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 Monday
that surrogacy "is a serious crime, more serious than
pedophilia" amid a heated debate in the country about the rights
of same-sex-parent families.
"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.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
