Italy has long banned surrogacy within its borders, but on October 16, the country also made it a crime for citizens to seek surrogacy abroad, with offenders subject to fines of up to €1 million ($1.1 million) and imprisonment of up to two years.
The legislation passed the Italian Senate 84-58 after a seven-hour debate, reports CNN. It had passed the lower house last year, where it was sponsored by Carolina Varchi, a member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party. Meloni herself has described surrogacy as “a symbol of an abominable society that confuses desire with rights and replaces God with money,” according to BBC News.
While the new surrogacy law does not affect children born of surrogacy who are already registered in Italy, CNN says that “many parents of younger children fear they could be targeted anyway when their children reach school age and have to register for the public school system.”
The new surrogacy law comes a little more than a year after Meloni’s government told cities not to allow the creation of Italian birth certificates that include two mothers, nor to recognize foreign birth certificates of children with two fathers. That order resulted in in central government officials in Padua removing nongestational parents from their children’s birth certificates in 27 families with two moms, raising 33 children. The Padua city court, however, ruled in March that the nongestational mothers could stay on the birth certificates; the legal battle will likely continue.
Alessia Crocini, president of Famiglie Arcobaleno (Rainbow Families), Italy’s largest organization for LGBTQ parents, told NBC News that 90% of Italians who use surrogacy are heterosexual couples, but they often hide their use of surrogacy, “meaning the new ban would de facto affect only gay couples who cannot hide it.”
Crocini asserted in a statement, however: “We as Rainbow Families will not stop and will continue our battle in the courts and in the streets. We will fight every day to affirm the beauty and freedom of our families and our sons and daughters.” (“Noi come Famiglie Arcobaleno non ci fermeremo e continueremo la nostra battaglia nei tribunali e nelle piazze. Lotteremo ogni giorno per affermare la bellezza e la libertà delle nostre famiglie e dei nostri figli e figlie.” Translation via Google Translate.)
