The Italian government’s decision to allow anti-abortion groups access to women considering terminating their pregnancies has sparked a heated debate over abortion rights in the country. The move, which passed the Senate with a 95-68 vote, has reignited tensions 46 years after abortion was legalized in the predominantly Catholic nation.
The legislation, attached to European Union COVID-19 recovery funds, was sponsored by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party. It allows regions to permit groups “with a qualified experience supporting motherhood” to operate in public support centers where women seeking abortions receive counseling.
Meloni and her supporters maintain that the amendment simply fulfills the original intent of the 1978 law legalizing abortion, known as Law 194, which includes provisions to support motherhood and prevent the procedure. However, the left-wing opposition fears the move erodes women’s reproductive autonomy and undermines their ability to make choices regarding their bodies.
Under the current law, abortion is allowed on request in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, or later if a woman’s health or life is in danger. Publicly funded counseling centers provide pregnant women with information about their rights and offer services to assist them if they choose to terminate their pregnancies. However, access to abortion is not always guaranteed due to the large number of healthcare personnel who register as conscientious objectors and refuse to perform the procedure.
Meloni, who campaigned on a platform of “God, fatherland, and family,” has pledged not to repeal the 1978 law but rather to implement it fully. She has also prioritized encouraging women to have more children to address Italy’s demographic crisis. Italy’s birthrate, already one of the lowest in the world, has been declining steadily for about 15 years and reached a record low in 2023 with only 379,000 births.
Meloni’s conservative forces, backed strongly by the Vatican, aim to encourage at least 500,000 births annually by 2033, a rate demographers say is necessary to prevent the economy from collapsing under the weight of Italy’s aging population. Meloni has dismissed opposition to the amendment as “fake news,” emphasizing that Law 194 already includes measures to prevent abortions, such as counseling pregnant women about alternatives.
The new tensions over abortion in Italy come amidst contrasting developments elsewhere in Europe. France recently enshrined the right to abortion in its constitution, while Malta and Poland have moved to ease their restrictive abortion laws. Italy’s left fears the country might follow the path of the United States, where many states have restricted access to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned a landmark ruling that guaranteed access to the procedure nationwide.
Elly Schlein, head of Italy’s opposition Democratic Party, has called for an obligatory percentage of doctors in public hospitals to be required to perform abortions, arguing that otherwise these rights remain theoretical and inaccessible to women in practice.
