The Italian Parliament definitively approved a law that considers surrogacy a universal crime. The Senate endorsed the bill on Wednesday, October 16, by 84 votes in favor and 58 against, after it was approved in the Chamber of Deputies in July 2023.

The initiative was originally presented by Deputy Carolina Varchi, of Fratelli d’Italia, the party of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and introduces an amendment to a 2004 law that already banned so-called “surrogate motherhood” in Italy, making the practice a “universal crime” and making it possible to impose penalties on Italians who resort to it abroad.

Article 12 of the 2004 law establishes fines of between 600,000 and one million euros, and up to two years in prison, for “whoever, in any way, carries out, organizes or advertises the trade of gametes or embryos or the surrogacy of motherhood.”

Senator Domenica Spinelli affirmed that the approval of the initiative is a victory that reaffirms the right of children to have a father and a mother and strengthens the fight against violence against women.

The Italian government considers that “surrogate motherhood” violates fundamental human rights, violates the rights of the child, commercializes the female body and enables the purchase of children, transforming motherhood into a business. Meloni has pointed out on several occasions that surrogacy is an inhuman practice and “a new form of slavery in the third millennium”.

The approval of this bill has been possible thanks to a wide articulation of the conservative and right-wing parties, Fratelli, Forza Italia and Lega, and which included center and some left-wing parliamentarians who defend feminist positions.