The Italian head of government Giorgia Meloni At the end of the G7 summit in Borgo Egnazia, southern Italy, she denied that there had been any regression in civil rights in Italy under her cabinet.
“The government has not made any backward steps in these two years on issues such as the right to abortion or LGBT rights,” Meloni said at a press conference on the final summit in Borgo Egnazia.
The topic Right to abortion had sparked discussions on the sidelines of the G7 summit. The final declaration no longer mentioned the right to abortion, which drew much criticism from the head of government, who has been in office since October 2022, including from French President Emmanuel Macron.
A law from 1978 allows abortion in Italy in the first 90 days of pregnancy. Access to abortion is often difficult in the country because many Catholic doctors in hospitals refuse to perform this procedure. In many regions, 80 to 90 percent of doctors refuse to perform abortions. Meloni recently reiterated that she would not change the abortion law, but wanted to make it clear that there are “alternatives to abortion.”
Thousands of people have Saturday at the Gay Pride Parade celebrated in the center of Rome. With the march through the city center of the Italian capital, the participants demanded equal rights for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals (LGBT). In summer temperatures, people waved rainbow flags and danced to party music on the parade floats and on the side of the road. Some participants chanted slogans against Meloni’s right-wing government.
Until 2016, Italy was the last country in Western Europe where same-sex partnerships were not legally recognized. Civil partnerships were legalized in 2016, but adoption rights for homosexuals were excluded from the law under pressure from Catholic parties and organizations. Italian courts have repeatedly allowed adoptions of civil partners’ children in the past.