Italy angry – Meloni about surrogacy: “inhuman”

“I believe that surrogacy is an inhumane practice,” Meloni said at a conference entitled “For a Young Europe: Demographic Change, Environment, Future.”

Meloni reiterated her intention to push through a bill in the Italian parliament that would make surrogacy a “universal crime.” Under the bill currently being discussed in parliament, Italians who have children abroad and use surrogate mothers will be prosecuted. This should apply even if surrogacy is legal in the countries in question, unlike Italy.

Children are ‘not goods in the supermarket’
“No one can convince me that surrogacy is a gesture of love, as some claim. Treating children like merchandise in the supermarket is not a gesture of love. The legitimate desire to have a child should not be converted into a right that can be secured in any way. “Surrogacy is an inhumane practice and I support the bill that makes it a blanket crime,” Meloni said.

Here’s Meloni at the conference:

According to the Italian head of government, Europe must take concrete measures to combat the decline in birth rates. This has, among other things, a huge impact on social expenditure. “If we do not restore the balance between the working population and those in need, our public financial systems will no longer be sustainable,” Meloni warned.

There is talk of a ‘demographic winter’ in Italy
Italy’s birth rate continued to decline in 2023. Last year, 379,000 births were reported, 14,000 fewer than in 2022, the Italian statistics agency ISTAT recently announced. This corresponds to 6.4 births per 1000 inhabitants. The number of births in Italy has fallen by 34.3 percent since 2008, with an increase in the last year.

The average number of children per woman fell from 1.24 in 2022 to 1.20 in 2023. The historical minimum is 1.19 children, measured in 1995. Experts complain of a ‘demographic winter’ in Italy, where the population is beginning to 2024 dropped to 58.99 million, which is 7,000 fewer people than at the beginning of 2023.