"Politicians are trying again to take possession of female bodies"

In Italy, surrogate motherhood was completely banned - now it is illegal to resort to such services within the country and abroad. What can this lead to?

The Senate of Italy finally banned surrogate motherhood. In the country, this practice has been illegal since 2004, but new amendments have been depriving Italians to resort to the services of surrogate motherhood and outside the country, recognizing it as a “universal crime”.

The coalition of the right -wing conservative parties spoke in support of the new measures, headed by Prime Minister Georgia Melony. The Vatican, who had a strong influence in Italy, also insisted on the ban. At the same time, opponents of the law are afraid that the amendments will complicate the life of LGBTK+-Person and that children born with artificial fertilization will be the main victims. New Europe tells how the ruling conservative coalition in Italy justifies the ban on surrogate motherhood and what opponents of the law think about it.

What's happened?

The Senate - the upper house of the Italian parliament - on October 16, finally forbade the use of the services of surrogate mothers. The bill No. 824, approved last year in the Chamber of Deputies, makes significant amendments to the law on surrogate motherhood: in Italy itself it has been banned since 2004, and now the ban also applies to the practice of surrogate motherhood abroad.

What is surrogate motherhood?

Surrogate motherhood - the bearing and birth of a woman of a child for other people who will become his parents after birth. Most often, genetic material is provided by persons for whom a child (gestational surrogate motherhood) is carried, but in some cases a surrogate mother can also be a genetic mother (traditional surrogate motherhood).

People resort to this type of bearing and birth of a child, when pregnancy and childbirth are undesirable or impossible when the risk of pregnancy is too dangerous for the mother, and also when a lonely person or homosexual pair wants to have a child.

That is, surrogate motherhood, according to amendments, becomes a “universal crime”.

What is a "universal crime"?

A universal crime is a crime that can be persecuted by the state (in this case by Italy), even if it is committed outside its territory. These already include, for example, pedophilia, genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Thus, after the law is signed by the prime minister of the country, Italian citizens will not be able to use the services of surrogate mothers even in those countries where it is allowed by law, for example, in the USA or Canada. In addition, new measures criminalize the work of Italian doctors in foreign clinics of reproductive medicine, which contribute to surrogate motherhood.

In Italian legislation, surrogate motherhood has already been considered a form of operation and practice that degrades the dignity of women. 84 senators spoke for new amendments, most of them were from the extremely right -right ruling party “The Brothers of Italy”, led by the prime minister of the country, Georgia Meloni. 58 people voted against.

Violators of the new law may face a prison term of up to two years and a fine of 600 thousand to a million euros.

What do Italian politicians and church think about the law?

The bill was prepared by the Italian Brothers party. “Surrogate motherhood is a prohibited practice, and the only way to prevent it is to do a universal crime,” said the prime minister and head of the Italian Brothers Georgia Melony. “New Europe” spoke in detail about her political views and paths to the post of prime minister: Melony called herself “Christian” and “mother” and promoted socio-conservative views, in particular, saying that only a man and a woman should educate children.

Back in July, other right Italian parties supported the initiative, including the League of the North and Forward, Italy! ” The Democratic Party and the Central Bloc “Living Italy” opposed the criminalization of surrogate motherhood, but since the parliament is controlled by the right majority, the law managed to lead through the House of Deputies and the Senate.

For the universal ban on surrogate motherhood, the Vatican spoke more than once. As Papa Francis said , every human life, "starting with the life of a still unborn child in the womb, cannot be suppressed or become an object of commercialization."

“In this regard, I believe that the practice of the so -called surrogate motherhood is regrettable, since it seriously undermines the dignity of a woman and her child, so I hope to prohibit this practice for an obligation to the international community,” he said.

What do opponents of the law think about measures?

Opponents of the law believe that he is aimed at LGBTK+PARA. In Italy, they are already forbidden to adopt children or use extorporepical fertilization (IVF).

“If someone is born a child, you need to give a medal for this. And here instead you are sent to prison if you start children with an unconventional way. This is a monstrous law, ”said Franco Grillini, an activist of the LGBTK community.

As the Italian politician and secretary of the Liberal Party +Europa Riccardo Mags noted , according to the new law, the birth of a child from a surrogate mother is equated with crimes such as pedophilia and genocide. However, the wording of the “universal crime” is inaccurate from a legal point of view: in dozens of countries of the world, surrogate motherhood is allowed:

“Politicians are again trying to take possession of female bodies and their right to self -determination. As if each uterus belonged to Georgia Melony, Matteo Salvini and the government majority. Legal shame, which, we hope, will be rejected by the Constitutional Court. We will not step back in an inch. <...> The body, the womb and freedom of the woman belong to women. Not Georgia Melony. Not to this government. No government, ”he wrote.

Eliza Pirro, a member of the Party Party Party, agrees with him: she called the bill “a vulgar attack on homosexual couples” and the result of the “illusion of omnipotence” of legal entities. “Crimes are universal when the international community recognizes them as such, and not because Italy says so,” she said.

According to lawyers, new legislative measures may turn out to be useless: “This is the law-manifesto that is unlikely to be applied. But in its current form, it can be used to persecute many Italian couples, ” said Anna Lorenzetti, professor at the University of Bergamo, professor at the University of Bergamo.

In order to hold accountable for surrogate motherhood, it will be necessary to prove that a person resorted to him.

But since this practice is not prohibited abroad, not a single foreign clinic will be obliged to provide confirming documents, Lorenzetti emphasizes.

According to the criminal lawyer from the University of Bologna, Vittorio Manes, the victims of the adoption of the new law will be, first of all, children born with the help of artificial insemination: “The possible condemnation of parents or even their imprisonment can obviously harm the child,” he said.

How many Italians resorted to the services of surrogate motherhood?

There are no official data about how many Italian children were born surrogate mothers abroad, since such a practice is prohibited. However, as Corriere Della Sera writes , we can talk about about 250–350 children a year, and in the vast majority of cases, it is the heterosexual pairs to surrogate motherhood abroad.

Experts interviewed by the BBC confirmed that about 90% of Italian couples who used the services of surrogate mothers were heterosexual, and many of them hide what they did. The same -sex couples returning to Italy with a child cannot hide it in the same way, so they will be the most vulnerable due to the adoption of new measures.

Where in the world surrogate motherhood is allowed, and where is it outside the law?

There are countries where surrogate motherhood is legally either from altruistic or from commercial reasons. With altruistic surrogate motherhood, women are not paid for bearing a child and only reimbursing the expenses necessary during pregnancy. With commercial surrogate motherhood, women are paid compensation.

Surrogate motherhood legally in many US states, in particular, in California, Illinois, Arkansas, Maryland and New Hampshire. Nevertheless, this practice is prohibited, for example, in Washington, New Jersey, Michigan and New York.

Usually in the United States it is commercial, and the expenses associated with it are the highest in the world (from 120 to 250 thousand euros). These expenses may increase in the case of complications during childbirth or the need for postpartum care for the surrogate mother and children.

Surrogate motherhood is also legally in Canada and Australia . Among other things, Ukraine (at least until a full -scale war unleashed by Russia) was considered one of the most popular areas for international surrogate motherhood, mainly due to liberal laws and affordable prices. However, Ukraine does not allow the use of such a practice for same -sex couples.

In Europe, surrogate motherhood is legal in several countries, including Denmark, Belgium, Hungary, Great Britain, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Ireland and Greece . Georgia also became the main area of ​​commercial surrogate motherhood for heterosexual couples, including Italian.

However, there are states where surrogate motherhood is strictly prohibited for legal, ethical and cultural reasons: this, for example, Italy, Germany, France, Austria, Norway, Sweden. There it is considered a form of human trafficking.