Report
Global outrage follows Italy’s reactionary ban on surrogacy
Nicola Fratoianni: The law is ‘sheer savagery from many points of view, yet another propagandistic piece of garbage.’
A day after the Senate gave the final green light to the Varchi Bill that criminalizes surrogacy outside Italian territory – with an improvised legal device that has never been subjected to a reality check in the courts – much of the world has turned its attention to our country's extremist conservatism. Meanwhile, in Italy, the debate remains mostly reducible to populist talking points.
“From the New York Times to Le Monde, from the BBC to the Japan Times, the news that Italy passed a law criminalizing parents who resort to surrogacy has gone around the world and once again subjecting Italy to international embarrassment. The reaction is unanimous: everyone is criticizing this unjust law and ridiculing our country for this witch hunt against families, children and women,” MEP Carolina Morace (M5S) pointed out. She highlighted the words of the Washington Post: “Families would live in the shadow of fear of being reported.”
“Italy, home to the Vatican, already ranks low in Europe when it comes to civil liberties,” writes the New York Times, which sees the new law as ”as a way for Ms. Meloni to assert her conservative credentials and appeal to her political base, which disproportionately opposes surrogacy and adoption by gay couples.”
In Italy, political and Catholic right-wingers are claiming they are “defending women and children.” The center-left took a stand against the new law, while mostly staying on safe ground: “We have seen atrocious propaganda from the government at the expense of people and children,” said Elly Schlein from Brussels, who called it a “juridical outrage” and “an ideological position that tramples on the fundamental rights of children. It’s not clear what this government has against children.”
Some of the harshest criticism came from Nicola Fratoianni, leader of the Green-Left Alliance: the law is “sheer savagery from many points of view, yet another propagandistic piece of garbage. An offense anywhere in the world? Let’s see how they can possibly apply it.”
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/allarme-per-il-reato-universale-sui-media-di-mezzo-mondo on 2024-10-18