precisely to offer women who want to have an abortion “an opportunity to reflect, at no cost to the State, as already provided by law”. “We must not criminalize those who are against abortion”, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani. On the other hand, the main opposition parties, the Party (PD) and the Movement (M5E), have criticized the amendment as an assault on the right to terminate pregnancy.
What the package of amendments allows is actually already a fact in many Italian regions, especially in those governed by conservatives. Like in Piedmont, where not only have funds been dedicated to anti-abortion associations, but they are about to open a “listening” room in a Turin hospital dedicated to convincing women to go ahead with their pregnancies. In the Marches, for example, getting the abortion pill is much more complicated than in other regions. All together in a country where abortion is in itself very complicated, because more than 60% of gynecologists are conscientious objectors. In some regions it is difficult to find doctors in public centers willing to practice.
