Giorgia Meloni has clamped down on the buying and selling of babies by making surrogacy a universal crime. The prime minister described an extension of the existing ban on surrogacy inside the country to those who seek it in countries where it is legal as a “common sense law against the commodification of the female body and children.”
But critics—whose collective voice has been bolstered by the international liberal press—have complained that the move primarily targets gay couples, for whom it makes parenthood effectively impossible. Same-sex couples are also barred from adopting children in Italy.
The Washington Post describes Italy’s as the “most restrictive” surrogacy legislation in the West, noting that while 90% of the Italian couples who use international surrogacy are heterosexual, “same-sex couples are the law’s most vulnerable targets.” The paper also quotes a Rainbow Families campaign group spokesman who says “this is about [targeting] gay fathers”—a claim the Italian government denies. Similar comments have been echoed by Britain’s national broadcaster, the BBC.
Conservative campaigner Jacopo Coghe said he believes “this is a barbaric practice that creates a market for children regardless of who makes use of it. Everyone should be penalised” (emphasis added).
Pro-child campaigner Katy Faust added online that “Italy isn’t some bigot barring gay couples from becoming parents. Biology is.”
Italy simply refuses to sell motherless children in the name of gay couples becoming parents.
In the UK, writer Mary Harrington agreed that “gay men already can’t have children, this just bans them from subcontracting gestation to someone who can,” while the Family Education Trust campaign group criticised surrogacy as “child trafficking” which “exploits women.”
Lawmakers passed the law by 84 votes to 58. Those who break it could face up to two years in prison and fines of up to €1 million.
Maurizio Gasparri, president of the Forza Italia senators, said he was “shocked by the cynicism with which many exponents of the Five Star Movement and the Left defended the buying and selling of children.”
