The United States, France and the European Union wanted to keep a wording used at the end of the last G7 in Japan, which mentioned “access to safe and legal abortion”. But the head of the Italian government, who holds the rotating presidency of the G7, firmly opposed it.
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It has become the main sticking point at the summit. The right to abortion will not be included or even mentioned in the G7 commitments, according to the draft final declaration consulted on Friday June 14 by AFP. At issue: the resistance of Italy, the host country, on this subject with high symbolic value, against a backdrop of tensions between Giorgia Meloni and Emmanuel Macron.
This decision represents a significant change from the last summit in Hiroshima, Japan. In 2023, the press release showed their attachment to “access to safe and legal abortion and post-abortion care services”.
The subject gave rise to a standoff behind the scenes during negotiations between the delegations. The United States, France and the European Union, in particular, wanted to keep this wording. Paris even wanted to strengthen it. But the issue has been raised to the level of leaders, and the Italian Prime Minister, at the head of an ultra-conservative party and who holds the rotating presidency of the G7, has categorically refused to write down again in black and white the formulation approved last year. last.
“We reiterate our commitments from the Hiroshima Leaders’ Declaration to universal, adequate, affordable and quality access to health services for women, including sexual and reproductive rights and health comprehensively for all”, confines itself to saying the draft text consulted by AFP in Borgo Egnazia, in Puglia. But there is no trace of the right to “abortion”.
