The leader of the “post-fascist” Fratelli d’Italia party, Giorgia Meloni, who is openly opposed to abortion rights, could lead the next government.
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Published on 02/10/2022 14:14
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“We are not afraid of refusers,” chorused women who had gathered in Rome to defend abortion rights. Many took to the streets this week following Giorgia Meloni’s victory in the general elections on September 26th. The head of the post-fascist Fratelli d’Italia party could lead the next government and makes no secret of her rejection of abortion rights. The fear that voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion), which has been legal in Italy for 40 years but difficult to access, will be called into question affects many Italian women.
“Today we fear even more that the obstacles will be institutionalized. That’s for sure! I’ve even been refused the morning-after pill in the pharmacy. The right-wing will exacerbate this problem,” says a student in Rome. In Italy, almost 7 out of 10 doctors refuse an abortion. With her triptych motto “God, fatherland, family”, the very conservative Giorgia Meloni wants to promote the right “to abortion”. But it will be done in insidious ways, warns Fabiola, a 52-year-old teacher.
“She will not abolish the law, that would be too big. But it will strip it of even more meaning, as is already the case with family planning, which does not guarantee abortion, and conscientious objection. Meloni is all the more dangerous for being sneaky.”
Fabiola, teacher
at franceinfo
These Italian women are calling for increased efforts to defend free, safe and free access to abortion in a very Catholic Italy now turning far right. A country twice pinned down by European courts for still having too many obstacles to abortion.