Rome's San Camillo
Hospital's call for two abortion doctors to skirt widespread
conscientious objection against terminating pregnancies is "not
envisaged" by the law, Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin said
Wednesday, stressing that conscientious objection is respected
in Italy.
However, she said that but hospitals can ask regional
governments to complete "specific individual services".
Earlier the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI) slammed the
planned hiring of two gynecologists at the San Camillo on a
contract that reportedly envisages their dismissal if they
refuse to perform abortions because it is against their
consciences.
The CEI said conscientious objection was "a right" that must
be preserved.
Women regularly complain about the difficulty of obtaining an
abortion in Italian hospitals, where conscientious-objector
doctors are a majority.
According to the latest figures, seven out of 10 Italian
doctors are conscientious objectors to abortion.
Lazio Governor Nicola Zingaretti said the hirings were a way
of making sure Italy's abortion law is upheld.
"We have to face up to the issue of the real implementation
of Law 194, also by trying innovative forms of a law that would
otherwise not be upheld", he told reporters.
But, he said, the call for the two posts at San Camillo was a
limited one and the overall right to conscientious objection was
"100% guaranteed".
The head of the Italian Free Association of Gynecologists for
the Application of Law 194 (LAIGA), Silvana Agatone, said
abortion "must be present in all hospital bodies, according to
article 9 of Law 194. But this is not so: more than 40% of
hospital bodies are illegal in Italy".
The president emeritus of the Constitutional Court, Cesare
Mirabelli, told Italian TV that "a competition that excludes
those who are objectors is of dubious Constitutionality" and
probably discriminatory.
photo: a Bologna demo in support of Italy's abortion law
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