RIGHTS-ITALY: Abortion Law Under Fire from Right-wing Gov’t

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Jorge Piña

ROME, Jun 13 2001 (IPS) - Italy’s new conservative government defended its proposal Wednesday to amend the law that legalised abortion in 1978, in the face of the centre-left opposition’s heated reaction.

The initiative introduced Tuesday by the Christian Democrat party (CDU), which forms part of the governing coalition headed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, evoked memories of an attempt to repeal the abortion law 20 years ago, which triggered the fall of a Christian Democrat government.

The government of Berlusconi, who became prime minister on Sunday, is still awaiting parliament’s vote of confidence, due next week.

Italy’s abortion law permits the voluntary interruption of pregnancy in the first trimester, after which abortion is only authorised in case of serious fetal malformation or risk to the expectant mother’s life.

The law also stipulates that pregnant girls under 18 must have the authorisation of their parents to get an abortion. If the parents say no, a judge would decide.

In 1981, the Christian Democrat movement, Italy’s main political party at the time, along with the neofascist Italian Social Movement (MSI), held a referendum to overthrow the law legalising abortion.

But the overwhelming opposition to revoking the law, expressed by 70 percent of the voters participating in the referendum, triggered the government’s downfall.

On Wednesday, the new minister for Community Policy, CDU leader Rocco Buttiglione, defended the initiative to amend the abortion law.

“We have been called on to interpret the will of the Italian people, who have put us in the government,” said Buttiglione, who is also a member of the conservative Roman Catholic Communion and Liberation movement.

The coalition led by television magnate Berlusconi defeated the centre-left in the May 13 parliamentary elections.

This time around, the sectors opposed to the abortion law are seeking to make it more restrictive, rather than overturning it.

For example, the bill states that abortion could only be authorised with the consent of the father of the unborn child.

But the clause that has caused the greatest uproar proposes a monthly stipend of one million lire (nearly 500 dollars) that would be extended for one year to women who decided not to go through with their planned abortion.

The leader of the Radical party, Emma Bonino, a human and civil rights activist who has fought especially hard in defence of women, said the one-million-lire proposal reminded her of “the prize handed out during the years of fascism to encourage people to have more children.”

In 1999, nearly 140,000 abortions were documented in Italy, or 9.9 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 49. The number of abortions practiced since the law was enacted peaked at just under 235,000 in 1982.

In addition, the Health Ministry reckons that some 27,000 clandestine abortions are still carried out annually.

The bill introduced by the CDU would also create a commission to investigate the functioning of the 3,200 health clinics that can legally practice abortions.

Official statistics indicate that only 25 percent of abortion requests are authorised by the health clinics, which means most of the women who are turned down presumably turn to doctors in the private sector or other government health centres.

In this new battle against abortion, the CDU also has the backing of the National Alliance (AN), heir to the MSI and the second-strongest party in the governing coalition.

The previous centre-left government’s minister for Social Solidarity, Livia Turco of the Democratic Left party, said the bill’s sponsors were trying to “raise a debate on women’s freedom, which is the real objective of the law that legalised abortion.”

Before he was named minister for Community Policy, Buttiglione said he wanted to make Pope John Paul’s wish come true. The Vatican, however, has kept silent on the new bill.

But the Forum of Family Associations, a Roman Catholic church group, applauded the initiative and praised the idea of an economic incentive for women to refrain from interrupting their pregnancies.

The Forum’s secretary-general Luisa Santolini said she was confident that the bill would be approved shortly, and stated that the new government had got off to “an excellent start.”