Meloni’s Surrogacy Ban Foreshadows a Troubling Future for Italy
Protestors outside the Italian Parliament in Rome holding signs that read, “Parents! Not Criminals.” Source: Bloomberg // Photographer: Chiara Albanese
For months, Italy’s right-wing coalition, headed by the Brothers of Italy party, has pressed for the introduction of a bill to further restrict the practice of gestational surrogacy. On the surface, proponents of the law assert that surrogacy is “an affront to nature,” and that the aim of the legislation is to end the exploitation of women as well as the commercialization of children. However, evidence suggests that the real motivation behind extending surrogacy restrictions beyond Italy’s borders has more to do with eroding the rights of queer Italians, and everything to do with consolidating the far-right’s growing power. While ideologically this action aligns with the socially conservative vision forwarded by the new governing coalition, it is also a clear signal that Meloni’s government will go to great lengths to target social and political opponents that stand in the way of its rightward march.
Following efforts by conservative lawmakers to shape public opinion, formal debate in the Italian Parliament began in early June on a bill to criminalize the use of international surrogacy by Italian citizens. Although countries around the world regulate surrogacy to differing degrees, all forms of surrogacy have been banned in Italy since 2004. In fact, commercial surrogacy is banned in the European Union (EU), although a number of EU countries do allow altruistic arrangements. What is unique about the newly proposed legislation is that, if passed, Italy would be the first country to legislate the prosecution of surrogacies done abroad in countries where it is legally allowed. In the bill’s current draft, upon returning to Italy, Italian citizens that travel abroad to use foreign surrogates in order to have a child could face prosecution resulting in up to two years in prison and fines of upwards of €1 million.
Given the outright majority of conservative parties in both houses of parliament with Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party at the helm, the new legislation is expected to pass and become law. What’s more, some opposition lawmakers on the left have likewise voiced their support for the legislation, making resistance even more difficult for opponents.
This action by the new government should not come as a complete surprise, however. During the previous campaign cycle, the then-candidate Giorgia Meloni, called surrogacy “an abomination.” Recently, a MP from the Brothers of Italy party also argued that the legislation would end “womb-lending” in the country. This contention by proponents of the legislation asserts that surrogacy incentivizes the exploitation of women’s reproductive capacity and should be prohibited in all contexts. Similarly, another lawmaker from a centrist party within the coalition government stated, “We strenuously say no to the sale of children. Surrogate maternity is the most extreme form of commercialization of the body.” Meloni’s referencing of surrogacy as an abomination, a traditionally used biblical indictment of homosexuality, likewise alludes to the connections between restricting surrogacy and attacking LGBTQ+ rights.
Many observers see this move by Meloni’s government as confirming the worst fears of some Italians at the success of right-wing parties in last year’s parliamentary elections. Giorgia Meloni’s comments during the 2022 campaign regularly came under fire from women’s groups and queer rights organizations. In one speech prior to the election, Meloni stated, “Yes to the natural family, no to the LGBT lobby…” Both Meloni and her right-wing coalition have attempted to center their concept of the “traditional family” at the heart of the government’s agenda. Moreover, the recent move to criminalize surrogacy is connected to the Italian right’s broader social agenda and suggests an acceleration on their part to implement their socially conservative vision for Italy’s future.
Opponents of the proposed surrogacy ban argue that, while the legislation may be written in a neutral way as to apply equally to same-sex and heterosexual couples alike, the effect, if not intended, targets of the bill will be same-sex couples. Opposite-sex couples may be better able to evade the attention of Italian authorities in a way that same-sex couples simply cannot, thereby making them much more vulnerable to prosecution.
Additionally, this legislation comes on the heels of the Meloni government’s directive to municipalities to comply with a recent court ruling and halt the automatic registration of non-biological parents for children’s birth records. In Italy, both marriage and adoption rights for same-sex couples have been banned. However, for the past few years, couples that were able to adopt or use surrogacy internationally were allowed to register birth certificates recognizing both parents in some progressive Italian cities. Now, the government in Rome has cracked down on this practice. The city of Padua, for example, has begun removing non-biological parents from birth certificates of children registered since 2017. Under Italian law, children born abroad, and without the recognition of their Italian parents, are effectively considered immigrants of the country in which they were born. Without Italian citizenship, this state of legal limbo leaves children with limited resources, including the lack of public healthcare guaranteed to Italian citizens.
The timing of this ruling, in conjunction with the proposed surrogacy ban, cannot simply be a serendipitous coincidence. Queer rights groups are right to assert that this is an attempt to target same-sex couples by the new right-wing government, with many fearing more is to come. Critics need only to point out the words of Giorgia Meloni herself as proof that current actions are her government’s fulfilling their promise of a socially conservative Italy with the traditional family at the center.
Prompted by her rhetoric on the campaign trail, some Italians voiced concern about the new rightward direction of the country. Yet, after the new government was formed, Meloni appeared to moderate her messaging, promising to govern “for everyone.” Make no mistake however, the future of Italy under the current governing right-wing coalition remains dangerously precarious for marginalized groups. Meloni recently appointed Eugenia Roccella, an outspoken opponent of abortion, to the Ministry of Family while changing the name of the department to the Ministry of Family, Birthrates, and Equal Opportunities. This change was subsequently decried by reproductive rights groups as evidence that abortion rights in Italy are also in jeopardy. The referencing of ‘birthrates’ suggests both the desire to curb access to reproductive healthcare and the elevation of traditional heterosexual families. This also comes after Meloni’s promise to not reverse hard fought abortion rights in the country, even though she has frequently spoken in favor of limiting the procedure.
While the political left in Italy occupies the minority in government with limited power, the actions of leftist parties along with the broader left in the country during the coming years will prove consequential and determine the precise contours of Italy’s political and social future. While limited in formal legislative power, the left can still shape the Italian future. If the left continues down the path of divisive infighting without a coherent vision for Italy, then the right will surely benefit from this power vacuum and press on with its conservative agenda. If, on the other hand, the left is able to coalesce around an organized resistance, there is the possibility of thwarting some of the right’s plans – or yet still, potentially regaining the reigns of government in the near future. In order to effectively act as a blockade against the right’s most harmful policies, a unified left resistance cannot just be a frivolous obstruction with the veneer of political grandstanding. Rather, the left must communicate to the Italian people that the right’s actions have inescapably forced their hand and that bold measures are necessary to protect the rights of all Italians. The left’s primary task, and source of its potential power, is in its ability to reorganize itself and to rehabilitate its strained relationship with the Italian people.
In terms of formal political unity, the parties on the right are much more unified and organized than their counterparts on the left. In fact, many observers credit the electoral success of the governing conservative coalition in 2022 to their unifying agreement to divide up all parliamentary seats allocated in the election, whereas the left parties remained embattled amongst themselves. In sheer numbers, the left parties could have garnered almost 50 percent of the vote if unified by a central message and policy agenda.
Outside of party politics, leftist organizers have argued that mainstream center-left parties – namely Italy’s Democrats – have abandoned the poor and working classes, transforming itself into the party of the establishment. In fact, the largest trade union in Italy refused to endorse the party before the election. The more left-wing 5Star party similarly critiqued the Democrats for a seemingly negative and personality driven campaign, in which concrete policies were largely absent. The lack of focus on working-class issues, such as wages and inflation, allowed the right to brand the party as cosmopolitan out-of-touch elites.
While the economic outlook for Italy has improved slightly from previous lackluster performances, economic anxiety remains for many Italians. Moreover, the fears of marginalized groups in the country have only intensified in their worries about the continued erosion of already precarious rights. If the left is to combat the growing strength of the Italian right, parties on the left must find a way to unify themselves around a policy-driven agenda rooted in economic and social rights. To their credit, the Democrats recently chose the popular Elly Schlein as their new party leader and conceded that the party has “become distant” from its working-class base. In an interview, Schlein stated, “We need to put issues such as the right to a house, right to work, opportunities for the young so they don’t have to go abroad at the center, to rebuild trust with those we want to represent.”
Meloni’s remaking of Italy’s present by reimagining and valorizing the ghosts of the country’s fascist past paints a troubling picture for Italy’s future. What’s more, the left’s failure to put forth an alternative vision for the country’s future all but guarantees the continued implementation of Meloni’s regressive vision for Italy. A key feature of this worldview is the concerted effort to suppress the freedoms, and therefore power, of those groups deemed undeserving of recognition. Indeed, while Giorgia Meloni has promised to govern for everyone, her rhetoric and her actions say otherwise. The Italian government’s recent move to further restrict surrogacy for Italian citizens demonstrates not only the willingness, but the desire to inflict harm on those that dare contradict the right’s limited conception of the world. It is prescient that one of the first actions by Meloni’s government has squarely placed the queer community in their cross-hairs. Based on much of her previous statements, banning the use of surrogacy is just the first step on a dubious path.
The project underway in Italy is not just of interest to Italy itself, but has implications for Europe and the wider global community. This specific legislation criminalizing surrogacy is connected to a growing trend across Europe in which right-wing movements appropriate feelings of collective uncertainty by wrongly conflating real social ills with deceptive explanations for said troubles. Meloni, along with her allies in Europe, are simply providing a playbook for an authoritarian and proto-fascist future in real time. Eastern Europe’s Viktor Orban in Hungary and Andrzej Duda in Poland, as well as France’s Marine Le Pen and the strengthening electoral viability of German, Swedish, and Spanish far-right parties all display similar political strategies and authoritarian tendencies. Recently, ahead of the Spanish general election in July, Meloni gave a speech in Spain at a political rally for the right-wing Vox party, stating, “It is crucial that a conservative, patriotic alternative be established,” and asserted that their victory would further cement “a change in the politics of Europe.” In fact, with all due respect to political leaders and experts alike, it is past time to start calling out this growing global movement for what it truly is: the modern resurgence of fascism.
We can choose to squabble about the precise definition of what is or isn’t actual fascism, or we can see actors such as Meloni for who they are. When political leaders praise the fascist leaders of yesterday, as Meloni has done of Mussolini in the past, we should take note and rightfully be worried. For far too long, the center’s legitimization of the worst parts of the far-right and the lack of unity of the left have allowed the shadows of the past century, long thought to be buried, to once again resurrect themselves anew. As such, the future of Italy hinges on the future of the entire global democratic community. What’s more, in terms of politics and its effects on people’s lives, Italy’s restrictions on surrogacy is a harbinger of what’s to come if the left remains divided – within, as well as outside of Italy.