A heated debate about the the rights
of same-sex-parent families and surrogacy grew fierier on Monday
when Federico Mollicone, a lawmaker for Premier Giorgia Meloni's
Brothers of Italy (FdI) party and the president of the Lower
House's culture committee, said that surrogacy "is a serious
crime, more serious than pedophilia".
"We are faced with people who want to choose a child like they
choose the colour of their house," he told La7 television.
Surrogacy is a hot topic in Italy at the moment after Milan was
forced to stop a procedure it had used to register both members
of a same-sex couple as the parents of a child after the
prefect's department warned it was illegal following
consultations with the interior ministry.
The procedure was based on the transcription into the Milan
civil register of foreign birth certificates of children
conceived by surrogacy, which is illegal in Italy, or assisted
fertility, which is only allowed for heterosexual couples here.
A major rally took place in Milan on Saturday to protest against
transcriptions of birth certifications in such cases being
stopped and to defend the right of same-sex-parent families.
The right-wing FdI, however, wants to further clamp down on
surrogacy and has presented a bill in the Lower House for it to
become a "universal crime".
This would mean it would be possible to prosecute Italians who
have children via surrogacy abroad, even when the procedure is
legal in the country it takes place in.
Furthermore, last week the ruling right-wing majority was
decisive as a Senate committee voted to reject an EU plan for
the rights of same-sex parents to be recognized throughout the
bloc.
The debate was already inflamed after another FDI MP, Fabio
Rampelli said Saturday that some gay people were passing
themselves off as parents.
"If two people of the same sex request that a child they are
passing off as theirs be registered in the civic register, it
means that they have done surrogacy outside the national
borders," Rampelli told La7 television.
Equal Opportunities and Family Minister Eugenia Roccella said it
was false to argue that the children of same-sex parents were
getting second-tier treatment in Italy.
"There is no denial of children's rights," Roccella told Rai
television on Sunday. "They all have the same rights in Italy".
She added that, while she did not agree with the words Rampelli
had used, the concept was correct.
"You have to declare a series of things at the civil registry
and, if you say that two fathers are both the parents, you are
saying something that is not true," Roccella said, adding that
she considered surrogacy to be a "market of children".
Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein attended Saturday's rally
in Milan and accused the government of being cruel to the
children of same-sex couples. Schlein said the PD was already at
work to present a bill in parliament for the rights of same-sex
parents to be recognized in Italy.
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