Italy, Senate approves the presence of pro-life groups in clinics

ADVERTISING

The Italian Senate voted on Tuesday a provision that allows you to operate within family counseling centers to anti-abortion associations (also called pro-life).

The measure has raised numerous criticisms for its methods and timing, despite the fact that the right to abortion returned to the political agenda with a resolution from the European Parliament itself this month.

In fact, the permission for the activity of “maternity support” groups and for women dealing with a pregnancy loss was included in the decree on measures financed by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Pnrr)which had to be converted into law by May 1st, and on which the majority placed their confidence, making its approval almost a given.

The amendment, signed by Lorenzo Malagola of Fratelli d’Italia, it has already passed the Chamber of Deputies which approved the text on the Pnrr on 16 April, on the eve of the regional elections in Basilicata, with 185 votes in favour, 115 against and 4 abstentions.

The measure on counseling centers is an attempt to void law 194 on abortion

Tuesday’s vote was preceded by a protests in front of the Senate.

“Law 194 is not made for the self-determination of one’s body regarding abortion” said one of the women present, Bianca Monteleone.

“The law is extremely paternalistic, because it provides for the social protection of motherhood and abortion as an exception that must be hindered as much as possiblefor example through state measures” added Monteleone.

For pro-abortion (also called pro-choice) activists, this is an attempt to attack the 194, albeit not head-on.

“It is already happening in some regions” such as Piedmont, warns the gynecologist Silvana Agathonpresident of the pro-choice association Laiga.

“Characters whose qualifications are unknown. They certainly haven’t studied, they haven’t passed exams to go and talk to women about topics for which the counseling center already has highly qualified figures” warns Agatone.

Government, activists in the clinics to “really apply” the law on abortion in Italy

The law that decriminalized abortion in Italy, in fact, was the result of a political compromise in 1978 which however has never been revised to adapt it to the times, as has happened elsewhere in Europe.

Since his election in September 2022, the government led by the right of Giorgia Meloni he has never openly questioned 194, as requested by the pro-life and traditional family groups that supported him.

“I think that free choice must be guaranteed and I believe that to make a free choice it is necessary to have all the necessary information. This is what law 194 provides and I believe it is the right thing to do,” Meloni said Tuesday from Brussels.

Almost everyone agrees not to touch 194, on both sides in the abortion debate for different reasons, therefore the discussion has shifted to the potential of the provisionsof the law.

The debate on law 194 on abortion has never ended since 1978

The Meloni government supports the presence of maternity support groups in family clinics, as it would fully apply articles 1 and 3 of law 194.

“The State, regions and local authorities promote and develop social and health services, as well as other initiatives necessary to prevent abortion from being used for the purposes of limiting births” we read in article 1 of the law.

Article 3 instead indicates among the responsibilities of the consultants that of contributing “to overcome the causes that could lead the woman to interrupt her pregnancy” and the possibility of making use of voluntary associations that “they can also help difficult motherhood after birth“.

The precedent of the art. 9 of 194: almost 2/3 of gynecologists do not perform abortions

The risk that a literal application of the law, more than 40 years after its conception, can make the freedom to have an abortion a real odyssey for many Italianshas the clearest example in the broad interpretation given to Article 9 on conscientious objection.

ADVERTISING

Initially envisaged to respect any ethical dilemmas of gynecologists and healthcare professionals called to intervene during an abortion in hospital, in 2021, conscientious objection reached 63.6 percent of gynecologists and 40.5 percent of anesthetists in Italy, according to the latest annual report on the Ministry of Health law on the implementation of 194.

According to the ministry, in Italy approximately 60 thousand pregnancy terminations are performed every year (63,653 in 2021) and 42.8 percent of women who intend to have an abortion turn to clinics to obtain the mandatory medical certificate.