40 years after the referendum, abortion still divides Italy

(by Emanuela De Crescenzo) (ANSA) - ROME, MAY 10 - 40 years have passed but the frontisull'abortion remains opposed and irreconcilable. A theme that has always been and continues to be divisive in Italian society. On May 17, 1981, the Italians rejected the abrogative duereferendums that wanted to modify Law 194: "Rules for the social protection of maternity and on the voluntary interruption of pregnancy" approved on May 22, 1978, in an Italy in full terrorism emergency struggling with abduction and then with the Moro crime.

   The Italians chose to preserve the law that allows women to voluntarily terminate their pregnancy in a public facility in the first 90 days of gestation and, only for therapeutic reasons between the fourth and fifth month, and to doctorsconscientious objection.

    The referendums were also opposed: on the one hand the Radicals proposed a full liberalization of abortion by extending it to private nursing homes as well; on the other, the Movement for Life with two questions: one 'maximum' which required the repeal of law 194 and the other 'minimal' to cancel the articles that protected women's self-determination, recognizing only therapeutic abortion as legitimate. But the Italians rejected all the questions: the radical one with 88.4% of the no and that of the Vitac Movement with 68% of the no.

    "By winning those two referendums, we felt that the law was finally 'ours'" explains Pina Nuzzo at the time responsible for the provincial Udi in Lecce and municipal in Modena, following from 1987 to 89 national guarantor and from 2001 to 2003 national responsibility of the same Union Italian women. (HANDLE).