Italy passes law clamping down on surrogacy tourism

ER Editor: Apologies to readers for the Guardian/Reuters take on this. We wonder if this slight policy shift is anything to do with child trafficking within Italy, bringing children into the country from abroad. As usual, the gay lobby is making a big deal about it, taking it as an attack on them. As this 2023 Guardian article indicates, Meloni’s contribution to Italy’s already existing policy against surrogacy is to extend it to overseas —

Surrogacy is already illegal in Italy, while IVF is only available for heterosexual couples. Extending the ban to include surrogacy overseas was a flagship policy of Brothers of Italy, the party led by the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and also her far-right counterpart and coalition partner, the League.

Some tweets —

*Correction: Italy passes a pro-family law that protects the maternal bond and ensures children aren’t commercially separated from their biological mother

All forms of surrogacy, even when traveling abroad, are now prohibited for Italian citizens. pic.twitter.com/Vojiwk136k

— Emma Waters (@emlwaters) October 16, 2024

JUST IN: Italy officially passes anti-surrogacy law that effectively bans gay couples from becoming parents. pic.twitter.com/WyG8R6JYDA

— BRICS News (@BRICSinfo) October 16, 2024

BREAKING: Italy has passed a law criminalizing surrogacy abroad, a move that will make it virtually impossible for gay men to have children.

— Leading Report (@LeadingReport) October 16, 2024

“Domestic surrogacy was already banned in Italy, as it is in some other countries, but the amended Italian law goes further, classifying surrogacy as a rare universal crime that transcends borders, like terrorism or genocide.”

— Emily Rauhala (@emilyrauhala) October 16, 2024

As indicated in The Guardian piece below, this bill had already been prepared by the Meloni government last year —

Great news from Italy. Couple who go abroad for surrogacy (already illegal in Italy) will be charged with human trafficking.

— Dr Grace O’Malley (@MalleyNotagain) July 26, 2023

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Russia made similar moves in 2022, to stop Russian women being used as surrogates by people coming in from abroad to take children out. See —

Russian lawmakers pass bill banning surrogacy for foreigners

Their reasoning:

Vyacheslav Volodin, the parliament speaker, said Thursday’s decision was made in order to protect Russian children. According to Volodin, writing on Telegram last week, about 45,000 babies born by surrogate mothers have been taken abroad over “the past few years.”

Proponents of the bill have often associated surrogacy with child trafficking and the organ trade. They have also criticized the use of surrogates by same-sex couples.

“The purpose of the law is to prohibit surrogacy for foreign citizens. Who is coming? We don’t know. Where are the children being taken? We don’t know either. These are our children,” Volodin told the Duma.

“They can be taken out in order to be used for (transplantation of) organs, into same-sex families. It is forbidden by law to take our children out. Children will automatically straight away receive Russian citizenship and will be protected,” he added.

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Italians who go abroad to have a baby via surrogacy will face jail terms and fines of up to €1m

Italy’s parliament has made it illegal for couples to go abroad to have a baby via surrogacy – a pet project of the prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s party that activists say is meant to target same-sex partners.

Since taking office in 2022, Meloni has pursued a highly conservative social agenda, looking to promote what she sees as traditional family values, making it progressively harder for LGBTQ couples to become legal parents.

On Wednesday the upper-house senate voted into law a bill proposed by Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party by 84 votes to 58. The bill had already been approved by the lower house last year.

The legislation extends a surrogacy ban already in place in Italy since 2004 to those who go to countries such as the United States or Canada, where it is legal, imposing jail terms of up to two years and fines of up to €1m (£836,000).

“Motherhood is absolutely unique, it absolutely cannot be surrogated and it is the foundation of our civilisation,” the Brothers of Italy senator Lavinia Mennuni said during the parliamentary debate. “We want to uproot the phenomenon of surrogacy tourism.”

Earlier this year, Meloni called surrogacy an “inhuman” practice that treated children as supermarket products, echoing a position expressed by the Catholic church.

On Tuesday, demonstrators gathered near the senate voicing their outrage at the bill, saying the government was lashing out at LGBTQ people and damaging those who wanted to have children despite the fact that Italy has a sharply declining birthrate.

“If someone has a baby, they should be given a medal. Here instead you are sent to jail … if you don’t have children in the traditional way,” Franco Grillini, a longtime activist for LGBTQ rights in Italy, told Reuters at the demonstration.

Alessia Crocini, the president of Rainbow Families, said 90% of Italians who choose surrogacy were heterosexual couples but they mostly did so in secret, meaning the new ban would de facto affect only gay couples who could not hide it.

The clampdown on surrogacy comes against the backdrop of falling birthrates, with the national statistics institute ISTAT saying in March that births had dropped to a record low in 2023, after the 15th consecutive annual decline.

CONTINUE READING HERE

Featured image source:

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Published to The Liberty Beacon from EuropeReloaded.com

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