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Activists opposed to abortion in Italy are expected to ramp up their targeting of clinics after being “emboldened” by an amendment to the law.
Pro-abortion activists fear the bill could endanger women across Italy, and lead to harassment as they try to access information and support.
Anti-abortion activists have routinely attended clinics and pressured women to abandon abortions in three separate Italian regions – Piedmont, Veneto and Lombardy – where the local law has already been changed to allow their presence, according to Elena Caruso, an expert in Italian abortion law and fellow at the University of Waterloo in Canada. Now, anti-abortion activists are worried that could spread to other regions.
“Because of the church in Italy, abortion is already taboo,” Serena Mammani, a pro-abortion activist and volunteer from the southern city of Naples, told i. “We already can’t talk freely about abortion, because it’s perceived as something you need to feel guilty about.
“Now we will have also these people entering public places to tell you a lot of bullsh** about what women should do with their body, or how you have to run your life.”
Obtaining an abortion in Italy is already difficult. “Conscientious objectors”, or doctors who refuse to carry out abortions, are already commonplace. Nearly two thirds of gynaecologists in Italy refuse to carry out abortions, according to government statistics – though some suggest that is an underestimate.
The Luca Coscioni Association, a scientific research institute based in Rome, reports that 22 hospitals in Italy do not have any gynaecologists willing to carry out the procedure.
The amendment to Italy’s 1978 abortion law, passed on Tuesday, allows anti-abortion activists to enter abortion advice centres.
While Italy’s far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, said she would not ban abortion, activists worry this amendment is government putting a “seal of approval” on anti-abortion sentiment. The right-wing regions of Lombardy, Veneto and Piedmont had already passed similar amendments.
The abortion consultation clinics are a space for anyone to access free advice from gynaecologists, obstetricians, psychologists and other professionals. Women then need a certificate from the clinic before their abortion.
Activists fear anti-abortion activists will now target the clinics with a renewed energy.
“It’s making it extremely easy for anti-abortion activists to harass and intercept pregnant women who need information about abortion,” Giulia Zanini, an expert in reproductive health from the University of Venice, told i.
“I am concerned that having an abortion in Italy will become an even more unpleasant experience for so many women, who hope to find support and care in the very places where they could instead find attempts to delay their care.”
Ms Mammani, who volunteers with SOS Aborto Napoli, an organisation set up three years ago to help women access abortions, says there are often delays when helping women find abortions.
Naples is poorer than cities in northern Italy – meaning it has fewer hospitals and it is even tougher to terminate a pregnancy.
That leaves her with a race against time as Italy only allows abortions on request for up to 12 weeks, or longer when a woman’s life is in danger.
Ms Mammani said women can be delayed for weeks trying centres that have closed, or centres with no space, before being unable to find doctors at a hospital willing to carry out the procedure.
“If you waited three weeks for the counselling centre and three weeks for the hospital, and maybe you found out you were pregnant after four or five weeks, it is often too late for an abortion.
“Now we have people who are not medical professionals or psychologists, and are not properly equipped to help people make a decision about their lives, who will come into clinics to tell us what to do with our bodies. That is going to make it much much worse for women.”
Anna Pompili, a doctor at a centre for voluntary abortion in Rome, fears “this could have consequences for women’s health”.
She added that the “ideological clash” of views could “overshadow what is fundamental” in Italy.
“[That being] women’s health, the recognition of women’s right to health and self-determination, the recognition of the full right of citizenship for all of us.
“The structures of the [Italian] national health system should not fuel the sense of guilt and stigmatisation, which is clearly inherent in the spirit of the amendment.”
The change has come at a watershed moment for Europe, as countries lurch in different directions on abortion rights. France made abortion a constitutional right last month, and the European Parliament backed a call to include abortion in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Countries like Hungary, Romania and Georgia are tightening their abortion access, inspired by anti-abortion activists in the US, according to Mara Clarke, co-founder of S.A.F.E, a charity providing funding and infrastructure to groups across Europe helping women access abortions.
“The anti-abortion movement in the US has clearly emboldened the anti-abortion movements across Europe,” she said.
She warned the amendment could lead to more draconian anti-abortion laws, similar to the US.
“It started long before Roe v Wade [was abolished], and it has just been a steady chip, chip, chip away at the right to abortion in individual states.”
But pro-abortion activists in Italy have hope. Ms Pompili said gynaecologists like her are “ready to mobilise” against the ruling.
“My commitment today is the training of health personnel, new gynaecologists, midwives, nurses.”
Nearly 50 years on from the abortion law, she is confident it is here to stay. “I am convinced that there is no turning back.”
