Nuclear Family, Nuclear Laws: Cross-border Italian Surrogacy Ban sparks worry for LGBT families
Amidst a backdrop of continued conservative family policy, Italy’s government passed a widespread surrogacy ban on October 16, 2024, fulfilling a campaign promise made before Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s election in 2022. While proponents have argued it prevents the exploitation of poor women and prevents the economic exchange of children, critics have highlighted how the law closes nearly all doors for LGBT couples to start families. Even though the law, which fully criminalizes surrogacy outside of Italian borders for Italian citizens, is likely to receive legal challenges, it represents Italy’s continued rightward cultural shift.
This is all part of Italy’s long-term goal of protecting traditional family values and customs. The new legislation builds upon a law enacted in 2004 that only prevented the practice inside the country by expanding the ban to other countries where surrogacy is legal. If someone is caught traveling to another country to have a child through surrogacy, they could be charged with fines up to €1 million and two years in jail, an immense charge for those looking to start a family. Like most of Meloni’s family and social policy, the impetus for the new ban came down to the idea of a traditional family, with heterosexual parents who birth children biologically and raise them in the country. Her party, Fratelli d’Italia (FDI), passed the proposition through the Senate 84 to 58, with many right-wing politicians utilizing monetary metaphors as arguments for the new law.
Meloni herself has claimed that surrogacy treats children “like products in a supermarket.” Luca Malan, an FDI senator, called surrogate motherhood “child trafficking,” and Matteo Salvini, a well-known right-wing politician and the current transport minister, celebrated the end to “wombs for rent.” While some surrogacy services can involve payments to the surrogate mother to cover costs, they are used solely for that purpose and are often completed through a contract with the family. Equating a family policy as only an economic exchange removes this nuance.
Only around 250 couples in Italy go abroad for surrogacy services every year, with close to 90% being heterosexual couples, making the push for a complete criminalization of the service making the push for complete criminalization of the service somewhat redundant. While the legal discrimination against LGBT families is not explicitly stated in the government’s arguments, many find that the community is the true target, as same-sex couples, especially men, utilize the service to start families. The worry is now for those in limbo waiting for their child to be born, and current LGBT couples, who already struggle for rights and family services in the country, and now worry they too could be jailed for wanting children.
Immediate backlash occurred as soon as the law was passed from opposition parties in government, activist groups representing LGBT families and communities, and international allies. Ilaria Cucchi of the Green and Left Alliance in the Italian government called the act “inhumane” and said it only fuels discrimination against groups known to use it. Further, complete criminalization places the act in the same realm as crimes like terrorism, which are universally agreed as illegal. This causes surrogacy to be automatically deemed illegal in states where it’s not and sets up potential legal battles. An oppositional bill has been proposed that would allow surrogacy only in cases where money is not exchanged, but it is unlikely to gain any traction.
Most opposition has come from LGBT activist groups, who find that the law has made it nearly impossible for homosexual couples to start families. Same-sex couples are already prohibited from adopting children, which leaves many to resort to surrogacy outside of Italy. Italian family planning and civil rights laws have done little to encourage couples, especially LGBT ones, to have children. In the original 2004 law that banned surrogacy domestically, IVF was restricted to only heterosexual couples as well, leaving few options for some. The additional surrogacy policies, while not explicitly against LGBT couples, close further doors to possible families. Alessia Crocini, the president of Famiglie Arcobaleno (Rainbow Families), one of the largest Italian activist groups for LGBT families, called the law “ideological” and a “right-wing crusade against civil rights,” highlighting the cultural aspects of it. For some citizens, there’s a belief that general freedom of marriage and family planning is more accepted socially than in the government, resulting in the choices of a few taking away the rights of many.
The Italian government does not seem particularly interested in the expansion of civil rights for the LGBT community either. Same-sex unions were legalized in 2016, but fell short of providing legal marriage or family rights to those seeking them. Those in a same-sex civil union are not legally allowed to adopt the child of their partner, and with the prevention of same-sex couples adopting a child straight out, the options are slim to none. In 2021, the Italian senate killed a bill that would have criminalized homophobia and hate speech after arguments that it would have promoted “homosexual propaganda” and prevented freedom of speech. Much of the extreme opposition has been from right-wing politicians and the Catholic church, whose values are still deeply entrenched in Italian culture.
On an international stage, the newest law has become a rare point of tension between the USA and Italy, which have typically had a strong relationship as allies. The US State Department has said they are worried about US citizens who reside in Italy and have children through surrogacy, as they may not be legally recognized. Children without recognized guardians then lack legal protections, which can be dangerous to those living abroad. Five months later, one family who had a child through surrogacy in San Diego is afraid to return to Italy due to the law.
In contrast, Turkish President Recep Erdoğan applauded and thanked Meloni over the phone after it passed, appreciating her for “having defended the values of the traditional family,” over threats from LGBT groups. Lesbian couples and single women are banned from utilizing IVF treatments, and surrogacy is completely prohibited in the country.
Meloni has always pushed for the idea of a “traditional family” since before she was elected. While running, she repeated the descriptors of being a “Christian mother” at many rallies and has continued to refer to activist pushes for greater civil rights as the “LGBT lobby.” In a speech in Hungary in September 2023, Meloni, who has continued to align herself with conservative Viktor Orbán, mentioned that “the typical image of a family with children has gradually faded.”
In a way, it has for Italy, as reports have shown that the birth rate has consistently declined since 2008. Further expansion of LGBT rights and family planning would aid in reversing this fall, but under Meloni, the opposite has been on the table. A controversial recommendation by Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi to remove non-biological parents from their children’s birth certificates has led to the expulsion of many LGBT parents as legal guardians. Milan responded by pausing registrations with reference to the 2004 law banning medically assisted conception, while the northern city of Padua removed 27 mothers from birth certificates of over 30 children. Impacts of the recommendation mean that a parent would need to request permission to parent their child through daily life, including picking them up from school or taking them to the doctors. Legal action has reversed some of the changes, but the impact still lingers.
While Italy is not the only European country to ban surrogacy, it is the most far-reaching, and its political decisions over family policy represent its continued push against change. It is one of two G7 countries to not have legalized same-sex marriage (the other is Japan), and a recent EU push to recognize a statement of filiation across all EU member states was blocked early on by the Italian government. The legality of the law is still being debated, with many highlighting questions regarding convictions, however, the passing for many has only represented the continued removal of civil rights under Meloni’s rule.