A bill proposing to make surrogacy a universal crime advanced in the Senate on Wednesday.
The surrogacy bill, which was approved by the upper house justice committee on Wednesday after passing the lower house last month, includes a right-wing League amendment. This amendment proposes that using surrogate mothers should be punishable by 4-10 years in jail and a fine ranging from €600,000 to €2million.
Premier Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party aims to make surrogacy a “universal crime,” even abroad. This is an attempt to end a practice commonly used by Italian gay couples in the US and other countries. The League’s amendment also seeks to penalise public officials who register children born through surrogacy.
Both Meloni and League leader Matteo Salvini have condemned the practice of paying allegedly vulnerable women for surrogacy and depriving infants of their natural mothers as “abominable.”
The centre-left opposition is actively opposing the bill.
€1,000 a month not to have abortion
Meanwhile, centre-right Forza Italia (FI) Senate Whip Maurizio Gasparri introduced a bill to provide low-income pregnant women with €1,000 per month for a year if they decide not to terminate their pregnancies in Italy. He described this ‘maternity income’ as a “good incentive to protect the unborn child.”
The government has already controversially allowed pro-life activists access to abortion information services.
Additionally, obtaining an abortion in Italy is notoriously difficult, with over two-thirds of the country’s doctors morally or religiously opposed to the procedure.
Italy has a declining birth rate, but the centre-right are adamant surrogacy is not the answer.
