In 1978, Law 194 legalized abortion in Italy. Nearly 50 years later, Meloni’s far-right party has introduced laws to deter women from seeking abortions. Her position recently triggered spats with other European leaders.
Last Thursday, the leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized countries met in southern Italy to discuss recent economic and security issues, this time with emphasis on the war in Ukraine, and Gaza, as well as AI developments and investment in Africa. But frictions arose between Giorgia Meloni and other countries over another polarizing issue: abortion.
The leader of the far-right party Brothers of Italy has been accused of having demanded the removal of the reference to “safe and legal abortion” from the final statement of the summit, which was made public on Friday.
Since entering office in October 2022, the leader of Brothers of Italy has revived tensions over the issue of abortion in the country 46 years after it was legalized.
In April, her government approved a law to allow “support motherhood” groups in abortion clinics, sparking a spat with Spain’s socialist government which recently criminalized harassment or intimidation of women going for an abortion.
Money to avoid abortion
Despite having promised not to touch the landmark abortion law, Meloni’s personal conviction against abortion and her party’s policies are creating an unfavorable environment for women who have an abortion.
A scheme in the Northern region of Italy, Piedmont, was proposed by far-right councilor Maurizio Marrone in 2022 to offer women 4,000 euros (approximately 4,300 dollars) not to have an abortion. The region’s representative also proposed 400,000 euros in regional funding to anti-abortion associations, which was approved. The scheme was criticized for disguising anti-abortion propaganda as aid for women in economic difficulties.
In May, the Italian national press agency reported the case of a young woman in Genoa who, when seeking out an emergency abortion after being denied the procedure at a public hospital, was approached by two anti-abortion activists who offered her 100 euros (108 dollars) not to abort.
The Genoese senator Luca Porindini from the 5 Star Movement, a populist party, described the incident as “very serious, shameful, and simply unacceptable.”
Despite Prime Minister Meloni and her government insisting that abortion rights are protected, incidents like these have provoked concerns that the constitutional right to abortion is not protected, with the regional councilor of Liguria, Roberto Arboscello, warning that “we are at a clear weakening of Law 194.”
Meloni’s government has only reinforced the conservative values in a country with an already high influence of Catholicism, with 80% of Italians saying they are Catholic.
The ministry of health holds a registry of objecting doctors, with nearly 65% of gynecologists refusing to perform abortions on moral grounds, a figure which soars to 90% in some areas in the south, according to data from 2020.
In the eastern region of Marche, where Brothers of Italy have been in power since 2020, access to abortion is severely restricted. While the national limit for medical abortions is nine weeks of pregnancy, Marche imposes a stricter limit of seven weeks. Once they have received medical authorization, women have to reflect for one week before the procedure is carried out. This often results in missed deadlines as pregnancies are frequently not discovered until the fifth or sixth week.
Despite some policies, the general favorability toward the legalization of abortion stands in Italy at around 70%. Significant changes to the current legal framework would face considerable opposition from both the public and advocacy groups.
Influence of anti-abortion groups
POLITICO Europe also reported that healthcare authorities in regions controlled by Meloni’s majority impose hospital stays for those taking an abortion pill, despite a change of guidelines in 2020 that allowed women to go home rather than staying overnight. Anti-abortion groups have also tried to force women to listen to fetal heartbeats.
In 2023, these anti-abortion organizations gathered 106,000 signatures to change the country’s law on abortion, double the minimum required for a referendum to be considered. The aim of Pro-Vita e Famiglia (Pro-Life and Family) is to introduce two extra steps, including listening to the fetus’s heartbeat, before patients can receive the treatment.
In the United States, Christian anti-abortion organizations are particularly influential and have been extending beyond the country, with branches spreading all over the world. Heartbeat International, the biggest anti-abortion group in the country, has partnered with Movimento per la Vita (“Movement for Life”) in Italy to provide “alternatives to abortion” and funded it with 92,800 euros (around 100,000 dollars) since 2014.
The legal framework in Italy
Law 194 legalized abortion but also included provisions aimed at preventing the procedure and supporting motherhood, a point the current right-wing government under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni emphasizes. Her party, Brothers of Italy, argues that it is improving it by guaranteeing alternatives to abortion.
Meloni has made bolstering Italy’s low birth rate a priority, warning that the “Italian nation” was “destined to disappear,” fueling conservative social values by promoting traditional families and restricting abortion.
Sources in Meloni’s office denied that the reference to abortion has been removed from the G7 declaration. The word “abortion” does not appear, but commitments made at last year’s G7 meeting at Hiroshima to “services healthcare for women, including reproductive rights” have been reiterated. “There is no step backward” and “nothing has been removed” from the joint statement emphasized Meloni.
Having secured a strong 29% of the vote in last week’s European elections, Meloni presided over last week’s G7 meeting in a position of strength.
