The pro-life associations in counseling centers are cruelty. Because the number of abortions in Italy is among the lowest in Europe and constantly decreasing. Alessandra Kustermann, first female head doctor of the Mangiagalli Clinic of the Milan Polyclinic, in an interview with The print talks about the Meloni government’s project with Pnrr funds. «The use of pregnancy termination in 2021 decreased in all age groups, especially among the youngest. The highest abortion rates remain between the ages of 25 and 34. The average age of women at childbirth in 1975 was 23, today it is 34: the period of time in which a woman chooses to become a mother has narrowed”, she explains.
What changes
And again: «In the past, women with at least two children, already in a couple relationship, aborted. Today the number of women who do not yet have children and are not in a stable relationship is increasing. So this is where we need to work, on their fears, if we want to understand why it happens. If they have decided they are not ready, if their motivations are strong, it is impossible to change their minds. Nobody thinks of aborting a lump of cells, thinking that someone has to explain it to us is an insult to our intelligence. In order not to be terrified at the idea of having a child, today’s girls need more than the promise of 200 euros a month for a year.”
For Kustermann, however, something else is needed: ««In big cities, like Milan, to rent a studio apartment you need a salary. For young couples to decide to start a family, first of all, a house would be very useful. Another question, when compulsory maternity leave, if you have it, is over, the baby is three months old and you have to go back to work, what do you do? If the right in government really wanted to increase the birth rate, the solution is one and only one: equality, true equality, between men and women.”
Equality
And again: «If I have to go back to work three months after giving birth, who stays at home with the newborn? The babysitter I can’t afford, the grandmother who still works? Why don’t the five mandatory and paid months for the father, the most suitable person to look after his child, begin after the five obligatory months for the woman? An interview to explore the reasons for such a difficult decision is already being held in the clinics. But that’s not where solutions are built.” And finally, egg freezing: «It seems like a good idea to me when you are 34, 35 years old and you know you want a child, but it’s not possible because you’re not yet in the relationship considered “right”. Raising a child in our country is very difficult due to everything we have said, on its own it is even more scary. Fertility and business almost never go together particularly well.”
