Italy bans couples travelling abroad for surrogacy – as activists hit out at ‘monstrous law’

Published

9 months ago

October 17, 2024

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Italy has made it illegal for couples to travel abroad to have a baby via surrogacy.

A bill, passed on Wednesday, extends a ban that forbids surrogacy within Italy to include those who travel to countries such as the United States or Canada where the practice is legal.

Those who break the law could face prison sentences of up to two years and fines of up to €1m (£836,000).

The proposed law was first brought about by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni‘s right-wing Brothers of Italy party and seeks to promote what she believes are traditional family values.

However, critics have argued it makes it progressively harder for LGBTQ couples to become legal parents.

In a protest on Tuesday ahead of the vote in Italy’s parliament, demonstrators said the government was lashing out at LGBTQ people and damaging those who wanted to have children, despite a sharply declining birth rate in Italy.

“If someone has a baby, they should be given a medal. Here instead you are sent to jail… if you don’t have children in the traditional way,” Franco Grillini, an activist for LGBTQ rights in Italy, told the Reuters news agency.

“This is a monstrous law. No country in the world has such a thing.”

Where in the world is surrogacy banned?

Surrogacy by definition is an arrangement whereby a woman agrees to carry and birth a child on behalf of those who will become the child’s parents.

Countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria and Taiwan prohibit all forms of surrogacy.

Whereas there is no legislation concerning surrogacy at the federal level in the US or Canada.

Surrogacy is also allowed in Russia, although President Vladimir Putin signed a law within the last few years barring foreigners from using Russian surrogate mothers.

In some parts of Europe, including the UK, legal surrogacy agreements are allowed, according to surrogacy agency the World Center of Baby.

However, commercial surrogacy – which is a non-legal agreement where payments may be made but is not enforced by law – is banned in places such as the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The bill passed through the upper house of the senate by 84 votes to 58. It was approved by the lower house last year.

During the debate, Brothers of Italy senator Lavinia Mennuni said the party wanted to “uproot” the phenomenon of “surrogacy tourism”.

“Motherhood is absolutely unique, it absolutely cannot be surrogated, and it is the foundation of our civilisation,” she said.

President of the charity Rainbow Families Alessia Crocini said 90% of Italians who choose surrogacy are heterosexual couples, but they mostly do so in secret, meaning the new ban would, by de facto, affect only gay couples.

Back in April, Ms Meloni called surrogacy an “inhuman” practice when speaking at an event in Rome. She said the process treated children as supermarket products, echoing a position expressed by the Catholic Church.

When vying to become Italy’s first female prime minister, Ms Meloni promised “family-friendly policies” and, much to the anger of the LGBTQ community, lauds the priority of a child being brought up by a mother and father – she also opposes fostering by same-sex couples.

The clampdown on surrogacy coincides with a backdrop of falling birthrates in Italy. National statistics institute ISTAT published in March that births had dropped to a record low in 2023 – the 15th consecutive annual decline.

World

At least 30 dead and 100 injured as armed groups clash in Syria, officials say

Published

11 hours ago

July 14, 2025

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At least 30 dead and 100 injured as armed groups clash in Syria, officials say

At least 30 people have been killed in the Syrian city of Sweida in clashes between local military groups and tribes, according to Syria’s interior ministry.

Officials say initial figures suggest around 100 people have also been injured in the city, where the Druze faith is one of the major religious groups.

The interior ministry said its forces will directly intervene to resolve the conflict, which the Reuters news agency said involved fighting between Druze gunmen and Bedouin Sunni tribes.

It marks the latest episode of sectarian violence in Syria, where fears among minority groups have increased since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces.

The violence reportedly erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida.

Last April, Sunni militia clashed with armed Druze residents of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, and fighting later spread to another district near the capital.

But this is the first time the fighting has been reported inside the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital of the mostly Druze province.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports the fighting was centred in the Maqwas neighbourhood east of Sweida and villages on the western and northern outskirts of the city.

It adds that Syria’s Ministry of Defence has deployed military convoys to the area.

Western nations, including the US and UK, have been increasingly moving towards normalising relations with Syria.

Concerns among minority groups have intensified following the killing of hundreds of Alawites in March, in apparent retaliation for an earlier attack carried out by Assad loyalists.

That was the deadliest sectarian flare-up in years in Syria, where a 14-year civil war ended with Assad fleeing to Russia after his government was overthrown by rebel forces.

The city of Sweida is in southern Syria, about 24 miles (38km) north of the border with Jordan.

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Meredith Kercher’s killer faces new trial over sexual assault allegations

Published

24 hours ago

July 13, 2025

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Meredith Kercher's killer faces new trial over sexual assault allegations

The man convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has been charged with sexual assault against an ex-girlfriend.

Rudy Guede, 38, was the only person who was definitively convicted of the murder of 21-year-old Ms Kercher in Perugia, Italy, back in 2007.

He will be standing trial again in November after an ex-girlfriend filed a police report in the summer of 2023 accusing Guede of mistreatment, personal injury and sexual violence.

Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was released from prison for the murder of Leeds University student Ms Kercher in 2021, after having served about 13 years of a 16-year sentence.

Since last year – when this investigation was still ongoing – Guede has been under a “special surveillance” regime, Sky News understands, meaning he was banned from having any contact with the woman behind the sexual assault allegations, including via social media, and had to inform police any time he left his city of residence, Viterbo, as ruled by a Rome court.

Guede has been serving a restraining order and fitted with an electronic ankle tag.

The Kercher murder case, in the university city of Perugia, was the subject of international attention.

Ms Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found murdered in the flat she shared with her American roommate, Amanda Knox.

The Briton’s throat had been cut and she had been stabbed 47 times.

Ms Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were placed under suspicion.

Both were initially convicted of murder, but Italy’s highest court overturned their convictions, acquitting them in 2015.

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IDF blames ‘technical error’ after Gaza officials say children collecting water killed in strike

Published

1 day ago

July 13, 2025

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IDF blames 'technical error' after Gaza officials say children collecting water killed in strike

The Israeli military says it missed its intended target after Gaza officials said 10 Palestinians – including six children – were killed in a strike at a water collection point.

Another 17 people were wounded in the strike on a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al Awda Hospital.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it had intended to hit an Islamic Jihad militant but a “technical error with the munition” had caused the missile to fall “dozens of metres from the target”.

The IDF said the incident is under review, adding that it “works to mitigate harm to uninvolved civilians as much as possible” and “regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians”.

Officials at Al Awda Hospital said it received 10 bodies after the Israeli strike on the water collection point and six children were among the dead.

Ramadan Nassar, who lives in the area, said around 20 children and 14 adults were lined up Sunday morning to fill up water.

When the strike occurred, everyone ran and some, including those who were severely injured, fell to the ground, he said.

In total, 19 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, local health officials said.

Two women and three children were among nine killed after an Israeli strike on a home in the central town of Zawaida, officials at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said.

Israel has claimed it hit more than 150 targets in the besieged enclave in the past day.

The latest strikes come after the Israel military opened fire near an aid centre in Rafah on Saturday. The Red Cross said 31 people were killed.

The IDF has said it fired “warning shots” near the aid distribution site but it was “not aware of injured individuals” as a result.

The war in Gaza started in response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people and saw about 250 taken hostage.

More than 58,000 Palestinians have since been killed, with more than half being women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

US President Donald Trump has said he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war.

But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there were no signs of a breakthrough, as a new sticking point emerged over the deployment of Israeli troops during the truce.

Hamas still holds 50 hostages, with fewer than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.