A year of Giorgia Meloni: in Italy “the right not to have an abortion”

One” listening room “. It is the new beginning of the school year at the Sant’Anna hospital in Turin, in Piedmont, in the north-west of Italy. A room dedicated to welcoming all the women who enter the door of the establishment to obtain an abortion. The his goal? Show them all the possible alternatives. Inside, the volunteers of an association” For the life », FederviP.A., financed and supported by the Region.

Since 2019 the air in Piedmont has changed. A region where feminism has worked miracles and where the Sant’Anna hospital is known for being the first to offer medical abortion in Italy, Piedmont today represents something completely different. The measures and funding to support pro-life movements have multiplied and “ listening room » is just the latest example.

After the victory of the right in the 2019 regional elections, councilor Maurizio Marrone, loyal to Giorgia Meloni, worked hard to create THE ” Piedmontese model “: under the pretext of offering women the right to” so as not to abort », in fact limits and stigmatizes access to abortion. This model was claimed by Giorgia Meloni during her electoral campaign in 2022. The Prime Minister – male, as she likes to underline – makes no secret of wanting to apply it to the entire peninsula.

Giorgia Meloni, momof the homeland

Just a year ago Giorgia Meloni took the reins of government: leader of the far-right Fratelli d’Italia party and first woman to assume this position, she claims her identity as “wife, mother and Italian “.” Fascist “, his detractors promptly add. A woman who has very specific ideas on the right to abortion in Italy, guaranteed by law 194 of 1978. Just 45 years ago.

“Everyone asks me if I’m ready to govern” Giorgia Meloni confided during a meeting on 15 September 2022. “ It made me think about when I was preparing to become a mother. I think Italy should be led with the same sentiment. »Since then he has continued to express this feeling, mixing private life and institutional role. Family and birth rates have always been at the center of her political project. The issue of abortion is addressed from the first point of his program. He says he wants to run.” law 194 in its entirety, from prevention “. By interpreting the law, Giorgia Meloni takes advantage of a gray area and undermines women’s right to self-determination.

“Behind the Piedmontese model, the critic Carla Quaglino, co-president of the Casa delle Donne of Turin, hides the ‘God, homeland, family’ of fascist memory. » 75-year-old activist, Carla Quaglino participated in the 1978 demonstrations to obtain the right to abortion and is outraged by the current situation: “Giorgia Meloni’s rhetoric is dangerous for women. How could we achieve such great victories, only to see them fall apart like this? “.

Carla Quaglino is at the origin of the network “for self-determination”, More from 194 here, which brings together 52 feminist and LGBTQI+ associations and movements, as well as cultural associations in the city. This network was created after the victory of the right in the 2019 regional elections, to keep an eye on the junta’s more conservative measures. Thus, every time a measure (funding of pro-life associations with the ” Background of nascent life“, creation of the ” listening room»…) is approved, the network mobilizes to contact journalists, organize demonstrations and draw the population’s attention to the consequences of these conservative actions.

But, if Piedmont experiences historical activism, this is not always the case in other regions, where “Piedmontese model» could actually be applied.

194, an imperfect and obsolete lawAnd

With the pretext of wanting to help women, Giorgia Meloni adds obstacles to a right that is already difficult to achieve. Law 194 has always been an incomplete law, the result of a compromise between the far left and Christian democracy. While she decriminalizes abortion, she insists on prevention and keeps abortion as a last resort. Above all, you leave the possibility of conscientious objection to doctors. A legitimate right, but also a real obstacle, considering the current one 64.4% of Italian doctors refuse to perform abortions. A figure that reaches 80% in the south of the country.

“Today the Italian hospital is no longer a safe place for women who want to terminate a pregnancy”specifies Elisa Visconti, director of the humanitarian association Doctors of the World in Italy:«On the contrary, it becomes a place where anti-abortion groups hide and women are mistreated. The Italian hospital today is a place of deterrence».

Giorgia Meloni does not want to touch law 194, because she does not need it to limit the right to abortion. She has been in government for a year and feminist associations fear for the future. However, Carla Quaglino insists,“We are the ones fighting for life. Not them”.

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