The Italian Senate has spoken out against surrogacy, passing today a law that prohibits it and punishes it with up to two years in prison.
The approval of the draft law against "gestation for others", even if carried out abroad by Italian citizens, was voted in the room of Palazzo Madama with 84 votes in favor, 58 votes against and no abstentions.
The opposition, which voted against, described the law as "useless", "unconstitutional", "medieval" and "against the children and families of the LGBT+ community".
With the green light of the Senate, "pregnancy for others" effectively becomes a universal crime in the sense that Italian couples who use the practice in countries where it is allowed, will be punished as the law provides, with a 1 million euro fine up to 2 years in prison.
The newly approved text consists of a single article which modifies law 40 of 2004 by extending the crime abroad.
The united opposition has strongly attacked the draft law, inside and outside the Chamber, calling it "an ideological manifesto" to the "damage of families" and "children".
Surrogacy (or pregnancy to others) is an assisted fertilization technique in which a woman carries out a pregnancy on behalf of the people who will then become the parents of the child to be born, also called "intended parents".