And there are four of us. Since the beginning of the legislature, the majority has already put forward four anti-abortion bills: two signed by Maurizio Gasparri of the FdI, one by Legi Senator Massimiliano Romeo and the last one by the Brothers of Italy, signed by Roberto Menia. Both Gasparri’s first sentence and Menia’s last sentence predict amendment of article 1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and recognition of the fetus’s legal capacity. Thus, the rights and duties of a person would no longer be acquired at birth, but already from conception, with all the ensuing consequences.

Alessandra Benedetti – CorbisGetty Images

Georgia Meloni repeatedly assured her during the campaign that she was not going to amend Law 194. She repeated it like a mantra, and in fact, the voluntary abortion law itself no longer seems to be the goal. However, this does not mean that abortion is not under attack. The goals of anti-abortion opponents are changing and are aimed primarily at the legal recognition of the fetus. Menia’s bill is entitled “Introducing amendments to Article 1 of the Civil Code on the recognition of the legal capacity of each person.” Article 1 of the Civil Code establishes that “capacity is acquired from the moment of birth” and that “the rights recognized by law in favor of the conceived are subject to the event of birth.” If, on the other hand, it were established that legal rights are already acquired at conception, the fetus could become, for example, a victim of murder in the event of a voluntary abortion.

Changing Article 1 would lead to a complete distortion of the Italian regulatory system, and for this reason it is difficult to implement. However, it is clear that the intention of opponents of abortion to oppose the rights of the conceived to the rights of women through initiatives such as Nascent Life Day, the creation of fetal cemeteries that guarantee their right to be buried without the consent of their mothers, to bills like this one. “The purpose of this bill,” commented Democratic Senators President Simone Malpezzi, “is to abolish the right of women to self-determination in choosing whether to become a mother or not.”