(Bari) Italy is trying to water down a G7 statement on abortion by removing a reference to “safe and legal” voluntary terminations of pregnancies, diplomatic sources said on Thursday, the first day of the leaders’ summit. State and government in Puglia.
The objections of far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose country chairs the G7 this year, have irritated her partners, according to these sources. In addition to Italy, the G7 includes the United States, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Japan.
The services of Ms. Meloni, known for her ultraconservative positions in favor of the traditional family, denied any censorship on Wednesday, saying that negotiations were still ongoing.
The head of Italian diplomacy Antonio Tajani said Thursday that it was “premature” to comment on this information while “the different delegations are negotiating.”
Last year, in their final communiqué following their summit in Japan, the leaders expressed “great concern” about the decline in women’s rights.
They were also committed to “access to safe and legal abortion and post-abortion care”. A source close to the negotiations told AFP that since 2021, “there is a mention of ‘safe access’”, but that “Meloni does not want it”.
“She is isolated on this subject. But since it is the host country, the others decided not to make it a casus belli,” according to this source. “So it will not come back in the text” of the final press release, the publication of which is not scheduled before Friday evening.
“There were debates on, in particular, questions of sexual and reproductive health or questions of vaccines which could not be taken into account as much as we would have liked by the Italian presidency,” for his part clarified An official from the French presidency spoke to the press on Wednesday.
France and Canada, which are campaigning to strengthen abortion rights, were particularly angry, according to the Italian daily Domani.
Abortion is also a hot topic in the United States, where President Joe Biden has denounced restrictions on this fundamental right imposed in the most conservative states.
A source from the Italian Council presidency denied that the reference to “secure access” had already been removed. “No State has asked to eliminate the reference to subjects related to abortion from the draft conclusions of the G7 Summit […] at a stage where negotiations are still ongoing,” she assured and “whatever is included in the final document” will be the result of the negotiations.
Coming to power in October 2022, Meloni, who likes to present herself as a “Christian mother”, is accused by women’s rights defenders of trying to hinder access to abortion in Italy, a country where The Catholic Church retains significant weight.
Although abortion has been authorized since 1978, access is severely limited by the very high percentage of gynecologists who cite conscientious objection to refuse to perform them.
In April, the Italian parliament, dominated by the right and the far right, voted for a measure promoted by the Meloni government authorizing anti-abortion activists to be present in clinics where women seeking abortions go, provoking indignation among the political parties. of opposition.
