LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Italy's right-wing government has passed new legislation that will outlaw international surrogacy. As Willem Marx reports, it's a move critics say would criminalize parenthood for some couples, in particular gay men.
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UNIDENTIFIED ITALIAN POLITICIAN: (Speaking Italian).
WILLEM MARX: The Italian Senate finally voted Wednesday on a measure the country's lower parliamentary chamber had passed last year.
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UNIDENTIFIED ITALIAN POLITICIAN: (Speaking Italian).
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MARX: Applause greeted the right-wing majority's victory in a vote that will soon criminalize an Italian couple's decision to have a child using an overseas surrogate or an Italian doctor's work to support such fertility efforts in a foreign country. This measure is more or less unique in western Europe, for it creates universal criminal jurisdiction for Italian authorities over Italian citizens, even in countries where surrogacy is entirely legal. For Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her right-wing Brothers of Italy party, it's just the latest salvo in a series of laws designed to cement conservative values into the country's statute books.
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PRIME MINISTER GIORGIA MELONI: (Speaking Italian).
MARX: God, homeland and what Meloni called natural families featured prominently in her political manifesto on which she rode to power. And Senator Domenica Spinelli, a close Meloni ally, echoed that focus on a specific idea of family in a final speech before Wednesday's vote.
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DOMENICA SPINELLI: (Through interpreter) Long live women and their central role, as reiterated by many people and by our pope. Long live children and their right, which is a priority, to have both a mother and a father.
MARX: The pope's condemnation of surrogacy has been central to this latest battle in the country's culture wars. Italy's already outlawed same-sex adoption, and critics say this closes off the final remaining path to parenthood for most gay men. Although this law could encounter legal challenges in the country's constitutional court, right now, even its supporters acknowledge its greatest challenge may well be enforcing it.
For NPR News, I'm Willem Marx.
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