Abortion, in the “Porta a Porta” studio six men talk about it. And Vespa asks the pollster: “What do women want?”

What better way to talk about the right to abortion than to invite six male guests on television? The shot from the “Porta a Porta” study is enough to summarize the debate of the last few days, inside and outside the Italian Parliament: men discussing women’s bodies without them even being invited to the table to discuss […]

What better way to talk about right to abortion if not invited on television well six male guests? Just the studio shot of “Door to door” to summarize the debate of the last few days, inside and outside the Italian Parliament: men arguing about women’s bodies without them even being invited to the table to express their opinion. Who, in the late evening of April 18th, tuned in to Rai 1 was able to witness the perfect synthesis of the discussion that had already taken place at Roomwith the aggravating circumstance that only men were speaking.

Thus, while the dem Alessandro Zan denounced “the psychological harassment of anti-abortionists” to reply by accusing him of falsehood the Fdi deputy was there Giovanni Donzelli. On background Bruno Vespa who intervened promptly to defend the so-called Pro-life groups: “It’s not true that they carry out terrorism”, he said. To then add, without showing any shadow of doubt: “Abortion is a tragedy for all women“. When reading the survey on the possibility of anti-abortion associations entering the clinics, passing the word to Antonio Notothe host himself asked the crucial question: “But what do women want?“. It’s a shame that there wasn’t even an interlocutor in the studio available to give an answer or, at least, comment on the data. Instead, there were three journalists, strictly men: Mario Sechi, Tommaso Labate And Federico Rampini. Behind them, to better convey the message, the images of a baby bump and a doctor doing an ultrasound: naturally silent.

The screenshot of the all-male audience, as on other occasions in the past, it went viral. So much so that the program was forced to issue a note of justification. The editorial staff, we read, “notes that the invitations for the political broadcast on Thursday 18 April were made in the days preceding the outbreak of the controversy. Since the presence of the Democratic party, we had invited three female parliamentarians from the Democratic Party (eventually replaced by the Honorable Zan due to their unavailability) and a newspaper editor, who was also unavailable. In any case abortion was only one of the eight topics covered in yesterday’s broadcast.” And they close: “Naturally, it will be our responsibility to return to the topic at the first available opportunity.” The fact remains that the absence of female interlocutors in an audience of six guests is a problem even when talking about other topics and not only when talking about issues that concern women.

Those who protested were the opposition: “Six men in the studio discussing abortion: Rai in the time of Giorgia Meloni allowed an all-male audience to discuss women’s rights”, said the Dem parliamentarians in the Supervisory Committee. “What happened in last night’s broadcast of Porta a Porta it’s very serious. We will bring this matter to the Supervisory Commission, we must stop this decline and combat the blatant violation of the principles of gender equality.” The Democratic Party’s reference is to the rules: “All the principles of gender equality contained in the Rai Service Contract have ceased to exist. A fact that undermines the credibility of the Italian public radio and television company. Less than a year ago, President Rai Soldi committed herself to ensuring equal representation in talks and public debates with the European Commission’s ‘No women no panel’ project. In less than a year we have to record that the promises were not followed by facts, with the aggravating circumstance that the topic under discussion concerned a female right, that of abortion”. Shortly after, the group leader of the Alleanza Verdi Sinistra group also spoke Peppe De Cristofaro: “Last night on Rai a new pearl from TeleMeloni was broadcast,” he declared. “A plastic image of a chauvinist and patriarchal society. Women’s rights cannot be touched and it is mortifying that Raithe largest cultural company in the country, is used without restraint for an identity crusade on women’s bodies. A very serious thing, a violation of the company’s code of ethicson which we will present a question to the Rai Supervisory Commission and on which I will ask President Floridia to summon the CEO Sergio and the general director Rossi”.