Giulia Blasi is a Rome-based writer and activist, author of the feminist primers Manuale per ragazze rivoluzionarie (Rizzoli, 2018) and Rivoluzione Z (Rizzoli, 2020). and “Brutta” (Rizzoli, 2022).
ROME — When asked about her views on abortion rights, Italian Brethren leader Giorgia Meloni replied that she intends to give women “the right not to have an abortion”.
Meloni, who will become the country’s first female prime minister in its history, also said she intends to “fully enforce” Law 194, which protects access to abortion.
This choice of words may have reassured some voters who otherwise would not have voted for a transparent anti-choice party. The policies of her party, and those of her close allies, must also be weighed.
As it stands, in order to have an abortion, an Italian woman undergoes a medical examination, observes a seven-day waiting period, and undergoes a mandatory counseling session aimed at removing the “obstacles” to carrying the pregnancy to full term. must be maintained.
This provision considers the will of a pregnant person to be subservient to the public interest in fertility and places a temporary suspension on women’s physical autonomy for community decision. This is compounded by the alarming number of conscientious objectors in hospitals and clinics across the country, with the national average calculated at about 70%.
Therefore, in some regions and even large cities, especially in the South, it is impossible to obtain a safe and legal exit. law 194 Protects conscientious objection provided it does not lead to service interruption, but does not set a maximum number of objectors per hospital or clinic.
It is also important to note that this law does not actually protect abortion rights. Signed into law in 1978 and unchanged since, the spirit of the bill was to ensure that all women who wanted an abortion had access to it, but its final formulation was: I will explain Its goal is to “protect”[ing] From the beginning of human life
Frustratingly, it is almost impossible to obtain official data on the state of abortion access at the local level in Italy, especially since health care is administered at the local level and each region enjoys considerable autonomy. It is possible. I am recording that I could not come up with a complete picture. in their attempt.
However, these issues are not necessarily new. During the recent tenure of center-right Health Minister Roberto Speranza, there was no formal policy to solve the problem and ensure that women received treatment or were prescribed his RU-486. No investigation was initiated. Early on, safely at home.
Several regions of Italy run by centre-right or right-wing governments – such as Piedmont, Umbria, Abruzzo and Le Marche – have severely restricted the distribution of the drug in family planning clinics or have made its use mandatory. Hospitalization is limited to 3 days.
But after last week’s election, changes to solve the issue of access to abortion seem unlikely.
Le Marche, for example, is now ruled by Francesco Acquaroli, a member of Meloni’s Italian Brothers. He explicitly opposes abortion on the grounds that it leads to “ethnic displacement” of Italians. I think that the.
This line of increasing fertility by discouraging women from terminating unwanted or unplanned pregnancies is a former minister under Silvio Berlusconi and a possible center-right candidate for governor of Lombardy. It is also reflected by a certain Leticia Moratti.
When asked about her views on conscientious objection in the region, Moratti dodged the question: Quote Declining birth rate in Italy calls abortion a ‘hurtful and painful decision’ and declares support for full application of law to help women who may be financially insecure She is currently a Community Welfare Councilor for Lombardy.
Doubling this angle, recently members of the Ligurian Regional Administration of the Italian Brothers, suggestion For legislation to further support and increase the presence of anti-selection activists in hospitals aimed at discouraging women from terminating unwanted pregnancies.
Meanwhile, at the national level, on September 16, 2022, the leaders of the incoming government coalition — Meloni of the Brothers of Italy, Matteo Salvini of Ligue 1 and Silvio Berlusconi of Forza Italia — officially pledged to promote anti-selection. manifest Conservative Group ProVita Announces & Familiar.
ProVita is a powerful, ostensibly well-funded pressure group, with several of its members elected to Congress. It’s also one of the forces behind the presence of anti-selection volunteers in hospitals and family planning clinics across the country.
The women who spoke to me on condition of anonymity said they underwent considerable, and often excruciating, psychological pressure from health care providers who performed mandatory medical and psychological examinations.
Some were hurt by outright lies. Others were offered money by anonymous donors to continue the pregnancies to term.
Anti-choice activists also point out that even those who don’t want to become mothers can still conceive to term and give the baby up for adoption. is a likely choice. Italian law It is impossible for the adoptive birth mother to maintain the relationship because it does not consider open adoption.
Italian reproductive rights activists have long campaigned for reform of Law 194. And there are good reasons to believe that the incoming right-wing government will aggressively oppose access to abortion by exploiting multiple weaknesses in the law.
Inevitably, it looks like the fight is back on the streets again.
