Abortion set to become Italian poll issue

ITALY: Thirty years after abortion was legalised in Italy, the question seems set to become a campaign issue in the April 13th…

ITALY:Thirty years after abortion was legalised in Italy, the question seems set to become a campaign issue in the April 13th-14th election.

With prominent journalist Giuliano Ferrara set to run his own anti-abortion "List For Life" campaign, the issue moved centre stage yesterday when it was revealed that an unmarried Neapolitan woman had been interrogated by police in a Naples hospital shortly after she had undergone a termination.

Police had apparently received a tip-off suggesting that the woman, Silvana (surname withheld), had been given an illegal abortion, ie, after the 24th week of her pregnancy.

In truth, the "tip-off" seems to have proved misleading. In an interview with La Repubblica, Silvana (39) said she was in the 21st week of her pregnancy and that she had chosen to have a termination only after an amniocentesis test revealed that the foetus had grave abnormalities.

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Saying that she had "desperately wanted" the child, Silvana said that her baby had been found to suffer from Kinefelter's syndrome, a chromosome disorder that can cause mental retardation, diabetes and heart problems as well as affecting male sexual development.

Although Silvana went through all the legally correct medical procedures, she was still interrogated by police shortly after her operation: "They bombarded me with questions. . . What had happened, why did I have an abortion, who was the father? They even asked me if I paid the doctors," said Silvana.

Minister for health Livia Turco denounced the police action and called on all political parties and on the Catholic Church not to make an issue of abortion during the forthcoming election campaign. Many observers, however, believe the church will intervene in the campaign by appealing to Italians to vote for politicians who want much more restrictive abortion legislation.