The World Briefly
April 19, 2024Unwelcome Guests
Italy
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Italian lawmakers passed an amendment this week to allow anti-abortion activists to enter family planning clinics, a move that supporters hailed but the opposition and pro-choice advocates called a “heavy” blow to women’s rights, the Washington Post reported.
The amendment is part of the right-wing government’s new healthcare package, with officials saying it will not change the 1978 law that allows abortion.
They added that it will clarify aspects of the legislation, such as allowing “nonprofit groups with qualified experience in supporting maternity” to be given access to family planning counseling centers that issue the certificates needed to obtain an abortion.
Pro-life activists were previously not permitted into those centers.
Opposition lawmakers decried the changes as another instance of authorities restricting women’s right to choose. They added that some Italian regions, including Umbria and Marche, have already restricted access to the abortion pill.
Under Italian law, a woman can seek an abortion in the first 90 days of pregnancy. After that, terminations can only be conducted if there is a risk to the woman’s life or serious issues with the fetus.
Following the vote, Italy’s biggest antiabortion organization, Pro Vita e Famiglia (Pro-Life and Family), said that while it does not plan to enter abortion consultation clinics, it must return to its “original function of helping women find concrete alternatives to abortion.”
Observers noted that the recent amendment further renewed the focus on the issue of abortion in Europe: In February, France became the first country in the world to enshrine abortion rights in its constitution.
Earlier this week, an independent commission recommended legalizing abortion in Germany during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Abortion is considered illegal in Germany, but not punishable if a woman undergoes mandatory counseling and a three-day waiting period before she has the procedure, according to the Associated Press.
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