ROME - Italy's new center-right government has moved forward quickly to advance the conservative agenda with a minister calling on Wednesday for a review of the law allowing abortion.
Rocco Buttiglione, European Affairs Minister in Silvio Berlusconi's government, proposed changing the law to include incentives for women to decide not to have an abortion. The current law allows abortion on demand for the first three months of pregnancy.
"Many women have abortions because they can't afford (a child). We propose to help them financially," Buttiglione was quoted as saying. "Others do so because their partners abandoned them or made them feel guilty, or because they have a difficult relationship with their parents. We propose individual or family therapy to support them in these difficulties."
Under Buttiglione's proposal, if a mother chooses to keep her baby, she would be given the equivalent of $440 for the first year after the child is born. The proposal would also make the biological father's consent mandatory for minor girls to have an abortion.
Left-wing newspapers and politicians reacted strongly to the proposal, saying supporters of the review were kowtowing to the Church. "Questioning women's right to choose: this is the real aim of the review of the law," said Livia Turco, a former center-left minister for social affairs. She promised "harsh opposition" to any attempts to change the law.
CWN - Catholic World News
13. juni 2001