The Minister for Family, Birth and Equal Opportunities, Eugenia Roccella, was challenged by a group of students as she was preparing to speak at the General States of Birth in progress in Rome. To the protesters who underlined that “I decide on my body”, the minister replied “no one said that someone else decides on women’s bodies”, adding “that’s why we are here because today women do not decide freely whether they can have children “.
Roccella, addressing the demonstrators, took the microphone and said: “Guys, we agree, but no one said that someone else decides on women’s bodies, absolutely no one”. But the protest continued. One of the demonstrators spoke briefly into the microphone, but was then interrupted by organizer Gigi De Palo, saying: “But this is a monologue.” So while the protest continued, De Palo himself decided to give the floor to other guests, postponing Roccella’s intervention who first left the stage and then the Auditorium.
“This morning I chose to leave the General States of Natality to allow the people who were on stage with me, an eight-month pregnant mother who gave her testimony and the president of the Family Forum Adriano Bordignon, to be able to speak without suffering the my same fate of censorship. And yet not even this was enough: I left the stage but also my mother (submerged by boos) and Bordignon were prevented from speaking calmly. So much so that the event was suspended the demonstration that it was not just a matter of censorship towards me or towards the government, but of a profound hostility towards motherhood and fatherhood, towards those who decide to bring a child into the world, exercising their freedom and without taking anything away from freedom others, but contributing to giving a future to our society. In short, what is contested, in the end, is motherhood as a free choice”, said Eugenia Roccella in a note.
