Surrogacy soon illegal in Italy, even carried out abroad? This is one of the measures of the bill submitted by Fratelli d'Italia (FDI), Giorgia Meloni's far-right party. Italian MPs were discussing on Wednesday a bill that should be adopted in the evening.
The bill submitted by the far-right party of the head of government thus takes up a 2004 law prohibiting surrogacy in the peninsula. He wants to go even further, even considering surrogacy carried out abroad as a crime that can be prosecuted by the Italian justice.
Surrogacy "a uterus for rent" according to a Fratelli d'Italia official
On Wednesday, an IDF official, Elisabetta Gardini, criticized the opposition during the debate, calling surrogacy a "uterus for rent" that "insults the dignity of women and tramples on the rights of children." Italy currently provides that anyone who "carries out, organizes or makes known" surrogacy in the country risks a sentence of three months to two years in prison and a fine ranging from 600,000 to one million euros. According to media reports, a large number of people who resort to surrogacy abroad are heterosexual couples who cannot have children.
In addition, the new bill is causing concern among LGBT+ activists who warn of the danger to civil rights posed by Meloni's government, which has emphasized the traditional values of the Catholic family. On Tuesday, several hundred people protested in front of the Pantheon in central Rome against the bill.
Children from surrogacy left in a legal limbo
Assisted reproduction, in which a donated egg or sperm is used, is legal for heterosexual couples, but not for same-sex couples or single women. Until now, Italians who could afford it traveled to countries where surrogacy is allowed, such as the United States. But this issue is part of a larger problem in Italy, as the country has no law to recognize the children of same-sex couples.
This leaves these children in a legal limbo with only the biological parent listed on their birth certificate, forcing the other to engage in a long and costly adoption process. In the absence of a clear policy, some cities, including Milan, Turin and Padua, had registered children of same-sex couples conceived abroad through surrogacy until an Interior Ministry directive banned it in April.
Once adopted in the Chamber of Deputies, the bill still needs to be validated by the Senate to enter into force.
a measure criticized by the LGBT+ community.