Pro-life associations in clinics: the opposition's protest

An amendment to the law decree that implements the Pnrr causes discussion: the text says that the Regions, in organizing the counseling services, can make use of “third sector entities who have qualified experience in maternity support”. Pro-life groups can enter the clinics and for Pd and M5S it is an attack on the law regulating the right to abortion: «It represents yet another offense against women's rights and their self-determination».
The government asked the Chamber for a vote of confidence on the decree for the completion of the implementation of the Pnrr and this provision, first signed by Lorenzo Malagola of FdI, already passed in commission, is included in the decree.

The representatives of the M5S in the Social Affairs commissions of the House and Senate attacked the measure. «We live in a country where the right to terminate a pregnancy is already under attack, where it is already difficult to access the practice, where women have to travel outside the province or even outside the region to be able to have an abortion. While other countries include the protection of the right to terminate a pregnancy in the Constitution, Italy chooses to take a further step backwards. We will continue to oppose this obscurantist policy of the Meloni government.”

“We will oppose it harshly,” said the Democratic secretary Elly Schlein. «I remember a letter during Giorgia Meloni's electoral campaign that said “don't worry we won't touch the right to abortion“. A right that a few days ago was defined by the European Parliament as a fundamental right and we are very happy with this step. Evidently Giorgia Meloni thinks the opposite. After reading that letter we said to be careful because if they wanted to undermine the right they wouldn't have even needed to touch that law on abortion, just do something like this.” The International Women's House explains: “We must all feel under attack on our bodies.

An opposite reading comes from the center right and pro-life associations. The Corriere della Sera reports the position of the vice president of the Chamber Fabio Rampelli, of Fratelli d'Italia: «Nobody wants to reform or repeal 194. But apply it in its entirety, unlike what has been done so far also due to the direct responsibility of those who have governed healthcare in recent decades. The amendment approved to the Pnrr signed by my colleague Malagola goes in this direction, offering the possibility of reflection without cost to the State as provided for by the law in article 1 and paragraph d of article 2 or: contributing to overcoming the causes which could lead the woman to terminate her pregnancy”.

Future reports the position of Domenico Menorello, coordinator of the Sui tetti network: «It is the mere transposition of a faculty known to the legal system» and “in itself desirable in light of the principle of horizontal subsidiarity”. This is the passage of law 194 to which reference is made: «The consultants, on the basis of specific regulations or agreements, can avail themselves, for the purposes established by law, of the voluntary collaboration of suitable basic social formations and voluntary associations, which can also help difficult motherhood after birth.”

He explained to Vanity Fair the lawyer Valeria De Vellis That Law 194 of 1978 did not create the right to abortion, but rather regulates cases in which abortion is not considered a crime. The art. 1 provides that «the State guarantees the right to conscious and responsible procreation, recognizes the social value of motherhood and protects human life from its beginning». The law, therefore, while recognizing the right to life of the embryo and fetus, protects the woman's right to physical and mental health, if this is put at risk by the continuation of pregnancy, childbirth or maternity.