Italy’s LGBTQ community fears the international surrogacy ban could trigger a ‘witch hunt’

LGBTQ activists and legal experts in Italy fear a new law criminalizing international surrogacy could have a chilling effect on the country’s same-sex families and their children.

Same-sex couples are singled out for criminal investigation. The legal ties between homosexual parents and their children have been severed. Italian citizens are imprisoned for a procedure that is perfectly legal in other countries, including the US.

“We are all a bit shocked,” said Yuri Guaiana, an LGBTQ activist and secretary of the Certi Diritti Association, an Italian gay rights organization. “This law feels like a joke, a very sad joke.”

Surrogacy was banned in Italy twenty years ago. But the new law goes a step further by imposing criminal penalties on Italians who have children through the procedure, even in countries where it is legal.

“Motherhood is absolutely unique, it absolutely cannot be replaced, and it is the foundation of our civilization,” Senator Lavinia Mennuni said during the parliamentary debate on the new law. “We want to eradicate the phenomenon of surrogacy tourism.”

A majority of Italian couples seeking surrogate mothers are straight – around 90%, Rainbow Families president Alessia Crocini told Reuters.

But some advocates say the law amounts to a blanket crackdown on gay couples because they are easy to identify.

A straight couple returning from a trip abroad with a newborn child would not be under suspicion, while a gay couple, especially two men, could be immediately singled out, said Roberto Muzzetta, the vice president of the Milan branch of Arcigay, Italy’s largest LGBTQ non-profit organization. The result could amount to a cultural “witch hunt” against gay families, he said.

The law classifies international surrogacy as a universal crime, putting it on a par with serious crimes such as terrorism. Penalties include up to two years in prison and up to $1.1 million in fines.

“The message is: ‘Not only are you the result of a crime, but you are the result of a crime that amounts to genocide and human trafficking, and not the result of an act of love,’” Guaiana said.

The law leaves open what would happen to children whose parents are punished for seeking surrogacy abroad, said Ryan Thoreson, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Law.

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“A same-sex couple returns from the United States, where they legally had a child through surrogacy,” Thoreson said. “Both parents may go to prison. What will happen to the child?”

Equally unclear is how Italy would impose penalties on a procedure carried out in countries where it is fully legal.

In several cases dealing with surrogacy in recent years, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that a child’s “right to respect for private life” requires a pathway to a legal parent-child relationship through national law.

“It’s hard for me to imagine how that will happen under the new Italian law,” Thoreson said. “Regional human rights challenges are likely to arise in response.”

Italy bans gay couples from adoption and artificial insemination

Italian same-sex couples already face barriers to childbearing that are not shared by straight couples in the country.

Although same-sex ‘civil unions’ are enshrined in a 2016 law, same-sex couples cannot adopt within Italy’s borders. Artificial insemination is also not an option for them.

The Italian government has launched several legal attacks in recent years that weaken ties between LGBTQ parents and their non-biological children under Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, who ran on a right-wing platform of “God, Homeland and Family” and promised “the LGBTQ to combat’. lobby.”

Last year, Meloni’s government ordered Milan’s city council to stop registering children of same-sex couples. LGBTQ couples should seek explicit legal approval of parenthood directly from a court, according to a letter the mayor of Milan received from Italy’s Interior Ministry.

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Months later, a prosecutor in Padua decided to throw out 33 birth certificates of children born to lesbian couples, demanding that the non-biological mother be removed from the document. A court ruled in favor of the couples in March, allowing both parents to retain legal parenthood.

Some members of the European Parliament condemned the laws, with Italian member Nicola Danti warning that the previous order “will lead to discrimination not only against same-sex couples, but ultimately also against their children.”

Thoreson pointed to a scenario in which the child’s biological parent dies. “That child then does not have a second parent as they would if that parentage were recognized.”

Muzzetta said Arcigay is already evaluating ways to challenge the law domestically or internationally, and Guaiana said LGBTQ activists and organizations are mobilizing at multiple levels.

Last year’s actions led to nationwide protests. On Tuesday, as lawmakers voted on the bill, demonstrators had already gathered outside.

“It’s really a collective effort,” Guaiana said. “We are all together to support rainbow families, especially children.”

Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA Today. Reach her via email at [email protected]. Follow her on X @CybeleMO.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: After Italy bans surrogacy, LGBTQ community fears ‘witch hunt’