By Angelo Amante
July 13, 2025
CATANIA, Italy, July 14 (Reuters) - Monia, a Sicilian woman in her early forties, was overjoyed when she discovered in October 2022 she was expecting her first child. Her doctor, however, recommended a genetic test due to her age, and the result was one no parent wants to receive.
The foetus had a genetic syndrome. Monia, who declined to give her surname, asked her gynaecologist what she could do.
A new report reveals how groups critical of so-called gender ideology across the EU raised $1.18 billion to target abortion, sex education and LGBTQ+ rights.
By Federica Di Sario, Parliament Magazine
26 Jun 2025
For progressives in Europe, 2013 was a year of hope. France adopted historic legislation legalising same-sex marriage. Only a few months later, the UK extended similar rights through the Marriage Act. Portugal implemented a new law to protect transgender rights. And even Ireland — long a Catholic stronghold — introduced new measures to shield queer youth from bullying.
But 2013 also marked a turning point for a group of religious conservatives. Alarmed by what they saw as an erosion of traditional values, they began to mobilise. A decade later, activism once confined to the political fringe has evolved into a billion-euro operation seeking to defeat “gender ideology.”
Continued: https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article/inside-europes-billioneuro-antigender-movement
Tuesday’s vote in parliament was a missed opportunity – and proof that progressives are allowing the right to shape the key debates
Stella Creasy
Wed 18 Jun 2025
Around the world, the antis are joining forces. Whether anti-abortion, anti-transgender, anti-immigrant, anti-human rights or just anti anyone who doesn’t look like them, they are collaborating; amplifying one another and sharing their political and cultural successes. Their rhetoric now dominates our discussions, and increasingly our ballot boxes. In response, some argue caution or even capitulation – as if we can stop the public being dragged to the extremes if we speak in hushed tones or water down our ambitions for social justice. As we witness the consequences of this, it is time to speak up for those values that drive us to show that another future is possible.
On Tuesday, parliament had the opportunity to set abortion in England and Wales on the same modern, regulated footing as it is in Northern Ireland: as a human right. Instead, a vote on this was explicitly blocked by the providers of this service and their supporters, telling MPs to back another amendment, to get a single exemption from prosecution for women “over the line” instead. That is what happened. In contrast, my proposed amendment would have gone further, offering “protection to all those involved in ensuring that women can access safe and legal abortions”.
May 28, 2025
ROME - Sicily has passed a law requiring public hospitals to hire doctors who do not object to performing abortions, amid difficulties across Italy in accessing terminations.
The measure was adopted by the assembly of the right-wing-led regional authority on Tuesday, in what its main proponent described as a “historic moment”.
Abortion has been legal in Italy since 1978 but doctors can refuse to perform the procedure by citing conscientious objections.
The experience of Non Una di Meno Padua reflects a situation in Italy, where the right to abortion is diminishing due to conscientious objection, lack of information and the presence of "pro-life" groups, all in the context of a far-right government and cuts to public health.
12 May 2025
Margherita Gobbo, Translated by Ciarán Lawless
Non Una di Meno (NUDM, "Not One Less") is a transfeminist movement that began in Argentina in 2015, then spread globally, fighting against patriarchy, male violence, and gender-based violence. Active in several Italian cities, NUDM, among other activities, has taken action in defence of family planning clinics: public social and health services dedicated to sexual and reproductive health, born out of the feminist struggles of the seventies and institutionalised by law in 1975. Originally created as social, political and feminist health centres as well as gynaecological hospitals, these clinics have been under growing attack for years, with closures and funding cuts.
Continued: https://voxeurop.eu/en/abortion-italy-fascism-neoliberalism/
By Alvise Armellini, Claudia Cristoferi and Yesim Dikmen
August 6, 2024
ROME/NAPLES (Reuters) - With Giorgia Meloni, Italy has probably the most openly anti-abortion prime minister in western Europe, but terminating pregnancies in the majority-Catholic country that hosts the Vatican has never been easy.
When Linda Feki, a 33-year-old singer and musician from Naples, posted her account of stigma and abuse in undergoing the procedure, she received heartfelt messages of support from many Italian women who identified with her experience.
June 15, 2024
By Kathryn Armstrong, BBC News
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says a suspected row over the absence of the word "abortion" in a G7 statement has been blown out of proportion.
She issued the response after a commitment made last year by G7 nations to address access to "safe and legal abortion" was left out of the final statement at this year's summit in Italy.
The presence of Pope Francis, who joined the meeting of the world’s leading industrialised nations, might have influenced this outcome, according to Meloni's right-hand man.
By Gerardo Fortuna
14/06/2024
In a powerful show of influence, Italy’s hard right leader managed to scrap any reference to safe abortion in the final declaration of the group of industrialised democracies.
The final wording of the G7 final communique has not included any mention of abortion as was the case at last year’s summit in Hiroshima.
The recent European Parliament elections show what happens when far-right parties gain institutional power in governmental structures. The U.S. must take note.
6/14/2024
by ALEXANDRIA WILSON-MCDONALD
In the fall of 2023, Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico ran on a campaign promising to side with Hungary’s populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who recently shut down gender studies programs in Hungary, to get rid of the so-called “genderists” in the European Union. He was referring to people who support gender equality measures and LGBTQ+ rights.
Orbán and Fico are part of what has become known as the anti-gender movement, an amalgamation of populist and right-wing politicians, religious leaders and conservative activists—from men’s rights groups to antiabortion groups—that oppose gender equality measures, including reproductive rights, sex education in schools, marriage equality for LGBTQ+ couples, trans rights and legislation to combat gender-based violence. This movement has deep ties to the conservative movement in the United States.
The most recent draft text of the G7 final declaration proposed by Italy hosting this year’s presidency, seen by Euronews, removed all references to abortion.
By Gerardo Fortuna
June 13, 2024
Italy’s hard-right government holding the G7 presidency is seeking to scrap any reference to safe access to abortion in the text of the final leaders' declaration, currently under negotiation.
Negotiations over the final declaration wording of the G7 summit — which will be held in Italy from Thursday until Saturday — are underway, but sources have told Euronews that members of the group of rich nations are at odds over a sidebar clause on abortion rights.
French and Canadian delegations are pushing for an addition to the text in which leaders “affirm the importance of preserving and ensuring effective access to safe and legal abortion and post-abortion care”, according to a draft text seen by Euronews.
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