A kid is always a gift: Italy outlaws foreign surrogacy for all of its citizens due to a falling birthrate.
In a move which tightens a previous 2004 surrogacy ban, Italy has officially banned its citizens from seeking surrogates abroad in a new Senate bill passed on Wednesday.
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Italy has strengthened its ban on surrogacy to encompass nationals who opt to travel abroad to find surrogate moms, such as the United States or Canada.
On Wednesday, the Italian Senate enacted a bill making it illegal for residents to travel to nations where buying children through surrogacy is permitted. After nearly seven hours of floor discussion, the bill was approved 84–58.
The bill maintains the 2004 ban on commercial surrogacy in Italy, which was initially implemented. The League and the Brothers of Italy, two right-wing parties, supported the law. The Brothers of Italy organization is led by Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni.
Meloni, the first woman and mother Premier in Italian history, has called surrogacy "a symbol of an abominable society that confuses desire with rights and replaces God with money."
Supporters of the bill claim that extending the surrogacy ban abroad protects women's dignity, while opponents have called it discriminatory toward same-sex couples.
Under the bill, Italian citizens seeking surrogate mothers in countries where the practice is legal will face up to $1.1 million in fines and two years' jail time.
Pope Francis has called for the end of commercial surrogacy worldwide as recently as January of this year, a practice which the pontiff calls "deplorable."
"I deem deplorable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother's material needs," said the Pope.
While the Vatican condemns commercial surrogacy, it does not deny children born through surrogate mothers sacraments like baptism.
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Pope Francis asserted, a "child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract."
Opponents of the Italian surrogacy ban claim that the bill hurts same-sex couples who want families. Italy is currently facing a record-low birthrate at 1.2 children per woman recorded in 2023.
Italy, Spain, France and Germany all ban surrogacy outright. The UK, however, allows for surrogates to be compensated within a reasonable amount of their regular expenses. In the United States, commercial surrogacy is not regulated by the federal government.
Children born via surrogate mothers in the United States may have the client couple's name on birth certificates, and often take the child away from his or her birth mother immediately.
The surrogacy ban applies equally to all couples, but only those in heterosexual marriages are legally able to adopt children in Italy. Same-sex marriage is banned in Italy.
Activists with the LGBTQ movement protested before the Italian Senate in opposition to the new law, with some banners reading, "Parents, not criminals."
"Commercial surrogacy, as currently practised in some countries, usually amounts to the sale of children," wrote a Special Rapporteur for the United Nations in a 2018 report.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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