Italian Senate passes law making it illegal to seek surrogacy abroad

Italy’s Senate approved legislation Wednesday criminalizing the seeking of surrogacy in other countries by Italian citizens. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni advocated for the policy, which is seen as targeting same-sex couples.

Meloni’s conservative Brothers of Italy party proposed the bill, expanding on two decades of surrogacy denial within the nation’s borders.

The vote was 84-58. It had passed the lower chamber last year, the Washington Post reported.

The crime can be punished with a fine of 1 million euros and up to two years in prison.

“I continue to believe that surrogacy is an inhuman practice,” Meloni said in April at a conference “For a Young Europe: Demographic Transition, Environment, Future,” echoing rhetoric from the Catholic Church. “I support the bill that makes it a universal crime.”

Meloni and other right-wing Italian officials have been in favor of the ban, despite Italy’s low birth rate. Over the past decade, the birth rate in Italy has steadily decreased; in 2023, 6.4 children were estimated to be born per 1,000 inhabitants, three infants less than in 2002 according to Statistia.

“People are not objects, children cannot be bought, and you cannot sell or rent human body parts. This simple truth, already contained in our legal system, that punishes as a crime the aberrant practice of surrogacy, can no longer be circumvented,” Meloni’s Cabinet member Eugenia Roccella told journalists.

Earlier this year, the prime minister said she plans to address the problem by providing baby bonuses and tax breaks for people with children. 

Other members of parliament like Riccardo Magi have been extremely critical of Meloni’s policies. He has threatened to challenge the new surrogacy law in Constitutional Court.

“The right has made it illegal for Italian citizens to use surrogacy even in those countries where (it) is perfectly legal, regulated and safe,” he wrote on social media.

“Women’s bodies, wombs and freedom belong to women. Not to Giorgia Meloni. Not to this government. Not to any government,” Magi later added.