The increasing difficulties of getting an abortion in Italy

This long article is behind a paywall, but the first part is available.

Women wishing to terminate a pregnancy are facing many hurdles and social disapproval, raising the wrath of feminists.

By Raphaëlle Rérolle
Feb 13, 2024

To find their way around the San Filippo Neri Hospital, women who want an abortion had better be able to read between the lines. The abortion service does exist. It's mentioned, among all the others, at the entrance to this large Rome establishment, located to the northwest of the capital. But then, poof, the name disappears. Once past the entrance hall, visitors are greeted by a single A4 sheet of paper. Plastered against a wall, the sign reads "gynecological surgery" in large letters, then, in brackets and in smaller type, "law 194/78". It is by this number, followed by the year of its adoption, that the legislation authorizing abortion in Italy is commonly referred to. For the acronym IVG (interruzione volontaria di gravidanza) to reappear, you have to wait for the service's door. The head of the department, Marina Marceca, said she again had to fight for this, against the views of the very Catholic director of this public hospital, who was bothered by the designation.

Continued: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/02/14/the-increasing-difficulties-of-getting-an-abortion-in-italy_6522839_4.html


Italy: Garante fines AMA €239,000 in abortion-related data mishandling case

27 June 2023

The Italian data protection authority (Garante) announced, on June 22, 2023, in its monthly newsletter, its decision No. 164, as issued on April 27, 2023, in which it imposed a fine of €239,000 on AMA S.p.A., for violations of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Personal Data Protection Code, Containing Provisions to Adapt the GDPR (the Code), in conjunction with two additional decisions imposed on the Municipality of Roma Capitale and the Local Health Authority Roma 1.

Background to the decision
The Garante explained that the investigation was launched further to reports in the media, according to which at the Flaminio cemetery of Roma Capitale, managed by AMA, there were hundreds of white crosses over graves where fetuses had been buried, and labels had been affixed disclosing the data of women who had undergone a termination of pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.dataguidance.com/news/italy-garante-fines-ama-239000-abortion-related-data


Safe havens? As some nations restrict access, a look at Europe’s abortion limits

19/04/2023
Joanna YORK

As US states and nations such as Poland move towards restricting access to abortions, parts of Europe are seen as something of a safe haven for those looking to terminate pregnancies. However, a look at legislation across the continent shows vast discrepancies and how – even if the procedure is often legal – access to abortion is restricted by hurdles ranging from mandatory counselling to a lack of doctors willing to perform the procedure.

More than 95% of women in Europe live in countries that allow some access to abortion. Some 39 European countries have legalised abortion on request, albeit with some restrictions. Six countries have strict limits in place although only three (Andorra, Malta and San Marino) do not allow abortion at all.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20230419-safe-havens-as-some-nations-restrict-access-a-look-at-europe-s-limits-on-abortion


Italy’s Prime Minister Meloni Speaks Out on Abortion, Same-Sex Marriage

Mar 1, 2023
Chiara Albanese, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- Giorgia Meloni has largely refrained from commenting on divisive social issues since becoming Italy’s most right-wing prime minister since Benito Mussolini some three months ago. But this week she spoke out against abortion, same sex marriage and gender self identification.

The government will help women avoid an abortion by providing financial support so that they do “not miss out on the joy of raising a child,” Meloni, 46, said in an interview published in the latest issue of Grazia magazine, without giving details.

Continued: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/italy-s-prime-minister-meloni-speaks-out-on-abortion-same-sex-marriage-1.1889917


Italy’s resurgent right takes on a woman’s right to choose

BY JOANNA GILL, THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION
Jan 9, 2023

NAPLES/ROME – If it was hard enough for Beatrice to get an abortion when she had the law on her side, imagine how other women will cope should Italy’s rising right get its way on reproductive rights.

“What I have been through is very painful, but it is even worse knowing that there are other women out there who are going to go through the same thing,” she said. The 24-year-old law student was in a new relationship when she took a pregnancy test in the summer of 2021 after her suspicions were raised by unusual bouts of nausea.

Continued: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/01/09/world/social-issues-world/italy-resurgent-right-abortion-rights/


New right-wing government in Italy threatens access to abortion

Although Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she would not would not change Italy’s abortion laws, women’s rights campaigners fear new restrictions could follow.

Joanna Gill, Thomson Reuters Foundation
Dec 25, 2022

If it was hard enough for Beatrice to get an abortion when she had the law on her side, imagine how other women will cope should Italy’s rising right get its way on reproductive rights.

“What I have been through is very painful, but it is even worse knowing that there are other women out there who are going to go through the same thing.”

Continued: https://scroll.in/article/1040411/new-right-wing-government-in-italy-threatens-access-to-abortion


Italy – Feminists protest against Meloni over abortion rights

By Federica Pascale | EURACTIV.it
 Nov 27, 2022

Feminists protested in Rome against new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, calling her a fascist and saying her government threatens the right to abortion in the country.

The protest aimed first at decrying the violence perpetrated against women and showing support for Iranian women but turned into denouncing Meloni’s government which protesters claimed threatened the right to abortion.

Continued: https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/feminists-protest-against-meloni-over-abortion-rights/


Four doctors found guilty of manslaughter for the death of Valentina Milluzzo in 2016, who had been 19 weeks pregnant with twins

SOURCE: La Sicilia
28 October 2022   
(translated from Italian)

Three doctors were acquitted, and four were sentenced to six months each for manslaughter, though with suspended sentences. This was the verdict of the Criminal Court of Catania in the trial of seven doctors from the Gynaecology and Obstetrics Department of the Cannizzaro Hospital, concerning the death of Valentina Milluzzo, a 32-year-old woman hospitalised in her 19th week of pregnancy, who died on 16 October 2016, after having lost, as a result of two separate miscarriages, the twins she was expecting thanks to assisted fertilisation.

Acquitted, on the grounds that "the facts do not exist" (to find them guilty), were Paolo Scollo, Head Doctor of the Gynaecology and Obstetrics Department, Andrea Benedetto Distefano, the ward doctor, and Francesco Paolo Cavallaro, the anesthesiologist.

Sentenced to six months each in prison, suspended, were the doctors Silvana Campione, Giuseppe Maria Alberto Calvo, Alessandra Coffaro and Vincenzo Filippello, who were "on duty in the ward and in the delivery room, on alternating shifts" between 15 and 16 October 2016. The Court also ordered the payment of a provisional amount of € 30,000 to the victim's sister, Angela Maria Milluzzo, who had become a civil party in the suit, assisted by lawyer Salvatore Catania Milluzzo.

According to the prosecution, the four doctors were guilty of "contributing, in cooperation between them, to the death of the pregnant woman" who had been hospitalised because of the serious risk during the miscarriage of her twin pregnancy.

The Public Prosecutor's Office accused the four doctors of "professional negligence" due to "imprudence, negligence and incompetence". In particular, "the failure to implement adequate antibiotic therapy" on both the 14th and 15th of October, "the failure to promptly recognise sepsis in progress", "the failure to collect samples for microbiological examination", "the failure to promptly remove the source of the infection: the fetuses and placentas" and "the failure to administer blood transfusion during surgery".

All the above described events, said the Public Prosecutor of Catania, would have caused the “transformation of sepsis into irreversible septic shock with consequent multiple organ failure and disseminated intravascular coagulation", which caused the death of the patient.

It was not disputed in the trial that the doctors were conscientious objectors. The case was also handled by the Ministry of Health, which sent inspectors to Cannizzaro Hospital.

Source: https://www.lasicilia.it/cronaca/news/catania-3-medici-assolti-e-4-condannati-per-la-morte-di-valentina-alla-19-settimana-di-gravidanza-1934813/


Italian senator renews anti-abortion foetus rights proposal

Maurizio Gasparri has higher chance of success this time after rightwing coalition’s election victory

Angela Giuffrida in Rome
Wed 19 Oct 2022

An Italian senator has submitted a proposal for an amendment to Italy’s civil code that would recognise a foetus as a human being, which if passed into law could enable pregnancy terminations to be classified as murder.

Maurizio Gasparri, a politician with Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, which is part of the government led by Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy – a party with neofascist origins – expected to be sworn in next week, unleashed a barrage of criticism from members of the opposition when he presented his “rights of the unborn child” proposal to the senate.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/19/italian-senator-renews-anti-abortion-foetus-rights-proposal


Italy election: Activists raise alarm over abortion rights after Meloni’s win

By Euronews 
28/09/2022

As Giorgia Meloni is set to become Italy’s first female prime minister, some activists in the country are concerned about what that could mean for abortion rights.

During her campaign trail, Meloni said that she would "not touch" the abortion law. She added that her party “just wants [people] to know there are other options”.

Continued: https://www.euronews.com/2022/09/27/italian-activists-raise-alarm-over-abortion-rights-after-melonis-win