Italy’s parliament on Wednesday made it illegal for couples to go abroad to have a baby through surrogacy – a pet project of the prime minister’s Giorgia Meloni party, which activists say is aimed at finding same-sex partners to attack.
Since taking office in 2022, Meloni has pursued a deeply conservative social agenda, seeking to promote what she sees as traditional family values, making it increasingly difficult for LGBTQ couples to become legal parents.
The Senate of the Upper House voted 84 votes to 58 against a bill from Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party. The bill was already approved by the lower house last year.
The legislation extends the ban on surrogacy that has been in force in Italy since 2004 to those going to countries such as the United States or Canada, where it is legal, with prison sentences of up to two years and fines of up to 1 million euros ( $1.09). million).
“Motherhood is absolutely unique, it absolutely cannot be replaced, and it is the foundation of our civilization,” Senator Lavinia Mennuni of the Brothers of Italy said during the parliamentary debate.
“We want to eradicate the phenomenon of surrogacy tourism.”
Earlier this year, Meloni called surrogacy an “inhumane” practice that treated children like supermarket products, echoing a position taken by the Catholic Church.
On Tuesday, demonstrators gathered outside the Senate and expressed outrage over the bill. They said the government was lashing out at LGBTQ people and harming those who wanted to have children, despite Italy experiencing a sharply declining birth rate.
“If someone has a baby, he/she should get a medal. Instead, you’re sent to prison… if you don’t have children in the traditional way,” said Franco Grillini, a longtime activist for LGBTQ rights in Italy. , told Reuters during the demonstration.
Rainbow Families president Alessia Crocini said that 90% of Italians who choose surrogacy are heterosexual couples, but they usually do so in secret, meaning the new ban would de facto only affect gay couples who cannot hide it.
The stricter measures against surrogacy come against a backdrop of falling birth rates, with national statistics agency ISTAT saying in March that the number of births had fallen to a record low by 2023 – the fifteenth consecutive annual decline.
“This is a monstrous law. No country in the world has something like this,” Grillini said, referring to the government’s decision to prevent Italians from abusing practices that are completely legal in some countries.
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