The fair, aimed at couples planning to have children, sparked a cross-party political controversy. Right-wing parties accused the organizers of the fair of promoting surrogacy, which is banned in Italy.
A few meters in front of the entrance to the fair, representatives of the right-wing governing parties Lega and Fratelli d’Italia, feminist associations and Catholic family associations protested with posters reading slogans such as “Children cannot be bought” and “Women are not wombs that can be rented”. were.
“We want to reaffirm our no to the exploitation of women and children,” said Debora Giovanati, Lega city councilor in Milan. The fair would feature representatives from companies that would also promote surrogacy. “This isn’t treating infertility, it’s creating a child as a product. It’s a shame that something like this is happening in Milan,” stressed one protester.
The Italian government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wants to prosecute surrogacy abroad in the future. This is provided for in a bill currently being debated in the Italian Parliament. According to the proposed law, Italians who have children through surrogate mothers abroad should be able to be prosecuted. This is said to be true even if surrogacy is legal in countries other than Italy.
The right-wing government wants surrogacy to be recognized as an “international crime,” according to Senate Vice President Maurizio Gasparri. “We want to stop the business of children born through surrogacy,” Gasparri said. The Lega recently collected signatures for a petition in support of the draft law against surrogacy.
Surrogacy is illegal in Italy and carries a prison sentence of three months to two years and fines ranging from €600,000 to €1 million. The draft law that has now been presented to extend criminal prosecution to surrogate mothers used abroad is part of Prime Minister Meloni’s socially conservative agenda, who describes herself as a fighter against an alleged “gender ideology” and the “LGBT lobby”.
