Sign up for The Agenda — Them’s news and politics newsletter, delivered to your inbox every Thursday.
Italian lawmakers banned families from going abroad to have a baby through surrogacy, effectively prohibiting LGBTQ+ couples from becoming biological parents.
Surrogacy has been illegal within Italy’s borders since 2004, but the country’s new ban — which passed the Italian Senate this week by a vote of 84 to 58, according to the Washington Post — extends the prohibition abroad as well, classifying surrogate pregnancies as a “universal” crime which can be prosecuted across borders as with genocide or terrorism. The Senate vote was the last step for the law, as it passed the Lower House last year. Italian citizens who seek surrogate arrangements outside of Italy will now face possible fines of up to €1 million (roughly USD$1.09 million) and a maximum of two years in prison.
Legislators in favor of the ban labeled surrogacy “procreative tourism” and said it was necessary to “protect children's rights and preserve natural laws,” according to an official summary of Wednesday’s proceedings. Those opposed accused the majority of enforcing a “rigid and dogmatic vision” upon the people of Italy, and of specifically seeking to “discriminate against rainbow families.” Others said the law plainly violates Article 3 of Italy’s Constitution, which guarantees equal legal protection for all citizens, as Italian news agency ANSA reported.
The law was backed by the Brothers of Italy party, according to the Post, which is led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who rode a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric to take office in 2022. Since then, Meloni has harshly cracked down on LGBTQ+ rights, directing government workers in Milan to remove gay and lesbian parents from official documents last year. Surrogacy is also banned in other parts of Europe, like France, but the Italian right has made surrogacy into a major part of its anti-LGBTQ+ agenda, as Politico noted last year, often using the phrase “womb for rent” to denigrate LGBTQ+ people for “commodifying” a surrogate’s body.
Meloni herself made similar characterizations in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday, in which she called the law a “common sense rule against the commodification of the female body and children,” adding, “Human life has no price and is not a commodity.” In 2022, Meloni made her position more plain, the BBC noted this week: “yes to the natural family, no to the LGBT lobby.” But it’s not just the Italian far-right boosting the idea of a global surrogacy ban: Pope Francis, who has continually contradicted himself on LGBTQ+ issues, called for an international ban in January this year, saying the process is “despicable.”
“This law is disgusting,” said Salvatore Scarpa, an Italian man who had a child with his partner Luca Capuano and a California-based surrogate mother in 2023, in comments to the Post this week. “They cannot stop our family. How dare they judge us,” Scarpa said. The family plans to remain in Italy and pursue a second child with the same surrogate, only planning to leave “if they come for the children.”
It’s unclear how the law will actually be enforced, however, or if it will be overturned in court. The Post noted that Italian judges will be left to decide for themselves when a violation of the new law took place — during the contract signing, upon birth, or another milestone considered legally significant. Also unclear is how the law will be enforced upon Italians who arrange for surrogacy in countries where it is legal, like the United States. LGBTQ+ advocates say they’re already planning to oppose the law’s enforcement.
“We as Rainbow Families will not stop and will continue our battle in the courts and in the streets,” Alessia Crocini, the president of Italian advocacy group Rainbow Families (Famiglie Arcobaleno), told ANSA this week. “We will fight every day to affirm the beauty and freedom of our families and our sons and daughters.”
Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for Them’s weekly newsletter here.
