The profane has become sacred, and the sacred has become profane as abortion has become vogue in Italy. While Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will continue to allow abortion to be a protected liberal right, her new ‘rooms of life’ legislation will introduce the weight of the moral conscience into the abortion debate; one is free to choose, but choice is never free.
How does the new law work?
In a largely Catholic country where there are currently 330 abortion clinics, Meloni’s new law comfortably won out in the Italian senate at 95-68. In the lower house, Camera dei Deputati, various regions across Italy were given the green light to provide pro-life counselling to mothers in hospitals who were considering ending the life of an unborn child. Meloni’s move reaffirms the 1978 Law 194 as stipulated in the Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana, while making abortion legal under specific circumstances, it also specifically states that:
“The State guarantees the right to responsible and planned parenthood, recognises the social value of motherhood, and shall protect human life from its inception. The voluntary termination of pregnancy as covered by this law shall not be a means of birth control.
“The State, the regions, and local authorities, acting within their respective powers and areas of competence, shall promote and develop medico-social services and shall take other measures necessary to prevent abortion from being used for purposes of birth control.
The family counselling centres [consultori familiari] established by Law No. 405 of 29 July 1975 shall assist any pregnant woman, subject to the provisions of that Law: d) by helping to overcome the factors that might lead the woman to have her pregnancy terminated.”
Long ago,Italian feminism removed the cultural conscience from the abortion isssue.It brainwashed a generation of Italian women into believing that pregnancy, motherhood, and marriage were fundamentally opposed to the well-being of women. The solution, in the eyes of radically embittered feminists and their proxies, was to dismantle the norms, practices, and traditions of Italian culture in a destructive process coined by Italian feminist Carla Lonzi, it was called , deculturizzato.
In its most toxic form, pregnancy itself was castigated by Italian feminism. Abortion was, in the eyes of radical feminists, a moral saviour and a guilt-free experience that only liberated women from oppression.
The Rivolta Femminile of 1971 claimed:
Women abort because they get pregnant. But why do they get pregnant? (…) The man left the woman alone in front of a law which forbids her to have an abortion: alone, denigrated, and unworthy of society. One day, he will end up leaving the woman alone in front of a law which will not forbid her to have an abortion: alone, gratified, and worthy of society. But women are asking themselves: ‘For whose pleasure did I get pregnant? For whose pleasure am I having an abortion?’ This question contains the germ of our liberation (…).
Thereafter, Italian feminist groups began to open feminist health care centres which advocated for contraceptives, illegal abortions, and free sexuality.
The so-called feminist ‘liberation’ had a devastating impact on the family unit by creating a slippery slope argument that justified the killing of unborn life. It decimated the integrity of the family unit by justifying the killing of unborn life on social and economic grounds.
As a consequence, a new (and toxic) notion emerged within the consciousness of Italian families. It held that abortions were morally acceptable. In 1980 and 1981, 446,430 abortions were carried out in Italy, and 70% of women who carried out abortions were already married. Further, 70-75% of women who aborted had a previous child.
Parenting is hard morally, economically, socially and culturally. But if abortion becomes a social norm, as it has in many parts of the world, it becomes reactionary attack on a foundational Western idea. Namely, being is good, raising a family is an ideal, and children ought to be protected.
While Meloni continues to guarantee “free choice”, she is also providing full access to both sides of the argument. If choice is really free, then all information must be made available. And that’s what Law 194 provides.”
Meloni has revived the pro-life argument.
There is something sociopathic about parades of protesters celebrating ‘abortion rights’ with glee. During a Rome protest in Italy on the anniversary of the 1978 law which legalised abortion. Italian feminists displayed slogans like “ un no non nuvole gravemente, no means no.”
But pregnant mothers cannot enjoy true freedom unless all options and their consequences are clearly laid out in front of them.
While Meloni’s move enhances the liberty of women, this has not stopped the left from gross misreadings of the legislation. Elly Schlein, the leader of the centre-left Democratic party (PD), said the measure was a “heavy attack against the liberty of women,” while Silvia Roggiani, a PD deputy, said, “The right wing continues to display its nostalgic nature and obscurantist and patriarchal vision by trying, in every way, to erode women’s rights. It’s shameful.”
In reality, the shameful truth is that liberal freedoms masqueraded as the heroic saviour. Instead, it removed the moral conscience from an issue where morality matters more than the pretence of liberal freedom. Just because abortion is legal, does not mean it is moral. Meloni’s genius ‘rooms of life’ policy makes necessary room from the long neglected reality that children are a fundamental good and while abortion is legal, the state has a fundamental obligation to uphold and protect unborn life.
