access to abortion is declining in Italy

Fewer and fewer women are resorting to abortion in Italy. More than half of the country’s doctors refuse to practice it and are not really encouraged to do so by the government in place.

Before her accession to power in October 2022, Giorgia Meloni was regularly questioned about her relationship to Law 194, which has authorized voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) in Italy since 1978. Then a candidate for the Fratelli d’Italia party, classified on the far right, the current President of the Council repeated it in front of the television cameras: “I do not want to abolish law 194. I do not want to modify law 194. Is that understood? I don’t want to erase it. In what language should I say it?” And in fact, the current majority has not touched this law.

Less than 60% of hospitals practice abortion in Italy

In practice, the use of abortion is experiencing a massive decline in the country. In 2021, the last reference year for official figures, there were nearly 64,000 abortions in Italy. There were more than 230,000 in 1983, a record year. However, the country is going through a demographic winter, so there is not a much stronger desire for children today than forty years ago. In comparison, the number of abortions increased in France over the same period (more than 240,000 abortions in 2022, compared to 210,000 in 1990).

Main explanation for this drop in recourse to abortion in Italy: the conscientious objection of caregivers provided for by law. The number of gynecologists who promote it is very high: more than 50% in the north of the country, almost 80% and even more in the south. “The consequence is the low number of hospitals that provide abortion. Only 59.6% in Italy. Around Naples, in Sicily, in Calabria, there are regions where it is really problematic,” explains gynecologist Silvana Agatone, president of the Laiga association for the application of the right to abortion.

Another difficulty is the lack of resources for family planning to support women and deliver the abortion pill. This depends on the goodwill of the regions, which are very powerful in terms of health in Italy. And we must not count on the current government to put pressure on it. At the question “Is abortion a freedom for women?”the current Minister of Family, Natality and Equal Opportunities Eugenia Roccella responded in January 2023 on Italian television: “Unfortunately, yes. It’s not a nice thing. I thought so, even when I was fighting for a law.” Adding that this should be a last solution, for those who do not want a maternity ward.