CHEMICAL ABORTION IN ITALY
Submitted by Paola Innocenti, to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology, March 2013.
This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright
material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper
acknowledgment.
I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been
identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for
the award of a degree by this or any other University.
Signature ……………………………
1
ABSTRACT
In Italy, the “traditional” form of family revaluated by fascist dogma is one of the
pillars of the society. Women have a central role to maintain, protect and support this
form of family. Many Italian women, the State, the media and the Church, all act to
safeguard this reality, seeking to remove all obstacles that can challenge the family.
Abortion is considered as one of these obstacles and it has been a much debated topic
in Italy over the years. Abortion was made legal in Italy in 1978 with a widely
discussed law. The Italian Abortion Act, despite being the object of debates, critics
and two referenda supported by all Parliamentary factions, has never been modified.
In 2002, with the introduction of RU 486 at the Sant’Anna of Turin all debates about
abortion started up again accompanied by a strong opposition to the implementation
of the drug.
The purpose of this study is to better understand the social definition of the female
condition in Italy analysing the obstacles to the implementation of chemical abortion
in Italy. In order to evaluate the role of both the Italian Government and society in
obstructing the introduction of RU 486 in Italy, historical and secondary sociological
data were collected and a series of interviews and a participant observation in a
selection of Italian hospitals were conducted. A comparative study between Italy and
the UK was also conducted. The results of this study seem to prove how the majority
of Italian women, in opposition to feminist theory, prioritize family, femininity and
maternity, considering career as necessary mainly from an economic point of view.
Abortion is now considered by the young generation as something avoidable and no
longer associated with women’s right to choose or as an expression of “selfdetermination”. This strong “traditionalistic” attitude seems to be caused by the
inability of the Italian State to implement its laws and by the direct and indirect
influence of the Catholic Church.
2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABBREVIATIONS
6
1. INTRODUCTION
8
1. RU 486
8
2. Sociology and gender inequality
11
3. Role of abortion within the theory of gender inequality
13
4. RU 486 and women’s status within Italian society
18
2. ABORTION WITHIN WESTERN FEMINISM THEORY
25
1. Introduction
25
2. The influence of Feminism on Reproductive Rights
27
3. Italian Feminism
42
4. Conclusion
53
3. METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN
56
1. Introduction
56
2. Methodology
57
3. Objectives
70
4. Ethics
76
5. Conclusion
79
4. ABORTION IN THE UK
81
1. Introduction
81
2. The British liberal State
82
3. First steps toward the legalization of abortion in the UK
87
4. The Abortion Act 1967
88
5. The situation after the introduction of the Abortion Act 1967
94
in the UK and differences between the British and Italian laws
6.Conclusion
100
5. THE FRAGILITY OF THE ITALIAN STATE
101
1. Introduction
101
3
2. The reasons behind the fragility of the Italian State
102
3. The implementation of the law
109
4. The role of family within the Italian social system
111
5. Italian legislation regarding the status of women
115
6. The Abortion Act
123
7. Conclusion
129
6. THE LAW AND THE RU 486
131
1. Introduction
131
2. The history of the drug
132
3. RU 486 and the difficult introduction in Italy
135
4. Italian Parliamentary debates and compatibility with the Abortion Act
137
5. Conflicts over Article 9 law 194/1978: conscientious objection and RU 486
141
6. The media’s role in Italy and its fundamental role in the awareness of RU 486 147
7. Conclusion
153
7. MEDICAL POSITION ON ABORTION AND THE
ITALIAN PHOENOMENON OF CONSCIENTIUS OBJECTION
156
1. Introduction
156
2. Definition
157
3. Development of conscientious objection in Italy, France, the UK and the US
159
4. Debates behind conscientious objection in Italy
164
5. Conscientious objection - a different reality for public and private practitioners 168
6. The real reasons behind conscientious objection: convenience or moral
173
conscience?
7. The reality in Italian hospital and the medical attitude toward RU 486
179
8.Conclusion
184
8. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH’S POSITION IN ITALY –INFLUENCE
OVER ITALIAN VALUES
187
1. Introduction
187
2. The political and social role of religion
189
4
3. Divorce and abortion: the great defeats
192
4. The new Catholic Church’s struggles and strategies in particular
in vitro fertilization and RU 486
202
5. Conclusion
206
9. WOMEN POSITION IN ITALIAN SOCIETY
209
1. Introduction
209
2. The women’s right to choose
212
3. The new status of Italian woman
217
4. The State’s social assistance for women in Italy
223
5. What women really want: family versus career
230
6. Italian women and abortion
235
7. Conclusion
240
10. CONCLUSIONS
243
APPENDICES
Appendix 1 Guide Information
250
Appendix 2 Letter of explanation to participants (women)
252
Appendix 3 Letter of explanation to participants (doctors)
254
Appendix 4 Letter of explanation to participants (hospitals)
256
Appendix 5 Consent Form
258
Appendix 6 Hospital of Empoli – Consenso al trattamento terapeutico
259
and other documents
Appendix 7 Events concerning RU 486 in Italy following the data collection
266
BIBLIOGRAPHY
268
Law and official Acts
268
Journals, books and newspapers
271
5
ABBREVIATIONS
ALRA
Abortion Law Reform Association
AML
Additional Maternity Leave
BMA
British Medical Association
CEDAW
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women
DC
Democrazia Cristiana
DEMAU
Demistification of Authority
FIGO
International Federation of Gyneacologist and Obstetric
FNOMCeO
Federazione Nazionale dell’ordine dei medici chirurghi e degli
odontoiatri
ISTAT
Istituto Nazionale di Statistica
LARC
Labour Abortion Campaign
MA
Maternity Allowance
MP
Member of Parliament
Mpv
Movimento per la vita
MWF
Medical Women’s Federation
NAC
National Abortion Association
NHS
National Health Service
OAPA
Offence Against the Person Act
ONMI
Opera Nazionale Maternita’ e Infanzia
PCI
Partito Comunista Italiano
PG
Prostaglandin
PM
Prime Minister
RCOG
Royal College of Gynaecologist
RM – PA
Royal Medico-Psychological Association
SML
Statutory Maternity Leave
SPUC
Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child
TV
Television
6
UK
United Kingdom
US
United States
WWII
World War II
7
1. INTRODUCTION
1. RU 486
The objective of this study is to shed light on the social definition of female status in
Italy. To achieve this and to better understand women’s self-perception, the debates
and reactions of the Italian State, the Catholic Church, the media, women and medical
associations to the implementation of the abortion drug, RU 486 in Italy have been
analyzed. Abortion has been associated for a long time with female oppression and its
denial has been considered one of the pre-conditions that could help women to react
against gender inequality. Thus, women’s support of or opposition to the Abortion Act
can help us to understand women’s position and self-perception. In Italy, in particular,
where feminist groups claim that a patriarchal form of State and family oppresses
women, female opposition to the introduction of a new type of abortion can indicate
that women do not see themselves as oppressed or limited by State and family. Female
reaction to the implementation of RU 486 can therefore be meaningful and can
potentially help us to understand women’s condition. This thesis aims to analyze and
intervene in existing feminist debates concerning the social definition of the female
condition in Italy and to extend these debates. To reach this aim, a variety of
theoretical and analytical tools have been used. This has involved the analysis of
several feminist and anti-feminist theories concerning gender, female status,
contraception, reproduction, abortion and in particular chemical abortion. The analysis
of these articles and studies has made it possible to outline areas that need further
research. In particular, it was discovered that chemical abortion in Italy had not been
the object of sociological study with regard to accessibility to the drug RU 486.
Moreover, it was not clear how women in certain areas of Italy (Sardinia) consider
abortion in relation to their social status. Once it was evident that this topic needed
further sociological study and analysis, a number of primary data source were
collected, as discussed in more detail in Chapter 3, in an attempt to fill the gap left by
existent feminist approaches.
8
Abortion has been a constant theme throughout human history. Over the centuries,
however, the social perception of abortion has changed considerably. As Lucker
(1984) suggests, being the abortion debate “not about facts but about weight, measure
and assessed facts”, topics such as abortion, and the moral status of the fetus have
always been ambiguous and they will probably remain much debated topics. Medical
and technical innovations in the twentieth century have opened up possibilities that
could never previously have been imagined, offering also new forms of abortion as
well as enabling us to better comprehend the different stages of pregnancy. A study of
the abortion debates must relate abortion to other parts of social life such as
parenthood, role of sexuality in men and women’s life and contraception.
As science has continued to advance, new methods to perform abortion and make it
more secure and effective have been introduced. During the Middle Ages the most
common ways to perform abortion were purges, mint juices, rosemary, honey, oil, salt,
cabbage seeds, parsley, internal lavenders and even animal urine (Gatta, 1997, p. 1).
In 1700, two new pharmacological methods were introduced, used in massive doses by
doctors or “women willing to help other women” to have an abortion. These two
substances were emmenagogues, drugs used to cure menstrual irregularities, that, if
taken in large amounts, could cause a heavy menstrual period and abortion, and
ecbolics, that were normally used to induct contraction in difficult deliveries but if
taken in large amounts could have caused abortion (Gatta, 1997, p. 3). Nowadays, it is
possible to differentiate three methods of abortion: psychological, physical and
chemical. The first method consists on putting the person willing to obtain an abortion
under huge stress, however this method is considered ineffective except for women
predisposed to abortion. The second method consists of an external intervention that
removes the fetus from the maternal uterus; examples of this are suction and curettage
or the combination of both. The third method represents the majority of the traditional
types of abortion. This method was almost abandoned at the beginning of the twentieth
century due to the development of physical abortive methods. However, around the
1950s, it became the object of many new studies and today abortions can be performed
9
in many ways. Examples of it are: the day after pill, the anti-hCG vaccination, the IUD
and RU 486, which is object of this study (Gatta, 1997, pp. 55-64).
RU 486, the subject of the present investigation, is a direct result of this scientific
progress. In the late 1960s, Arpad Istvan Csapo discovered in the United States, that a
short interruption of progesterone during early stage pregnancy was potentially able to
cause abortion (this is described in greater detail in chapter 6), providing an alternative
to surgical abortion. In April 1980, Etienne-Emile Baulieu, inside the offices of the
Roussel Uclaf, France, discovered that Mifepristone, an anti-hormone able to interfere
with progesterone, was able to cause abortion in 80% of the cases depending on the
stage of pregnancy. However, 80% was a percentage of success unacceptable for the
scientific community and in 1985 at the Stockholm Karolinska hospital it was
discovered that if Mifepristone was combined with Prosglandine/PG the percentage of
success could rise to 96% in a 49 day pregnancy. RU 486 is therefore the combination
of two drugs: Mifepristone and PG. The process consists of the administration of
Mifepristone, that is used as receptor of progesterone inside the uterus, causing the
death of the embryo and after 2 days a dose of PG, that causes contractions, is
administered allowing the expulsion of the embryo (Kingman, 1989, cited by Klein,
Raymond and Dumble, p. 13).
The first country where the drug was implemented was France. On 23rd September
1989, Claude Evin, the French Health Minister, signed the documents necessary to
authorize the commercialization of the drug. However, on 21st, October 1989, Edouard
Sakiz, the Roussel Uclaf President, decided to suspend the production of the drug
because RU 486 was in conflict with his Catholic beliefs. Kingman (1989, cited by
Klein et al, p.13) however, argues that the interruption in production was probably
more due to the Pro-life groups’ threat of boycotting all the drugs of the
pharmaceutical company than personal beliefs. A few days later Claude Evin officially
requested that the Roussel Uclaf amend their decision and to make the drug available
defining the drug, with the words that later became famous, a “moral property of
women’. Following the fact that the Roussel Uclaf was 36% publicly funded, shortly
10
after the request of the French Health Ministry, the drug again became available
(Morresi and Roccella, 2006, p. 62).
In the rest of Europe, the implementation of the drug started in the nineties, following
the World Health Organization (WHO) experiment in several countries (Italy was
among them) consisting of the observance of the abortion performed with the drug.
The experiment was a success and subsequently, several European States started to
request that the drug become available. The first country requesting the
commercialization of the drug was the UK in 1991, followed by Sweden in 1992. In
1997, 30 countries in Europe commercialized the drug with the only exception of Italy,
Ireland and Portugal. In Italy, which is the location of this study, the first abortion
conducted with RU 486 was performed on 1st September 2005 at the Hospital Sant’
Anna in Turin following the request of Dr. Viale, a gynecologist, to conduct a new
experiment to compare four methods of procuring termination. Several debates
followed
this
first
introduction,
causing
intermittent
interruptions
of
the
commercialization of the drug, as will be discussed in depth in Chapter 6. It was only
in December 2009, that the AIFA, the Italian Agency of drug, decided to legalize RU
486.
RU 486 has, perhaps unsurprisingly, provoked intense debate between abortionists and
religious groups (especially Catholic) all around the Western world, and in particular,
in the United States, France and Italy. These religious groups consider it a way of
simplifying, and, therefore, of trivializing abortion, by reducing it to the mere
administration of a drug (Baulieu, 1990, p. 43) whilst the pro-abortion lobby and
feminists unions, (Evin, 1990 cited by Baulieu, 1990, p. 49) have begun to define the
drug, as mentioned above, as the “moral property of women”.
2. Sociology and gender inequality
11
The topic discussed in this thesis is one of the themes used to explain the condition of
women within Western society and in particular, gender inequality. Foucault provides
a set of theoretical tools that have been analyzed and applied to the study of gender
inequality in general and females’ social definition in Italy in particular. Foucault’s
theories can assist to build up a framework for this study despite the fact that they do
not address the topic of gender inequality and abortion. Gender inequality and the
female condition in general have been the object of many different discourses.
Foucault (1978, pp. 19-22) defines discourse as the way a particular set of linguistic
classes relates to an object and the ways of portraying it defines the way society
comprehends the object. He uses the representational properties of discourses as a
means for the exercise of power in the creation of disciplinary power. However, this
concept can be easily used in the analysis of gender inequality. Bryman (2008, p. 528)
argues that discourse creates a version of the object. He goes on to explain that the
description of the object comes to define and constitute it. The different feminist
approaches and points of view can be seen as different types of discourse related to the
female condition. These different feminist approaches therefore help to create what is
today a perception of the female social status. Consequently, discourse is much more
than a language, as is seen by some, and according to scholars such as Gee (1999), it is
in fact, constitutive of society, being able to influence people’s view and the way
groups interact with each other. Others, such as O’Reilly, Dixon-Woods, Angell,
Aschcroft and Bryman (2009), define discourse as a form of action. Phillips and Hardy
(2002, p. 3) consider discourse fundamental to understanding society stating: “Social
reality is produced and made real through discourses, and social interactions cannot
be fully understood without reference to the discourses that give them meaning.”
Relationships between people and therefore, between discourses regarding a given
topic evolve, and thus the perception of a given topic changes. The definition of the
female condition changed profoundly from the pre-capitalistic era when women were
seen as important members of the family, responsible for all internal family matters
but excluded from decisions beyond the domestic domain (Dalla Costa and James,
1972). During the first and second wave of feminism, the female status completely
changed. Instead of focusing on family and femininity, women started to focus on
career, sexuality, equality with men and independence (Brownmiller, 1985;
12
McDonnell, 1984; Petchesky, 1984; de Beauvoir, 1949). The third wave of feminism
represented another change of approach while still focusing on female selfdetermination. It aimed at the creation of a woman who fulfilled her aspirations
rediscovering femininity, maternity and domestic duties (Muritti, 2011; Campanini,
2010; Coward, 1993). Naturally, in each period there are larger social discourses that
represent the socially dominant perceptions of a topic but several smaller subdiscourses still appear and persist in stimulating debates and engendering different
understandings of any topic. Discourses can be influenced by gender, ideologies, class
and religion (Danes, Haberman and McTavish, 2005, p. 121). This can be seen when
analyzing the present Italian situation, where it is possible to observe an attempt to
return to “tradition” (Muritti, 2011, Campanini, 2010). Thus, there are still authors that
support the traditional feminist vision of woman that associates women’s personal
satisfaction with the ability to have a satisfying career, economic independence and
equity with men (Remiddi, 1985; Longo 1985; Bonino, 2012). These different
discourses can be observed inside the society at different levels, in speech, in writing
or even in the way people react to certain situations (body talk). The media1 in Italy is
a useful example here because newspapers and television describe and represent
women depending on their ideologies. Their role in the discursive construction of
women and, therefore, in the availability and take-up of RU 486 will be discussed in
Chapters 3 and 6.
3. Role of abortion within the theory of gender inequality
To be able to understand the theory behind abortion and in particular the Western
feminism point of view, it is therefore necessary to have a complete vision of all the
main discourses regarding gender inequality. Several authors, such as Rich (1976),
Donnison (1977), Brownmiller (1985, 1991), Lewin (1980), to name but a few,
believe that the potential reproductive power of women is the basis of male
dominance. Therefore, women must be able to control their reproductive power to be
able to limit male oppression. If many authors see reproduction as the reason behind
1
Media here refers to radio, television, newspapers and magazines.
13
gender inequality, writers are, however, divided depending on their approach and
depending on what they believe makes reproduction the source of female oppression.
As Walby (1986, p. 5) states, there are five categories of writings on gender
inequality, which attempt to justify female oppression. The first group considers
gender inequality theoretically irrelevant and inexistent. The second group considers
the capitalist relationship as the cause of female oppression. The third group, which
will be analyzed in depth in the next chapter, considers women’s oppression as the
result of patriarchy alone. The fourth group argues that a new system of capitalist
patriarchy lies behind female discrimination. The fifth group, defined also as the
dualist group, believes that gender inequality derives from the interaction of two
autonomous realities of patriarchy and capitalism – this group will also be discussed
in depth in the next chapter.
The first category includes writers such as Beteille (1977), Glass and Hall (1954),
Goldthorpe (1983) and Stewart, Prandy, and Blackburn (1980), who share a similar
theoretical framework ignoring inequality between men and women. For instance,
when they conduct research they completely exclude women from their samples and
they do not even attempt to justify this decision. Goldthorpe, Lockwood, Bechhofer
and Platt (1969), for instance, in their study concerning the affluent workers and class
structure, completely ignore women’s role in the society, considering men as the basic
unit of society, concluding that women’s class position is completely determined by
their husbands status. More recently, authors included in this category, for instance,
Parkin (1972) and Westergaard and Resler (1975) attempted to find a theoretical
justification for their decision to exclude women from their topic of research. They
justify this decision by arguing that the family, rather than single individuals, is the
basic element of society. Thus, women’s position is determined by their family
position, which in turn is determined by the social position of the male head. Walby
(1986, pp. 13-16) argues that the biggest limitations of the theory that considers the
family as the basic unit of society is that this approach ignores inequality between
men and women within the family. Women in fact spend more time at home and
enjoy less free time than men and women often suffer violence within the household.
Moreover, another limitation of the assumption that the family is the basic element of
society is that not all the population can fit inside the concept of a patriarchal family
14
and not all individuals live as members of a family. In fact, there are some cases
where a family is composed only of a single mother and her children, or where the
male figure is not the head of the household due to illness or to the fact that his
earnings are less than his wife earnings, or where a single individual decides to live
on his own.
The second group that sees gender inequality as consequence of capitalist
relationships (Walby, 1986) includes authors such as Althusser (1971), Dalla Costa
and James (1972), Himmelweight and Mohun (1977). These authors consider
domestic labor as being central to the creation of gender inequality. Seccombe (1974)
argues that domestic labor is work, following Marxist thought, and that the product of
this labor is the labor power of the husband and of the future generations. Therefore,
domestic labor is essential to the explanation of women’s oppression. Almost all
authors included in this group agree that domestic labor is work but they disagree as
to whether it is production, consumption, reproduction or circulation (Walby, 1986,
pp. 16-17). There are, however, those such as Smith (1984) that consider domestic
labor outside the strict capitalist means of production. Smith considers it as a
“necessary condition of existence of the capitalist mode of production” but outside of
it. The biggest limitation of these authors is their argument that capitalism is the
source of inequality and not men and patriarchy, thus they tend to ignore the interest
and role of husbands and fathers over domestic labor. Moreover, another flaw of this
theory, as suggested by Middleton (1981), is that these writers assert that inequity
derives from capitalism even if it is pre-dated capitalism.
This group also includes authors such as Zaretsky (1976), and Barrett (1980), who
suggest that the disconnection of family and the economy, the consequence of
capitalism, is fundamental to explaining women’s oppression. Zaretsky (1976) in
particular, believes that the separation of family and the economy causes the
relegation of women to the domestic sphere. However, Middleton (1981) argues that
Zaretsky is unable to explain the pre-capitalist sexual inequality. These authors again
underestimate the role of organized men in excluding women from the better-paid
type of jobs by relegating them to the home. Walby (1986, p. 20) suggests these
15
analyses rejecting the concept of patriarchy can be used as an “ad hoc explanation for
a specific occurrence” but they cannot be used as a general explanation of gender
inequality.
The third group considers patriarchy alone as the cause of gender inequality, as will
be discussed in depth in Chapter 2. These authors believe that since female
subordination was precedent to the introduction of capitalism in western countries,
patriarchy is solely responsible for gender inequality. Some authors included in this
group, such as Brownmiller (1976), focus only on one aspect of female repression,
considering, for instance, rape as the instrument that men use to intimidate women.
She describes rape historically as a form of patriarchal oppression towards women but
she fails to establish rape as the basis of the inequality between men and women.
Similarly, but a more generic stance, is MacKinnon’s (1982, p. 543) position, which
argues that sexuality is the foundation of female oppression, “women are defined in
opposition to men who are the expropriators of women’s sexuality”. MacKinnon
concludes that sexuality and gender are to some extent identical. Others, like the
Leeds Revolutionary Feminists (1981), consider the heterosexual form of sexuality as
the source of female oppression. On the other hand, researchers such as Firestone
(1974), argue that different sets of patriarchal relations are the basis of female
subordination. In fact, all biological aspects of reproduction such as menstruation,
pregnancy and childcare make women more susceptible to male dominance. The
biological difference between men and women affects the way society is organized.
Walby (1986, pp. 27-28) criticized the attempt to justify gender inequality through
patriarchy alone because patriarchy is unable to describe modern society
satisfactorily. Beechey (1979), on the other hand, refuses all theories that describe
patriarchy as an organization of social relationships.
The fourth group considers a single system of capitalist patriarchy responsible for
gender inequality. Authors that are part of this group are, for instance, McDonagh and
Harrison (1978) or Eisenstein (1984). In particular, Eisenstein argues that capitalism
and patriarchy are so integrally linked that they would not be able to survive alone.
However, she criticizes the dualist approach, which will be described later in this
16
Chapter, arguing that patriarchy and capitalism are semi-independent. Capitalism
needs a patriarchal relationship, such as domestic labor, to survive and vice versa. The
two systems are so linked to each other that they need to be regarded as only one
system. Eisenstein (1984, p. 92) argues that patriarchal interests are manifested
through male capitalism. However Walby (1986, p. 32) criticizes this approach for
being confusing, because on the one hand, she claims that there are two systems,
capitalism and patriarchy, that need each other to survive, and later that there is only
one system that fuses both capitalism and patriarchy.
The last group that considers patriarchy and capitalism two independent systems
includes the majority of authors on this topic. The most famous representatives of this
group are Khun (1978), Mitchell (1975), O’Brien (1981), Beneria (1979), Delphy
(1977). Mitchell (1975, p. 412) in particular believes that
“in … contemporary western society we are dealing with two autonomous areas: the
economic mode of capitalism and the ideological mode of patriarchy”.
Capitalism and patriarchy are relegated to two different spheres: capitalism is related
to production and patriarchy to reproduction (Walby, 1986, p. 35). This separation has
old origins and can be found in “The origin of Family. Private Property and the
State” (Engels, 1940). Here, Engels suggests that gender division is natural; men are
involved in production whilst women are relegated to reproduction. Male dominance,
however, was not present since the origins, it was the result of the introduction of
private property, class and State (ibid). Thus, as Beneria (1979) argues, reproduction
is the cause of female subordination. Similarly, Delphy (1977) argues that there are
two modes of production in the modern world: the capitalist mode controlled by men
and the domestic mode that is reserved for women. The domestic mode of production
causes gender inequality because men expropriate women for their labor. Thus,
capitalism’s rules do not apply to the domestic realm.
After describing the five groups of writers that developed theories to justify gender
inequality, this research will be focused mainly on the theoretical work of authors of
two of these groups, authors that believe that female subordination derives from
17
patriarchy alone (group 3) and authors that believe that patriarchy and capitalism are
two independent systems (group 5). This is because in Italy the present form of family
that reflects the pre-capitalistic family has a clear patriarchal influence and the Italian
women that have been the object of my interviews seem to self- identify themselves
with the “traditional” type of woman. However, there is no doubt that the women that
have been the object of the focus group (this will be analyzed in detail in Chapter 9)
were all working women who recognized the importance of both domestic and nondomestic work in their life to be able to satisfy their aspirations. From the interviews
with lawyers and engineers (described in Chapter 9) it was revealed that women are
well-aware that in the Italian social system men were advantaged, due to the
biological differences between the sexes that can limit the female productive
potential. Moreover, these women seem to organize their lives such as to limit the
effects of this disadvantage as much as they could.
The next chapter will present the theories of some authors whose ideas influenced
reproductive rights and who believed that patriarchy, sexuality, the reproductive mode
of production and violence cause female domination. In particular, the chapter will
illustrate in depth the thoughts of authors such as de Beauvoir (1949), who focus on
patriarchy and femininity as the cause of gender inequality, and Petchesky (1986)
who links biology and reproduction to male oppression. The study will then focus on
Italian feminism to be able to outline the feminist vision of Italian society and to be
able to compare the feminist point of view and women’s point of view. It is important
to outline at this point that for a series of reasons such as time, incapability of
analyzing a large quantity of data and the decision to focus on qualitative data instead
of on quantitative data, this research sample has been quite small, with a the focus
group of only eight women. Therefore, the study’s findings could be quite limited,
referring only to women in their thirties that are well- educated, and who come from a
middle class background in Sardinia (an Italian Island in the middle of the
Mediterranean Sea), as will be further discussed in Chapter 3.
4 . RU 486 and women’s status within Italian society
18
As discussed above, RU 486 is a particularly convenient way to perform abortions. In
fact, potentially it is able to reduce terminations’ costs for the State and to simplify
hospitals schedules. RU 486 is also relatively safe for women, as will be shown in
chapter 6, therefore it is not surprising that at present, RU 486 is administered in
almost all western countries and in the United Kingdom (UK) is offered as the
preferred means of abortion up to 9 weeks (Morresi and Roccella, 2006, p. 88). In
Italy, however, the situation is decidedly different and this study is seeking to
understand why. Due to the inability of the Italian State to implement its laws, (see
Chapter 5), the tendency of the population to disregard and freely interpret laws, as
Collins (1998) outlined in his study concerning Italian and American traffic, and also
as a result of the practical observations conducted in a few Italian hospitals,(see
Chapter 7), the introduction of an easier method to perform abortion would have
potentially led to an uncontrolled number of abortions well beyond the limits of the
Abortion Act. In reality the number of abortions not only decreased in 2010 by 51.7%
compared to the 1982 abortion rate (Ministero della Salute, 2010) but the introduction
of RU 486 was obstructed by the government and by the society, in particular by
women and the young generation. This thesis hopes to understand what lies behind
the opposition to the adoption of this new drug. The analysis of this opposition is
important, not only because it tells us about Italian society but also because, the main
opponents to the use of the drug in Italy are women (see Chapter 8) and their
opposition can help us to better understand women’s self-perception. In fact, if it is
true that reproduction and in particular, control over reproduction is the means of
guaranteeing women’s freedom and control over their own body, as suggested by
Lonzi (1974), it is not clear why Italian women oppose the introduction of a new
more convenient form of abortion. This reaction to the implementation of RU 486
could either mean that Italian women do not see abortion as a way to overcome male
dominance or that Italian women do not share feminist ideals and prefer to maintain
their “traditional” role inside family (these hypotheses will be discussed in Chapter
9).
19
The introduction of the drug in Italy has drawn severe criticism from many quarters,
making it extremely difficult to obtain a chemical termination in Italian hospitals.
Such strong opposition stems from a number of factors within Italian society,
especially “familialism” and “clientelism” (McCarthy, 1995, p. 64).
As will be
discussed in Chapter 9, the “traditional” form of family, exemplified during the
Fascist period, forms the nucleus of society in Italy. Bazzi (2011) and Campanini
(2010) note that women occupy a pivotal role within the family; indeed, the real
power of women in Italian society is considered to be a result of their position in the
family. Thus, to protect the family and their place within it, Italian women tend to
block any scientific, legal or social changes that might weaken the institution (and,
thereby, their own position). Opposition to RU 486 and to in vitro fertilization is the
most recent example of this female-led resistance.
A number of factors helps to explain why the family is so much at the forefront of
Italian society: firstly, the fragility of the Italian State (discussed in Chapter 5) has
meant that the family has become the principal economic and moral paradigm for
Italians, since the country has proved unable to sustain its citizens both socially and
morally (Muritti, 2011). The State, in practice allows laws to be wrongly applied, with
people free to interpret them in their own way. This was manifestly the case when RU
486 was introduced – on paper, not containing any real limit to the implementation of
chemical abortion (in fact, article 15 clearly refers to medical innovation that can
simplify abortion), while in practice being willfully misinterpreted. The inability of
the Italian State to enforce its authority has also helped the medical establishment to
establish the biggest practical obstacle to abortion. The high percentage of
conscientious objectors amongst Italian doctors (discussed in Chapter 7) makes it
extremely difficult to schedule abortions and to effect any kind of change in abortion
practice in publicly funded hospitals. Secondly, the strong influence of the Church on
Italian values (see Chapter 8) denotes another key reason why the family is seen as an
integral part of the Italian social fabric and, as such, is one of the main hindrances to
the drug’s introduction there.
20
The second wave feminist theory, which developed in the sixties and seventies
principally in the United States (US) and in the UK, focused on abortion, making it
one of its most important flag. According to this understanding, the whole
connotation of subjects, interests, values, ethics and juridical regulation concerning
abortion changed. The idea of woman and her status metamorphosed from that of a
dependent subject well and truly under the patriarchal thumb, to an independent
subject able to exercise her free will. Not only did the concept of women change, but
also the moral, ethical and legal concepts of the fetus and maternity, and topics that
previously only related to women slowly began to generate political and social
interest.
Galeotti (2003), in her history of abortion, considers the turning point, in terms of
how the practice was viewed, to be the eighteenth century, when medical discoveries
and new ideas of freedom and modernity meant that it was considered in a new light.
The common element between the pre- and post-eighteenth century periods is that
abortion has always been strictly a women’s issue, not only because women get
pregnant and face all the difficulties involved with maternity, but also because until
the beginning of this century, all the activities relating to maternity, abortion and the
birth and rearing of children were relegated to the sphere of women’s issues. The
difference between the two periods lies, as Duden (1991) explains in her historical
analysis of the human body, in the fact that in the eighteenth century, when the
majority of the population were without a minimum level of education, the lower
classes (Duden, 1991, p. 72) were not so aware of the body potential’s sociological
meaning and, thus, were unable to describe a socially constructed idea of body and
the whole concept of pregnancy and abortion was considered a private female matter.
Pregnancy, menstruation, and menopause were considered as natural processes of life
and women preferred to deal with other women regarding these areas; no further
meanings were connected to them. For instance, pregnancy was seen only as the
natural process of reproduction and had none of the many overtones that it has today
such as a cause of female oppression. No social meaning was attributed to it and like
the other biological differences between men and women it was accepted as natural
without further thought or discussions. In fact, the whole concept of “nature”
compared to “culture” was discovered only at the end of the eighteenth century and
21
only at that point did women and their body, seen as an expression of nature, became
an object of study (Duden, 1991, p. 20). Finally in the nineteenth century, when the
relationship between nature and a woman’s body began to be understood by scholars
and anthropologists, biological differences began to be related to their social effects
and all matters connected with women body such as the family, reproduction and
sexuality inevitably became subjects of social relevance and interest.
The Catholic position toward abortion and contraception is very rigid. Following the
acceptance of the theory of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, abortion is
considered murder. Both contraception and abortion are considered sins that should
grant excommunication (Mori, 2008, p. 9). The rigid dogma of the Church strongly
influenced Italian society’s position until the turn of the twentieth century, when
women’s rights began to be considered by legislators throughout the West,
undoubtedly the result of their burgeoning political influence. Moreover, in the
seventies when the Communist party in Italy (PCI) began increasingly to occupy the
central ground in politics, and the long-standing hegemony of the Catholic party,
Democrazia Cristiana (DC), was threatened, the alliance with the Church that had
previously helped it gain support from the majority of the electorate, became the very
cause of its decline. The only possibility of survival for the DC, as will be discussed
in Chapter 4, was a complete change in strategy (McCarthy, 1995, pp. 20-23).
The first step in this new plan was to collaborate with the PCI to identify and resolve
social problems. They focused initially on terrorism and economic issues. However, it
was not long before the coalition had to face the “abortion issue”, forced onto the
political agenda by the extremely vocal feminist lobby. In fact, illegal abortion was
very common and the most frequent form of birth control in Italy. There are no final
data concerning the percentage of illegal abortions in Italy before the introduction of
the Abortion Act in 1978, however, feminist groups argue that the percentage was
about 1 every 5 pregnancies (Galeotti, 2003, p. 101). These feminists, unsurprisingly,
began to concentrate more and more on the theme of abortion to improve women
rights. It fast became the identifying badge of their cause, seeking to demonstrate
through impassioned debate that abortion should be legal, free and available upon
22
simple request. With its radical new methods, this movement was able to upset the
entire Italian party system. Italy up to this point had had a uniquely idiosyncratic form
of “partiocracy” (Andall, 1994, p. 242), where parties were the main mediators
between social and political issues and the people. Now the ground-breaking efforts
of the feminists enabled ordinary voters to improve their political knowledge and
allowed them to raise their voices without belonging to a political party, giving them
permission to discuss political topics outside “le sezioni dei partiti” (sections of
parties) and to organise and participate in political manifestations without a
mandatory party affiliation (ibid.).
To maintain some power, as was done in the past to obtain female electoral support,
the coalition decided to challenge traditional Catholic beliefs and initiated the
Parliamentary discussions that would eventually lead (in 1970) to the Divorce Act and
(in 1978) to the Abortion Act. After the approval of the latter, feminism’s influence
began to wane, resulting in a change in direction from the political parties back
towards the old values. Nonetheless, a certain fear of feminism and its aggressive
strategies for getting what it wants is still present within Italian politics (Scire’, 2008,
p. 252); for this reason the Abortion Act is considered “untouchable” as a piece of
legislation. Despite this, abortion remains a much-discussed topic in Italian public
life, though often for political more than moral ends. Thus, the recent debates ensuing
from the proposed introduction of chemical termination evinced a manifestly political
orientation. For instance, during the 1994 national elections the possible restriction of
the Abortion Act became the flag of the political group Forza Italia 2, which won the
election on that occasion (Scire’, 2008, p. 270). Furthermore, as will be discussed
later in Chapter 6, during the implementation of RU 486 abortion was an every day
topic in Italian newspapers such as La Stampa (2002), L’Avvenire (2002) and La
Repubblica (2002), (Cavoni and Sacchini, 2008).
2
Leader of this party was Silvio Berlusconi that is also the owner of Mediaset, the biggest Italian massmedia company and also the largest commercial broadcaster in Italy. Berlusconi widely used
television, newspapers, radios and the Internet to diffuse his ideas and positions and to obtain general
political approval (Scire’, 2008, p. 271).
23
Summarising the discussion thus far, since the advent of Christianity, abortion has
continued to remain a contentious issue. In reality, it can be observed that abortion,
more than being an issue per se, has been used by different groups as an instrument to
obtain benefits such as medical freedom or male control over women. In particular,
the problem of abortion has been considered as part of debates concerning the gender
inequality theory, as will be discussed in Chapter 2. In fact abortion, contraception,
childcare, menstruation and all other elements of reproduction have been seen as one
of the main causes of women’s oppression. Chapter 1 presents the different groups of
theorists of gender inequality helping to identify the main basis of Western feminist
theory. Chapter 2 will discuss in more detail the origins and theories of Western
feminism and in particular the differences and similitude of Italian feminism. The
chapter offers an analytical framework of the role of patriarchy over female status in
Italy and the Western world. Chapter 3 describes the methodology used to collect the
primary and secondary data of this research. It describes how the women, the objects
of the focus group, have been chosen and how ethical requirements have been
respected. The chapter describes the practical observations that have been conducted
in some Italian hospitals and it outlines their importance in revealing the real Italian
abortion availability and hospital staffs’ attitude. Chapter 4 describes the British State
and the situation pre and post the British Abortion Act. Chapters following this will
refer to the Italian State, and the pre and post Abortion Act situation in Italy. Chapter
5 focuses on the Italian State and its role over law implementation. Chapter 6 will
describe the history of RU 486 and its implementation in Italy. Chapter 7 will analyze
the phenomenon of conscientious objection and its application within the medical
practice. It argues that hospital staffs freely interpret the law and the results of the
participant observation in some Italian hospitals are also discussed in this chapter, in
order to understand the attitude of doctors and other hospital staff. Chapter 8 will
illustrate the creation and manipulation of values within a specific social structure,
and in particular, how the Church influences the creation and manipulation of Italian
values. Chapter 9 discusses the position of women in Italian society, principally using
the results of the focus group of women that have been interviewed. The thesis
concludes by discussing the “special” attitude of the Italian population toward laws
and the State and the state of feminism in Italy. In particular, it reveals that although
feminism argues that women are demanding gender equality the research that has
been conducted suggests that many Italian women demand the exact opposite.
24
2. ABORTION WITHIN WESTERN FEMINIST THEORY
1. Introduction
Female reproductive potential, as discussed in the previous chapter, has been
associated by many authors such as: Rich (1976), Donnison (1977), Brownmiller
(1985), Lewin (1990), Steinem (1969) and Beneria (1979) with female oppression.
Abortion and contraception, being methods that allow women to control their
reproductive power, have therefore been considered very powerful tools to guarantee
women’s freedom (Rich, 1976; Donnison, 1977).
As Duden (1991, p. 3) suggests, prior to the “socio-genesis of the modern body”,
pregnancy, menstruation and abortion, were examples of natural phenomenon without
any social meaning. They were relegated to the female sphere and men did not discuss
or deal with these subjects. Duden argues that the modern idea of body, created using
the Foucaultian method of medical knowledge, is “a unique historical creation”, the
result of a new sociological approach that allows seeing the human body, and in
particular the female body, in a completely new light. Armstrong (1983), following
the method suggested by Foucault, started an analysis of the transformation of
medical knowledge in the UK after World War II. At the beginning of his study, he
could not understand why the earlier generation of doctors had failed to adopt
diagnostic techniques that are so obvious today. Suddenly, he realized that he was
focusing on the wrong question and that the real “problem was not how something
which is so obvious today had remained hidden for so long, but how the body has
become so evident in the first place” (Armstrong, 1983, cited by Duden, 1991, p. 2).
Foucault (1978, 1984, 1985) argues that this modern idea of body was created as
result of medical examination. This new body could have been examined, abused,
modified. The result of this clinical discourse resulted, therefore, in a new body where
the body and the person that possessed it were “fabricated” by the clinical
examination that was able to create “reality” (Duden, 1991, p. 4).
25
Once the “modern idea” of body was created (Duden, 1991, p. 5), all acts related to it
started to be seen in a new light. Sexuality started to be charged with multiple
meanings and become the object of political, economic and technical attention. It
became the object of analysis, classification and research, both factitive and
qualitative (Foucault, 1978, p. 25). In addition, sex became a taboo, something that
needed to be limited, controlled, analyzed, and all topics related to it started to be
treated in the same way. As was observed during the interviews with the focus group
of women, which will be discussed further in Chapter 9, and as evidenced by the
analysis of Lucker (1984) regarding pro-life Americans, abortion is still considered a
taboo by some, despite it no longer being a private matter and that “it has gone
public” (Lucker, 1984, p. 193). Ever since abortion “has gone public” it has been
charged with several meanings: for instance, pro-lifers strongly condemn it, seeing it
as homicide and as something that “strips the veil of sanctity from motherhood”
(Lucker, 1984, p. 205), whereas Pro-choice sees it as an instrument guaranteeing
equality between the sexes (Lucker, 1984). In reality, abortion is only “the tip of the
iceberg” (Lucker, 1984, p. 158) and, as Moore (1994, p. 14) suggests, the abortion
issue has been created by the society to face all female issues once and for all. Thus,
abortion has been charged with the important role of protecting the female condition
and a study on abortion needs to contextualize it and consider other relevant subjects
such as parenthood different roles in sexuality, and gender inequality, in order to give
to abortion its correct emphasis.
Now that, with the creation of the new body, sexuality, contraception and abortion are
no longer private female matters, but social entities that interest the whole
community, an analysis of these areas can provide important information about the
social definition of women. Reactions to the introduction of a new type of abortion, as
happened in Italy for the RU 486, can therefore potentially reveal how society
constructs the female status. From these considerations, it is no surprise that Western
feminism has focused so much attention on the analysis of abortion and all related
topics related. To be able to understand the real weight and role that has been given to
abortion and what it potentially can tell us about women’s condition in the Western
26
world in general and in Italy in particular, it will be important to analyze the
theoretical approach of many authors included in groups 3 and 5 of the Walby (1986)
classification, seen in the previous chapter.
2. The Influence of Feminism on Reproductive Rights
The fundamental aim of feminists is to improve the present social condition of
women. However, not all feminists agree on a single plan of action to improve female
status or agree about the original cause of female subordination. As was discussed in
the previous chapter, there are five categories of writings (Walby, 1986, p. 5) that
identify different origins of female oppression. Generally, feminists have a common
goal: the liberation of women from male oppression. However, feminist groups
differentiate in the way the “perfect” society should look like: for instance, Friedan
(1963) and Steinem (1969), exponents of liberal feminism, aspire to a society where
women and men are equal, whilst Lewin (1981), Steinem (1969) and Brownmiller
(1984), exponents of radical feminism, believe in female superiority and therefore do
not aim for equality. Feminist groups, especially in the US and the UK in the sixties
and seventies, in fantasizing about their perfect world, often fail to take sufficient
account of the contemporary situation or have a rather blinkered vision of it,
bemoaning a paternalistic realm where men continue to control and discriminate,
effectively relegating women to domestic servitude (Richards, 1980). Individually and
collectively in Western society (and in the nations which, by and large, they still
govern), men try and convince women that their only purpose in life is to bear
children and look after their husbands, offspring and homes. In addition, they have
managed to persuade many women that they are unable to do anything else (Addis
Saba, 1985). As Addis Saba comments, the perception of motherhood and
housekeeping as the only beneficial function of women is closely linked with limited
access to alternative working opportunities. Where women are excluded from incomeproducing work, motherhood becomes an ideal, reflecting male interests.
27
The exclusion from income-producing jobs leads, as de Beauvoir (1949, p. 585)
suggests, to “feminine narcissism”. In other words, some women end up defining
themselves merely in terms of their husbands and home, eventually believing that
their appearance reflects who they are. Greer (1970) strengthens this argument,
suggesting that nuclear family and conservatism make women like eunuchs. The
inevitable consequence of such a position is that every matter concerning a woman’s
body and appearance is defined in male terms. At least this is what radical feminist
groups accuse other women of doing, arguing that this attitude helps men to maintain
dominance over women (La Libreria delle donne di Milano, 1987, p. 26). These
groups, such as the Demau group (1966) in Italy, reject the idea not only that
women’s status is defined by their fathers and husbands social class, but also they
reject the idea of more moderate feminists such as Firestone (1974) that women
should act to obtain gender equality, They refuse the whole idea of female
emancipation, which is seen as female adaptation to a male society and, like all
radical feminists, they act to create a new society inspired by female needs (La
libreria delle donne di Milano, 1987, p.26).
After centuries of this patriarchal form of control, exclusion from paid work, and
relegation to domestic tasks, middle class educated women in Western Europe and the
US slowly began to realize that they could aspire to a life outside their domestic walls
(Walby, 1990, p. 25). In particular, during the Great War a vast number of working
positions were opened to women in sectors such as engineering and manufacturing,
from which women had previously been excluded. The access to these types of job
allowed women to understand that the previous exclusion was not a consequence of
female incapability or limitations, bur of a political strategy to maintain male
domination (de Beauvoir, 1949, p. 58). Therefore when at the end of the war, men
started to act to revert the employment situation to its pre-war status, women in
Europe and in the US reacted, refusing to accept to be relegated to the domestic
sphere (Walby, 1986, p. 156). At the end of the fifties and the beginning of the sixties,
this female reaction to men’s attempt to recreate the pre-war situation, resulted in
women not only beginning to refuse any differentiation based on social stereotypes,
but also denying the existence of substantive biological differences or, at least, stating
that they should not be afforded any importance. Radical feminists in particular
28
started to deny any biological difference that could potentially justify female
oppression. For instance, as Brownmiller (1984, p. 43) argues, women started to
resent the fact that a women’s breasts, associated until then with femininity, could
interfere with their capability to find a job, and images of burning bras started to
appear all around the US in the sixties, to indicate firstly, that no difference existed
between sexes, and also as a symbol of women’s rejection of the “traditional” form of
family. The extreme factions among these women even asserted that the divergences
between female and male nature were purely environmental (Lewin, 1981, p. 86).
They also contested that physical size, for most jobs, especially in the Western World,
which often relied on machines and technology anyway, bore no relation to an
individual’s competence to do the tasks (Brownmiller, 1984. p. 25).
Their assertions are harder to defend when considering the subject of reproduction.
There are, clearly, certain differences that cannot be overlooked, such as a female’s
bodily changes during menstruation, pregnancy and post-partum. Furthermore, as
Franklin (1995) observes, due to the continuous expansion and diversification in the
meaning of reproductive policy, early feminist writings such as de Beauvoir’s (1949)
Second Sex, that sought to explain female oppression and suggested how to obtain
gender equality, quickly lost much of their authority, especially those based on the
concept of right of choice. Consequently, feminists had to change tack, especially in
the US and the UK, and, from the initial goal of seeking equality suggested by liberal
feminists, they transferred to the female domination of men, proposing that history be
rewritten from a female perspective (Rick, 1980; Daly, 1978). This process, however,
was not the same all around the Western World: in the US and the UK, radical,
separatist and lesbian feminist groups suggested more radical solutions such as
elimination of the biological link between reproduction and family or nonheterosexual procreation (Richards, 1980, p. 36; Wittig, 1982). In Italy, these theories
did not appear even within the most extreme feminist groups, and this is because the
importance of family in Italy, understood as a heterosexual family, would prevent
these ideas from finding any female followers (Rossi-Doria, 2005, p. 12). However, at
this point, it is preferable to proceed gradually and begin by analyzing early feminist
works.
29
The second wave of feminism in the sixties and seventies in the US, the UK and
France focused on the problem of reproduction because the way it had been
previously presented was an expression of the subordination of women in a
patriarchal society. Many authors, such as Rich (1976) and Witting (1982), criticize
the social construction of motherhood, maternal instinct and pregnancy, suggesting
that they were only patriarchal definitions. Firestone (1974) believes that these
constructions were the exact causes of female oppression. However, given that it is
impossible to deny the female role in reproduction, in the seventies radical feminists
began to focus on a solution to, at least, limit what they saw as a mere
‘inconvenience’ (Petchesky, 1986, p. 85). For instance, Brownmiller (1985) and
Mandel (1995) suggested that one solution could have been artificial reproduction.
But as Richards (1980) attested, since cloning is the result of male science, women
that are tempted to use it escape from one type of male domination and simply end up
placing themselves under another. Lewin (1981) favored the complete elimination of
the male in reproduction and the subversion of the link between sexuality and
procreation through lesbian motherhood. Such non-heterosexual procreation has a
number of advantages, e.g. the elimination of the biological link between
reproduction and family, which is at the heart of patriarchal society. What is more,
non-heterosexual procreation helps to transform the meaning of motherhood, the
clearest expression of patriarchal subordination.
The whole idea of homosexual reproduction is worthy of its own (lengthy) discussion
and is, therefore, beyond the scope of the present study3. Conversely, other theories
concerning abortion and contraception, such as whether abortion and contraception,
should be free on demand, are central to this research and the real reasons underlying
the restrictive and limited legislation around the world need to be examined in depth.
In particular, this study will concentrate on RU 486, which can be used to induce
chemical abortion. The effect of this drug is to interrupt pregnancy in the early stages;
See Monique Wittig, (1997) “On the Social Contract” in The Straight Mind and Other Essays.
Boston: Beacon Press. See also Janet Richards (1994). The skeptical Feminist. London: Penguin books.
3
30
hence, it can be thought of as a middle way between contraception and abortion. For
this reason, it is also often called post-coital contraception.
Contraception is now legal almost everywhere4 because of the belief that it is the
basic right of every woman to decide when and whether to reproduce, as exemplified
by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW), which defines reproductive health not only as a mere absence of
disease, but as having the right to a satisfying and safe sex life, as well as the freedom
to decide whether, when and how often to reproduce. Opposition, principally
religious, to this principle and to the free, legal use of contraception, bears no
relevance to the argument here. However, in the case of abortion, other interests are
involved, such as the fetus’ right to live. Accordingly, therefore, a sizeable number of
feminists have come up with theories in support of this practice. In the US, in order
for feminists to succeed in their demand for abortion, the concept of a woman’s right
to choose was formulated, which soon after became a manifesto of feminism. This
principle became even more difficult to contradict when it was affirmed by the 1973
Supreme Court sentence in Roe vs. Wade5. However, after the concept was
introduced, feminism found itself internally divided over how, exactly, it should be
understood. Dworkin (1993, pp. 51-55) argues, that the right to choose and the idea of
privacy are dangerous illusions for women. Moreover, he avers that the right to
choose should not be defended on the principle of privacy but as a means of
improving sexual equality. Dworkin, in reference to Mackinnon’s (1987) argument6,
analyses the risks deriving from the notion of privacy and concludes that privacy can
lead to a spurious differentiation between public and private affairs. This, in turn, can
produce two dangerous results: first of all, if the government has no legal control over
4
With the only exception of the Vatican State.
5
The US 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe vs. Wade represents a landmark decision. It states that the
right to privacy is extended to the woman’s decision to have an abortion, practically legalizing abortion
in the US (Petchesky, 1986, p. 102).
6
MacKinnon, C.A. (1991) A Reflection on Sex Equality Under Law. Yale Law Journal. Centennial
Issue. 100 (5), pp.1281-1328. She argues that the right to privacy is a fallacious differentiation
between matters that are private like sex and public subjects like foreign policy. Therefore, if sex is a
private matter the state does not have any right to protect women against rape or sexual assault.
Moreover, if abortion is a private matter the state does not have any responsibility to finance abortions
for poor women.
31
sexual matters, women can find themselves unprotected in the case of marital rape or
domestic violence. Secondly, if abortion is not a concern of the state, it means that the
state should not have any financial responsibility or obligation to guarantee the
service.
The word “privacy” has different meanings. It is generally intended as territorial or
confidential; however, it can also mean “sovereignty over personal decisions”. As
Petchesky (1986) observes, in the former case, privacy has a negative connotation; in
the second, it has a positive sense that tends to coincide with individual “selfdetermination”. The right to privacy endorsed by the court in Roe vs. Wade seems to
refer to this latter signification, of “sovereignty over personal decisions”. Privacy thus
becomes a prerequisite for women in order to be protected by the government when
deciding how to use their own body, and, therefore the right not to be raped for
example, is only another expression of the right to control how one’s body is used
(Brownmiller, 1985).
However, even if it were generally recognized that the right to choose is not per se
fallacious, the meaning of this right still depends on the nature of reproduction. The
notion would require an approach that is both Marxist and feminist. In fact, as
Petchesky (1986, p. 2) posits that reproduction can have different social meanings.
From a Marxist point of view, reproduction has a social significance, since the whole
of society is affected by reproductive decisions; hence women cannot have complete
control over reproductive matters and therefore the right to choose cannot be seen as
the right of a woman to have complete control over her own body. At the same time
women’s movements are contradictory, demanding both the sharing of reproductive
responsibilities between men and women (Friedan, 1963), having men more involved
in children’s lives and domestic duties (Steinem, 1969), and females’ absolute control
over reproductive matters, with complete exclusion of male influence over whether to
have children and when (Lewin, 1981).
32
The right to choose has meaning only in relation to the society where it is applied.
Otherwise, it is an empty statement (Dworkin, 1994, p. 17). If we imagine a society
where women are powerless, the value of the right to choose is practically nil. Thus,
without some fundamental changes in society, the introduction of this right is more or
less futile. Nevertheless, while Marx defined reproduction as part of social activity, he
confesses the difficulty of separating women’s biological and social functions.
Therefore, the real concern for feminism should be the social context in which
choices are made, Parry (cited by Hanafin, 2009 p. 227) observes that:
“Whatever one thinks about the right to choose, the exercise of this right certainly
does not free a woman from the regulatory state. Rather it further enmeshes her”.
Marx expressed the same view, affirming that women can choose but only within the
limited options passed on to them by society. Individual choices are always made
within a social, economic and political context, which can be affected by these
decisions. For instance, sex selection conducted in some countries like India or China
has engendered lasting consequences within these societies (Himmelweit, 1988, p.
44), meaning that there is now a significant disproportion between the numbers of
men and women.
For this reason, a woman’s right to choose oscillates between being a social or an
individual matter. Some thinkers, such as Luthra (1993) and Schneider (1990),
according to Porter (1994), consider it both social and individual at the same time,
since it “operates at the core of social life’ as well as within and upon women’s
individual body”. Everybody is at the same time individual and social. However, this
dual characteristic only serves to raise even bigger questions because of the difficulty
in finding a balance between these different situations. To analyse the problem, we
need to return to the general definition of right of choice, understood as being the
right to make decisions concerning oneself without undermining other individuals’
rights to do the same. Clearly, there have been objections7 to placing the right to
choose above reproductive rights since decisions over reproductive rights can
7
See MacIntyre 1990; Sandel 1989; Kaplan 1991.
33
undermine the rights of other individuals for instance, the fetus, the father and the
society, which then results in this apparent incompatibility.
The right to choose, therefore, is not coterminous with freedom and sometimes even
limits other choices. In fact, it seems that societal need sometimes takes priority over
women’s right to choose. Moreover, even where the number of alternatives is
increased, the right to choose cannot cover all possible eventualities. For example,
when a prisoner is left free to decide between capital punishment and a life sentence,
it still does not include all possible alternatives, i.e. a further choice to walk out free.
The same can be said for women. When they settle upon a termination they take into
account various economic, physical, social and emotional factors that, if in any way
different, might lead to another outcome. These observations lead to the conclusion
that in reality the right to choose as professed by feminists is only an “illusion”
(Himmelweit, 1988, p. 42).
The right to life of a fetus is undoubtedly a strong point of the anti-abortionist lobby
to back up their cause, and since it is difficult to refute, it causes deep internal
divisions within feminist groups. However, as Richards (1980, p. 274-275) argues,
there are still some who, as Cisler (1970) argues, suspect that what really lies behind
all the opposition to abortion is not genuine concern for the loss of innocent lives, but
rather a very subtle and ostensibly respectable strategy aimed at controlling women.
In support of their position, radical and liberal feminists cite the inconsistencies and
incongruence of people who profess to protect fetuses’ lives. De Beauvoir (1960), for
instance, laments the Church’s attitude to forgiveness, considering abortion the worst
possible sin, while in some cases supporting wars and the killing of innocent people.
From this it is apparent that the real reason behind the hard-line opposition to abortion
is not the protection of life but a means of controlling or punishing women for having
sex with no intention of reproducing.
This hypothesis, as Richards (1980, pp. 277-292) points out, is further reinforced by
the fact that, in general, even people who are against termination accept it in three
34
particular cases: rape, actual or possible abnormality of the fetus and if the mother’s
health is in danger. If one looks into the reasons of those who accept abortion only in
these circumstances, it is hard to find any real justification for abortion for alternative
reasons. Allowing abortion in these limited circumstances implies that the difference
between an abortion requested because the mother did not plan the pregnancy and one
carried out on the grounds of the aforementioned three reasons is neither about the
innocence of the child nor a potential human being, but stems from other factors.
Therefore, if the right to life is not sacrosanct in certain special cases and can be
sacrificed in favour of higher rights, its value, in reality, is less than that originally
argued for by anti-abortionists. Therefore, the real reason for denying abortion must
be about women and their behaviour. Richards (1980, p. 279) sees in this case that the
child is used as an instrument to punish her mother for her behaviour and believes that
the argument of the sanctity of life is used only to disguise this fact.
Another important concept strictly connected to the right to choose is selfdetermination. As Petchesky (1986, p. 3) observes, it consists of the woman’s right to
have complete control over her own body. This concept is closely linked with the idea
of “property is one’s own person”, defined during the Puritan revolution in
seventeenth-century England. This embraces the view that every individual has
received from nature a private possession that is not to be invaded or disturbed by any
other. A radical expression of this Puritan ideal is the recognition of the individual
right to privacy by the Court in Roe vs. Wade. This notion of individuality is to some
degree compatible with Marxism, in the sense that it requires social transformation in
order to satisfy every individual’s aspirations and needs. In consequence, since
pregnancy affects women and it occurs in women’s bodies, women should be
completely free to decide whether or not to have an abortion. On the other hand,
reproduction can also have a social significance, as expressed by Marx in The
German Ideology, where he notes that the whole of society is affected by reproductive
decisions. In this case, women should have some constraints over their right to
choose, limitations owing to the greater interests of society and humankind. Equally,
however, it is women who are more affected by pregnancy, so they should receive
support from the state, in terms of, for example, better working conditions, access to
35
pre- and postnatal care, some form of child benefit and free childcare (Petcheski,
1986, p. 4).
When a woman decides to terminate her pregnancy, as Richards (1980, p. 269)
maintains, she inevitably undermines the rights of other individuals: the father,
society as a whole and especially the unborn child. In the case of the father, the
problem is easily resolved by several court cases or Abortion Acts8. Although it is
true that he has an interest in the continuation of the pregnancy, as the child is his as
well as the mother’s, since his contribution to the existence of the child is less than the
mother’s, her interest has to come first. In terms of society, despite what has been said
previously, the argument in its favour is no stronger than that concerning enforced
pregnancy. For instance, as Richards (1980, p. 268) argues, it is possible to say that
abortion should be prohibited because it deprives states of citizens or that it is wrong
to abort children when there are so many couples on adoption waiting lists. However,
these arguments could effortlessly apply also to “failing to conceive”. Both forbidding
abortion and enforcing conception can easily be countered using the principle of
general human rights. The case of the unborn child and its right to life, however, is
different since these are two competing rights in the sense “that one cannot be
granted without withholding the other” (Smith, 1984, cited by Porter, 1994, p. 73).
There are several theories regarding the social status of the fetus. In reality, what
defines whether the fetus is an autonomous individual that has the right to live is not
the fetus itself but the social context, which is the culture or political position of a
certain place. For instance, traditional liberal theories tended to exclude children from
their definition of an individual as a subject with full rights because children cannot
take responsibility for their decisions (Benn, 1983 cited by Himmelweit, 1988, p. 48).
In some Asian countries, female babies are seen as a burden for the family and are
killed (Hillier, 1988); the same used to happen to weak babies in classical Sparta
(Forrester, 1969). Liberal theories see-saw between the two responses in the search
8
See for instance the UK Sentence 1978 Paton vs. Trustees of BPAS and Paton and the 1978 Italian
Abortion Act.
36
for a compromise between these two forms of individuals. The first considers the
basic unit to be the nuclear family, rather than the individual her/himself. Outside this
core nucleus the notion of self-interest still applies. However, Himmelweit (1988, p.
49) argues that the individual is the basic unit, and s/he cannot be merely viewed as a
part thereof. The alternative approach, suggested by Benn and Sedgley (1984, p. 178)
is to exclude women and children from the concept of the responsible individual and
see them as wholly dependent on the male figure. This solution is clearly
unacceptable, because it depicts a society where women and children have no contact
with any individual outside the household. Therefore, neither of these liberalpropounded elucidations can be considered a valid way out of the confusion created
by competing rights. Which right should be protected more, the right of women or the
right of the fetus (Himmelweit, 1988, pp. 48-49) remains a problem.
With the introduction of the principle of the right to life of a fetus, we arrive at the
second great internal division within the feminist movement. Not all feminists agree
in regard to the abortion issue or the social status of the fetus. In particular, in the
second wave of feminism, positions appear to be rigid on refusing to give any status
to the fetus. McDonnell, for instance (1984), suggests sacrificing the dependent
element, seeing the fetus as only a “bunch of cells”, in order to guarantee freedom for
the mother. However, the position of the third wave of feminism is substantially
different, with supporters of the view reevaluating motherhood and recognising a
status for the fetus since conception. For instance Duggan (1988, p.15), an exponent
of pro-life feminism, refutes the notion of a “bunch of cells”, introduced by
McDonnell (1984), convinced that life begins at conception; abortion is, therefore, not
comparable to the removal of an appendix. Wolf (1995) argues that abortion is wrong,
women can still choose it but they have to admit that they are “sinners” when they
have an abortion. Walker (2007) considers motherhood the most satisfying experience
that a woman can have. In her book Baby love she compares her experience with her
mother’s experience, arguing that her radical feminist mother neglected her, but that
she would not do the same with her own children.
37
Thus, feminists of this ilk, like O’Beirne (2006), do not disregard life, but rather see it
as important and worthy of respect. Nonetheless, they believe that other interests are
more important, at least at the beginning of life. They view termination as not akin to
an appendix removal because of the potentiality of the fetus to become a person, an
individual (Duggan and Nan, 1995, p. 15). The growing fetus has more protection
from society and consequently greater rights until these rights arrive at the point that
they are equal to a woman’s right to terminate a fetus. When the fetus has developed
enough to possess these equal rights, a further factor needs to be considered: whether
it is possible to force an unwilling woman to care for and nurture a child, even if this
threatens her health or even her life. In the latter case, even feminist authors such as,
Duggan and Nan (1995, p. 15), who accept the idea of life being initiated at
conception, and who see the cruelty behind termination, yet still continue to support a
woman’s right to procure a safe, legal termination, without the need for a doctor’s
authorisation - as required in many abortion acts9 - on the grounds that abortion is a
right for women, and all reasons to choose it are, therefore, acceptable. Against this,
Richards (1980, p. 310) argues that all reasons for abortion cannot possibly be
deemed equivalent. For instance, the termination of a female fetus, as often happens
in India or China, cannot be considered comparable to abortion in the case of rape or
the removal of abnormal fetuses (Hillier, 1988). In those countries, it is the
paternalistic society that forces women to undergo abortion, as females are considered
to be more of a burden than an advantage to the family. Thus, in this case, women do
not choose to abort expressing their right to choice; they are forced to abort to avoid
further burdens to the family (Richards, 1980, p. 310).
Unfortunately, the whole question of which rights prevail would require a far deeper
analysis than there is room for in this study (Richards, 1980, pp. 273-298). To sum up
these theories, one might simply accept that a fetus has rights only insofar as these do
not impede the woman’s rights. In this case, the woman’s right preponderates
because, as Ann Warren states (1980, cited by Porter, 1994, p. 74):
The British Abortion Act requires two doctors’ authorizations, whilst the Italian Abortion Act
requires one authorization. Neither Act authorizes abortion on a simple woman’s request.
9
38
“There is room for only one person with full and equal rights inside a single human
skin. That is why it is birth, rather than sentience, viability, or any other prenatal
milestone must mark the beginning of legal parenthood”.
The theory that sees mothers as active participants in the formation of their fetus is in
contrast to the outlook of anti-abortionists, who consider the fetus to be independent
from the mother from the outset, and therefore the right of the fetus to live must
necessarily have priority over every other right (Himmelweit, 1988, p. 51). The fetus
is believed to acquire personhood before birth, even if there is no firm point where
everybody agrees when this takes place. Some feminists, like Duggan, (1988, p. 15)
conjecture that personhood is secured at conception, and Frame (1978 cited by
Petchesky, 1984, pp. 338-339) reinforcing this view, links the fetus’ individualism to
a photographic strategy. He shows photographs of the fetus at different stages of
development accompanied by a medical description, and photographs of aborted
fetuses. These pictures always show an independent fetus and a non-existent mother,
so as to break the connection between mother and fetus. However, many, such as
Spelman (1982) and Maritain (1958), consider the very idea that fetuses have
personhood completely unacceptable. Petchesky (1986), for instance, objects to it on
the grounds that giving a fetus personhood would mean comparing abortion to the
holocaust.
Anti-abortionists, such as Margolis (1973), Feinberg (1986) and Marquis (1989
struggle against abortion, not only invoking the right to life of the fetus, but also
defending the whole social organization of the patriarchal society. As Luker (1984,
pp. 159-165) suggests, they support the traditional gender division and the traditional
structure of family, with motherhood viewed as a female’s main goal in life. Antiabortionists systematically act to make abortion difficult and, on occasion, their
strategy has resulted in them threatening doctors who carry out terminations and even
violence (Charatan, 2001; Willke, 1984). As has been reported in the US (Luker,
1984, p. 138) and as was found out during the participant observation in some Italian
hospitals, which will be described in depth in Chapter 3, very often it is women who
are most involved in this attempt to make the process of obtaining an abortion
burdensome. These anti-abortionist ideas, which in the sixties and seventies were
39
balanced by feminist ideas, now seem to have become dominant (Muritti, 2011;
Campanini 2010; Coward 1993). In particular, the rigid second wave of feminism
ideas about reproductive health would struggle to be accepted on a global scale, not
only for religious reasons, but because many women, while recognizing that
pregnancy could, in some cases, be a burden, still consider their role as mother as
fundamental for their personal realization as women (Muritti, 2011; Walker, 2007).
As Coward (1993) confirms, referring to British feminism, many women now believe
that feminists were wasting their time discussing abstract philosophical issues and
focusing on utopian ideals, when instead they should have been concentrating on
women’s real issues such as obtaining a better level of social security.
Therefore, where in the sixties and seventies feminist voices demanding social and
domestic changes dominated, now after 40 years it seems that the favored opinion is
that of the so-called normal woman who, not only accepts the different roles between
men and women, but also celebrates them (Muritti, 2011; Campanini, 2010), as will
be shown in more detail in Chapter 9. This is the voice of a woman who now has the
right to work, who has access to contraception and abortion and who often makes the
decision to become a mother and a housewife, not for her children’s sake, but for her
own gratification. Since divorce has also become very common in the contemporary
era and single parents have become a social norm, one of the reasons that was used in
the past to justify abortions – that a woman could not bring a child up on her own
(especially in southern Italy) – no longer exists, leaving financial considerations the
main reason for resorting to termination nowadays (Campanini, 2010). One of the
biggest mistakes of feminist theory was completely ignoring the existence of this
“normal” woman. Feminist ideas as Richards (1980, pp. 305-306) suggests, are
generalized as an expression of all women’s needs, but without ever considering that
certain women might not actually be interested in termination or that they could be
against it and support more traditional ideas of family and motherhood. Frequently,
such women are ignored and when, especially radical feminists, confront them, the
radical feminists claim that their opponents have been brainwashed or that they are
under male or religious influence. Therefore, their opinions ought not to be taken into
account. Nevertheless, this creates an enormous problem for feminists; since they not
only have males as their opponents but women as well. Clearly, not all men oppose
40
feminism and in particular some feminist ideas, such as female education, equality of
wages, condemning domestic violence and male dominance. For instance, Stuart Mill,
one of the biggest philosophers in the eighteenth-century, supported women’s rights
and in 1886 wrote several essays against women’s subordination. However, it is
easier to understand male opposition to feminist ideas than female opposition. But this
opposition exists and such a scenario is especially true, for example, of Italy, where
many women are the first to either stand against radical feminist ideas or simply
disregard their propaganda (Campanini, 2010; Muritti, 2011).
This new situation has served to make the “traditional” family desirable again
(Muritti, 2011; Viroli 2010; Campanini, 2010), especially in a country like Italy,
where the State is unable to offer satisfactory social security (Ferrazzi, 1994) and is
unable to implement its laws (Viroli, 2010, p. 80) leaving to the family the burden of
morally and economically supporting the population. For centuries, the family10 has
represented almost everything to Italians. The family is now the center of Italian
people’s lives, the safe harbor where they seek refuge in difficult times (Campanini,
2010). This is even truer now with the employment crisis and the introduction of the
new labor law 276/2003, which worsened young people’s situation, preventing them
from leaving their parents before their thirties, when they are able to start a family
(D’Imperio, 2003), as will be discussed in Chapter 9.
Therefore, it is possible to hypothesize that Italy, especially in rural areas, is a society
centered not on the self but on small groups of individuals. Motherhood and other
“traditional” values have come back into fashion for many women (Walker, 2007)
and, more significantly, with a rigidity comparable to that of the fifties (Muritti,
2011). These women believe that in a relationship between men and women equality
is necessary but only if the traditional role is maintained. Coward‘s (1993, p. 6)
analyses show that women are still doing 80- 90% of the domestic work at home.
10
Family here is meant as the pre-capitalistic form of family where more than one generation used to
share accommodation and work responsibilities and where every member of the family including
women, children and the elderly had a specific role within the family (Dalla Costa and James, 1972,
pp. 23-24).
41
Older generations remember the struggles against injustice and discrimination whilst
the present generation, who have benefitted from this newfound equality, seem to
look upon former values from a different perspective as will be seen in Chapters 7 and
9.
3. Italian Feminism
Any discussion of Italian feminism is quite a complicated task. Firstly, because there
is no single, concrete view of feminism in Italy and, secondly, because even those
such as Melandri (2005) and Fraire (2002), who admit that feminism has had an
important role in creating greater social equality, recognize that many of the feminist
theories that have been applied in the US and the UK could not practically be
employed in Italy11. Moreover, Italian feminism has been accused of being illogical
and too sentimental (Guerra, 2005), using the media12 as a weapon to obtain political
support, rather than relying on substantive data and information13. Indeed, many of
the studies that have focused on Italian women’s workplaces, health matters and
social conditions offer almost no confirmation of official statistics. In their defence,
feminists protested that it was men who collected the official statistics, hence their
unreliability (Melandri, 2005, p. 88).
11
Melandri (2005. p. 81-83) discusses how feminism has been important in Italy: however, she argues
that the biggest mistake of the movement was the struggle against the traditional form of family, a
struggle that was successful in the US and the UK.
12
Here media refers to television, magazines, newspaper, and radio. The Internet is excluded at this
point because in the sixties, seventies and eighties the Internet was not yet available. However, in
Chapter 6 the Internet will be included in the media concept. The media have an important role within
Italian society. As Cavoni and Sacchini (2008) outline in their study and as will be discussed in depth
in Chapter 6, the Abortion Act would probably have never been approved and the RU 486 would never
been tried in Italy without the media intervention.
13
Guerra (2005) argues that feminist publications were hardly ever supported by official ISTAT data or
academic research. She complains that feminists such as the Damau group intentionally focused on
debated topics and taboo concepts to attract media attention, paying no attention to supporting their
assertions with evidence.
42
In analyzing the different theories of Italian feminism in more detail, it is clear that
there are those such as Baeri (2005), Melandri (2005) and Fraire (2002) who consider
the current trend as a phenomenon of the masses and those such as Ellena (2005) who
consider it a fragmented movement driven by a few educated and politicized women
who have set up groups nationwide and organized public gatherings and publications
to protect rights and values important for them but not for the majority of society.
Carla Lonzi,14 the founder of Rivolta Femminile and of other groups, such as those of
Milan and Rome15, believes that feminism has had a major political impact, since it
has been adopted by thousands of women throughout the country, and this is reflected
in their communications and documents. They consider feminism as a movement that
has affected some of the most important reforms in Italian society over the last few
years, such as the introduction of divorce in Italy, the passing of the Abortion Act and
the change in family regulations within the civil code.
The first feminist document produced in Italy was the Manifesto Programmatico
published by the Demau16 group (1966), exponent of the radical Italian feminism.
The avowed aim of the authors was to open the questione femminile (female issue)
and to reveal the existence of female oppression within Italian society. The Demau
group argued that this oppression had to be eliminated through a complete change in
society and not with female integration into the existing society, which was supported
by many associations and liberal feminist groups, such as the Unione donne italiane
(Udi) and the Libreria delle donne di Milano. The main reason against female
integration into society was that the Demau group, following de Beauvoir’s (1949)
ideas, believed that society was male orientated and for women to integrate into this
14
Carla Lonzi, who was born in Firenze in 1931, was the main exponent of Italian feminism. With her
Sputiamo su Hegel 1970 she introduced a new way to face female issues: the “autocoscienza”. She
died in 1982 and until her death she was in charge of the main Italian feminist groups.
15
In 1970, Rivolta femminile founded two groups in Rome and Milan under the direction of Carla
Lonzi. In 1972 members of the Milan branch constituted the more famous groups, the Collettivo di
viale Col di Lana and the Collettivo di Via dei Cherubini, which principally focused on abortion and
other reproductive rights and needs.
Demau stands for “demistificazione dell’autorita’ patriatcale”. In 1968, this group disappeared as a
consequence of their rigid approach that requested a radical change in society in order to improve the
female condition. The group was strongly against female emancipation, which was seen as equal
participation in a society constituted following male standards.
16
43
society meant accepting a male socio-cultural society. For this group, the only way
women could really be free would be to create a new society based on female values
and needs. The Demau women (1966) argued against feminist groups supporting
female emancipation in this society, saying that by seeking the integration of women
into society, they were actually confusing emancipation with freedom. For instance,
the Udi, was requesting more nurseries for children, more family counseling and more
social security for women, to allow them to combine working and domestic needs, not
to free women from male oppression (D’Elia, 2008, p. 21). The Demau group also
decried all laws and regulations that advantaged women in the work- place in order
for them to maintain their “traditional” role17 at home as well as working outside of it
(La Libreria delle donne di Milano, 1987, pp. 25-26). This group was also strongly
against contraception, which was seen as a paternalistic technique of demographic
control, considering abortion the only instrument that women can use to protect their
rights (D’Elia, 2008, p. 25). The Demau group document, as was argued by La
Libreria delle donne di Milano (1987, p. 27), is, nonetheless, incomplete and
confused. It calls for change in society but without specifying the type of change
requested or how to achieve it. The document’s chief flaw is that it completely
ignores the idea of social sexual differentiation. It does speak about biological
differences between the sexes but omits the idea of sexual differentiation, which
might result from social factors and/or patriarchal influence. The female condition is
in fact dictated by the biological differentiation with men. But the Demau group
believed that the difference between women and men did not lie behind the economic
structures of the society but only behind the sexual sphere, therefore, underestimating
the type of changes in the society that it was demanding (Bono and Kemp, 1991, p.
33).
The Demau group (La Libreria delle donne di Milano, 1987, p. 71) makes clear that
when women ask the state to regulate social disparity through equality legislation,
they end up contradicting themselves. All these “equality” laws make women similar
to men and say nothing about the relationship between the sexes. Even when a law
17
As Dalla Costa and James (1972) explain, in Italy it is assumed that all women are housewives; even
those who work outside the home continue, fundamentally, to be housewives.
44
does, to some extent, clarify this relationship, as in the case of abortion or rape, it
must be remembered that the law is only a derivative measure. There is no law, that
could possibly define and evaluate female sexuality unless this had first been
recognized by society as a whole, and the biggest problem at the moment is that
society is divided about the idea of female sexuality, with women being a nonhomogeneous social grouping. The result is that to include all possible options, laws
end up generalizing the condition of a few disadvantaged women and present it as the
condition of the entire Italian female population. In so doing, the State reduces all
women to a most miserable condition (ibid). The result of such an attitude is an
Abortion Act that lacks an appropriate consideration of female sexuality (Armeni,
2006, p. 143). Il Collettivo di Col di Lana (1976) feared this legal attitude, claiming
that a partial decriminalization of abortion, as the majority of the parties were
proposing at the time, was an ambiguous goal that might lead to the denial of
maternity. The lack of reference to female sexuality is clear in Article 8 of Law
194/1978, where it is affirmed that women can only obtain an abortion from public
hospitals and authorized clinics. Considering the general Italian attitude toward
abortion, it would seem that they would like to maintain it as a taboo issue and that
the State’s objective is to force women who opt for abortion to make their choice
public, thereby having to face a double consequence, both personal and public
(Armeni, 2006, p. 143).
Such was the incongruence of the document that only a few years after the publication
of Il Manifesto del Demau the number of group members had halved. Whereas the
Demau document did not make the idea of sexual differentiation clear, for Lonzi
(1974) in her Sputiamo su Hegel this diversity is absolutely central. She avers that “la
donna non va definita in rapporto all’uomo” (women must not be defined in relation
to men) and argues that equality is only a juridical concept aimed at colonizing
people, whereas differences between the sexes are an existential principle. Lonzi’s
work is also significant in that it introduces the idea of “female transcendence”18,
18
De Beauvoir (1949, p. 26) introduced the ideas of immanence and transcendence. Women have been
historically relegated to the domain of immanence, where women are passive and static. Men, on the
other hand, have access to the domain of transcendence, where they are active, productive and
powerful. Everyone should live in balance between the two domains, but throughout history men have
45
which was to be the formal starting point for the new Italian feminist/radical groups
of the nineties. She explained that men, aware of “female immanence and male
transcendence” (de Beauvoir, 1949), have organized society so as to limit women’s
access to every possible material form of power. Lonzi (1974) said that culture was
born from the transcendent human capacity. Men have used this capacity against
women, not only relegating them to domestic and repetitive work, seen by men as
safer for women, but also creating a patriarchal society where women are
subordinated. Lonzi continued saying that women should start to exercise their
transcendence capacity and gain a new independent position in society, where
biological differences exist but they should not result in social subordination and
absence of female power.
This notion of transcendence, so key to later feminism and the greatest cause of
division amongst Italian feminists, disappeared in the seventies from all feminist
documents when the idea of “autocoscienza” (self-awareness) was set forth (Libreria
delle donne di Milano, 1987, p. 32). Lonzi, inspired by the American idea of selfawareness, founded the first Italian “autocoscienza” circle. The goal of this group,
and of all its later off-shoots, was to discuss personal experience, a technique that
significantly altered the feminist approach, steering it towards social problems, and
which was used particularly as a means of dealing with the abortion issue. As La
Libreria delle donne di Milano (1987, p. 33) states, this novel method gave political
dignity to the most common of female practices – talking – as a result of which many
new feminist groups began to be formed. “Autocoscienza”, as Passerini (1991, p.163)
emphasizes, transforms family and home into political spaces, where personal
subjectivity can be elaborated. In Lonzi’s opinion, “autocoscienza” and
“affidamento” (transmission of self-knowledge obtained through “autocoscienza”
from one woman to another) are the vital means of changing society. As such, they
established a completely new way of dealing with political issues (Bono and Kemp,
1991, pp. 132-134). The activity of the “autocoscienza” groups is documented in 3
denied women access to the transcendence domain. De Beauvoir argues that the only access women
have to transcendence is through men.
46
publications: Donne e’ Bello (1972) from the group Anabasi19 and the first and second
issues of the magazine Sottosopra (1973). These publications aim to diffuse the social
and political aspect of the “autocoscienza” discussions and show how abortion and
contraception in particular were two of the main focuses of the discussions (La
Libreria delle donne di Milano, 1987, p. 33).
Generally, however, most Italian women neither sympathized with the movement nor
found it particularly relevant, often considering its methods offensive (Armeni, 2006,
p. 155). In practice, feminists were taking American notions of a utopian world and
applying them to the Italian situation. They would then cover over the incompatibility
and incongruence of such a position with shock tactics, such as showing pictures of
naked women in magazines, or holding huge rallies without any obvious purpose
(Armeni, 2006, p. 158). Therefore, it can be said that feminism probably would not
have had such diffusion without the enormous assistance from the media and it is
quite fair to say, as Cavoni and Sacchini (2008, p. 67) have done, that the Abortion
Act probably would not have been approved until much later without the media
broadcasting several of its ideas and disseminating information.
Italian feminism was characterized by a number of peculiar features. Compared with
the American and British movements, it did not take on radical, fundamentalist
theories to deal with women’s struggles, but arose, instead, in response to single
issues, principally abortion, and then disappeared only to appear again when faced
with another isolated concern (Bono and Kemp, 1991, p. 1). Feminist ideas in Italy
were passed on through rallies or publications by groups all around Italy and single
educated women would conceal their thoughts and activities behind the activity of the
group (Ellena, 2005). Carla Lonzi20, for example, would hide behind the Roman and
Milanese bodies, rather than publishing her writings under her own name, with the
The “autocoscienza” group Anabasi was created in 1970, inspired by the activity of American and
French self-awareness groups.
19
20
Carla Lonzi, as discussed, was the major exponent of Italian feminism. She was the author of several
articles and books such as Sessualita’ femminile e aborto (1970), Assenza della donna dai momenti
celebrativi della manifestazione creativa maschile (1972) and Significato dell’autocoscienza nei gruppi
femministi (1973).
47
exception of the aforementioned Sputiamo su Hegel and of La donna clitoridea e la
donna vaginale.
The main difference between Italian feminism compared with that in Britain and
America counterparts is the non-institutional basis of the Italian movement (Bono and
Kemp, 1991, pp. 2-3). As Bono and Kemp (1991) observe: “Italian feminism bridges
the gap between institutional, theoretical feminism and active/political feminism”.
Until recently, there have been no “women’s studies” in Italian Universities and
lecturers, researchers and students have not tried to institutionalize female issues and
debates, despite introducing these issues now and then in the curriculum. Moreover,
these lecturers and researchers have not tended to define themselves as feminist as
their American and British counterparts would have done (Bono and Kemp, 1991, p.
4). Often educated women, such as Carla Lonzi organized groups to discuss women’s
issues but supported more by feelings and personal experience than by official data or
research (Melandri, 2005, p. 88). This non-institutionalization of Italian feminism
meant that Italian feminist groups were less organized than those in the US and
Britain (Bono and Kemp, 1191, p. 6).
Italian feminism, in the main, dealt with the same topics as American and British
feminists. In particular, feminist groups rose in Italy to discuss issues such as
abortion,
contraception,
rape,
domestic
violence,
patriarchy,
homosexual
reproduction, female emancipation and equality between the sexes. However, in
certain cases, such as the case of homosexual reproduction, their positions were too
extreme to recruit followers in Italy, where the society was still heavily influenced by
Catholic’ ideas. In other cases, the topics chosen, such as domestic violence or rape,
were subjects that Italian women were not ready to openly discuss. At other times
feminist groups only chose to criticize inappropriate topics, like family (La Libreria
delle donne di Milano, 1987, p. 32).
Liberal feminists aimed at rethinking the “traditional” structure of the family and its
effects on the condition of women. Radical feminists sought to challenge family
48
organization more directly, by examining how the “traditional” family was formed
and how the paternal structure had to be abandoned, since women were much more
than simply mothers and wives and no personal gratification could be derived from a
life spent entirely in the family home (de Beauvoir, 1949, p. 585; Greer, 1970, p.
219). Dalla Costa and James (1972, pp. 23-24) equated the crisis concerning the
“traditional” form of family with the advent of capitalism. They explain the balance
that existed between men and women in pre-capitalist society, where every member
of the family had a purpose and each member was considered “to be social and
necessary”. With the advent of the capitalist family arranged around the factory,
women lost their central position within the family, a position that was “not only the
productive, but also the educational centre”. These fundamental changes to the
“traditional” structure of family provoked a crisis regarding the social definition of
women. Men, who even in the earlier pre-capitalist family21 had been the head of the
family but with shared responsibility with the other members of the family, now,
through their “wage labor” took full control over every family member (Dalla Costa
and James, 1972, p. 24). By contrast, women, robbed of both their creative and procreative powers, becoming instead, sexual beings dependent on reproducing labor
power, had to redefine their role as representatives of the family in general, and of
their husbands in particular. One of the results, as de Beauvoir (1949. p. 585) claimed,
is “feminine narcissism”, which as discussed previously, derives from the
“traditional” structure of the family. It represents the couple as a single social person
containing the male element, who, with his work, connects the individual with society
and the female element who maintains the appearance of the couple. Thus, to
eradicate the “traditional” separation of the sexes and the allocation of specific tasks
to each, the root cause of this separation must be eliminated; therefore, the
“traditional” form of family must, also be abolished.
21
In the pre-capitalistic society family was central to agricultural and artisan production. Women and
children had a social power derived from their family labor, which was seen as necessary. With the
advent of capitalism, the factory became the centre of production. Women and children lost their social
power that now became dependent on wages. Capitalism destroyed the concept of family, community
and production as a whole, detaching men that were now wage laborers from the other family
members, who now depended on him (Dalla Costa and James, 1972, pp. 23-24).
49
Radical feminists supported the ideas of lone motherhood and homosexual unions;
they criticized all forms of femininity and, in more extreme cases, even proposed
sexless reproduction through cloning, completely excluding male participation and
thereby slowly eradicating the male sex (Brownmiller, 1985 and Lewin, 1981). These
theories had no chance of finding strong support in Italy. This was already evident in
the sixties and seventies, and will be discussed in more depth in Chapter 5, and this
was also confirmed by Campanini (2010) and Muritti (2011), who suggest that many
Italian women still believe in the “traditional” form of a family and, indeed, wish to
have one for themselves, taking on the conventional role of wife and mother. These
arguments seem confirmed by the ISTAT (2010) as well, which reported in 2010 that
only 49.5% of Italian women were employed, a reduction of 0.9% from 2008.
However, it is difficult to say if the decision to be unemployed depends on the
reevaluation of traditional values as Campanini (2010) and Muritti (2011) suggest, or
from a limited availability of vacancies, especially for women (D’Imperio, 2003), and
the economic crisis that is affecting Italy and especially the South of Italy22.
Moreover, if men have been responsible for conditioning these women to have this
attitude, as feminists have often argued, the women described by Campanini and
Muritti, are clearly unaware of it and are the first to defend their attitude and beliefs.
Such a struggle against the family, as mentioned, has stood very little chance of
success in a country like Italy, where society is wholly organized around this
institution, especially since it is within the family that women have discovered their
real potential (Campanini 2010; Muritti, 2011). Even the attempt to criticize the maleimposed-form of Italian femininity (Lonzi, 1974) was doomed from the outset. As in
the case of the family, these struggles have seemed more focused on actually limiting
women’s power than increasing it. Furthermore, it has seemed pointless talking about
femininity and how women should look as a prerequisite to improving women’s
status in Italy. Quite the reverse, it is the majority of Italian women who are the first
to consider femininity important in their own lives and in society in general, as
something absolutely essential to their self-definition (Muritti, 2011). Abortion and
divorce were probably a better topic for feminists to try and raise female awareness
22
In 2010, the percentage of female employment in the South of Italy was only 33.1% (ISTAT, 2010).
50
and obtain popular support, since there were real issues involved in these areas which
women were divided on. Abortion in particular has been central to the work of many
feminist groups around Italy. Famous are the Lonzi Sessualita’ femminile e aborto
(1974)23, the writings and conferences of the Centro Culturale Virginia Woolf24 in
Rome and of the Group of Via Cherubini in Milan.
In particular, the whole idea of a woman’s right to choose gained popular approval
from Italian women, who saw it as an instrument of freedom. What was especially
valued was that this right offered options to women. Although not everybody agreed
that abortion should be legal and completely free, as Rossanda (1975) argued,
abortion came to be viewed as “a collective, rather than individual responsibility”,
since, thanks to scientific innovation and new contraceptive methods, it could be seen
as a public responsibility to provide social and moral rules to avoid termination, thus
eliminating the root causes of unwanted pregnancies. However, what was not
accepted was that feminists, who first introduced this principle, should dictate when
the choice ought to be made, especially since feminist strategies had become extreme
and thoroughly disconnected from real life (Armeni, 2006, p. 155).
The major limitation of Italian feminism has been that feminism seems unable to pass
from theory to practice in almost all areas (Armeni, 2006, p. 138). For instance, in the
case of abortion, even when the Abortion Act was finally approved, it did not
legitimize abortion, as they insisted, but only legalized it in certain circumstances.
The reason for this inability to deal with real issues possibly depends on the fact that,
in attempting to create their perfect world in the shortest possible time, feminists
sought to widen the debate as far as possible to include all matters where, in their
opinion, women were being discriminated against. This caused confusion and a loss
of focus on the subject of abortion (Scire’, 2008, p. 223). Furthermore, while this was
a great way of attracting media attention for their cause, it was not the best method for
23
Included in Lonzi Sputiamo su Hegel, La donna clitoridea e la donna vaginale e altri scritti, (1974).
The Centre, founded in 1979 is famous as the “Women’s University”. The group has organized
seminars, courses and conferences on many topics, and abortion in particular and over 300 women a
year have attended the Centre (Bono and Kemp, 1991, p. 148).
24
51
discussing issues in the parliamentary arena. Their attempt to broaden the discussion
to many other areas also produced a certain level of internal separation among
feminists, who, even during the Abortion Act discussions, had been fairly divided,
and the effect of this was to worsen the situation for Italian feminism as a whole
(Scire’, 2008, p. 9). After the passing of the Abortion Act, the internal discrepancies
caused the dissolution of the current trend of feminism, due also to a lack of media
interest. After the politicization of one’s private life according to the “autocoscienza”
principle, which was an innovative and interesting strategy in the early seventies, the
media decided to focus its attention on more concrete issues like conscientious
objection in Italian hospitals and the percentage of legal abortions. After the approval
of the Act, the few exponents of feminism who remained decided to turn themselves
into a radical Italian party, thereby losing even more female support (Armeni, 2006,
pp. 122-123).
Another possible reason for the inability of feminists to convert their theories into
substantive changes has been that their theories describe a world so unrealistic, it
could never become a reality. Their positions have been accused of being illogical and
of tending to bring results contrary to the initial intention (La Libreria delle donne di
Milano, 1987, p. 32). For instance, the whole notion of sisterhood, as described by
Richards (1994), ultimately brought more harm than good to the movement. When
feminists said that all women’s opinions must be considered equally and, especially,
that the minority opinions have to be included in the debate, they tended to leave out
the most educated and skilled women’s opinions. This has, to some extent, been
recognized by Italian feminism and, as was described earlier, in attempting to reach
their goal, Italian feminists decided to sacrifice the opinions that were not useful for
achieving their aim. However, this did not stop them encouraging the idea of
sisterhood, creating even more incongruence between the theories professed and the
concrete actions taken.
In the ensuing period, feminists continued to face fewer issues but in more radical and
extreme ways, with the result that as recently as 2004, during Parliamentary
discussions about the in vitro fertilization Act, their views did not carry any weight
52
and Parliament ended up approving a very restrictive act, following Catholic canons
and respectful of Church values. It seemed that the more feminist and radical some
women became, the more the people returned to the more “traditional” values
professed by Catholics and right wingers, probably to contrast with the extremism
associated with modern society (Muritti, 2011). This return to tradition and
reevaluation of the “traditional” form of family within Italian society strongly
influenced the social definition of Italian women. Women are now described as
prioritizing family and femininity over career and female emancipation. Beauty and
femininity are influenced by male canons and these standards are used in magazines,
newspapers, the television and the cinema. Those who prioritize career are seen as
radical and feminist with all the negative connotations connected to it (Campanini,
2010). Zanardo (2010) conducted an interesting analysis regarding the media
reflection on this construction. The author observes that the television describes only
two types of woman: the “good” one that respects traditions and family. She looks
after her children and husband and follows the social canons of femininity. Then there
is the “bad” woman who uses her body to obtain advantages and that decides to
detach herself from the family.
4. Conclusion
Western feminist groups aim to improve the social condition of women but are
divided not only on the way they would like society to be but also on the way to reach
their objective. Liberal feminists aim to obtain equality between sexes with legal and
social changes in society that reflect this equality. Radical feminists, on the other hand
would like a new society organized around female needs, that reflects female
superiority over men. Feminists have focused particularly on the problem of
reproduction, seen as one of the main form of male oppression. However different
waves of feminism faced the reproductive issue in different ways. The second wave
of feminism demanded free legal access to abortion on the grounds of a woman’s
right to choose, arguing that all women should have full control over their own bodies
53
and no other right could outweigh this (McDonnell, 1984). Exponents of the third
wave of feminism, more moderate, probably as a consequence of the rigidity of the
preceding generations, were not so sure that the fetus did not have any rights. They
were willing to admit that, even if at conception it did not deserve much protection, as
it developed, its rights would almost be equivalent to the mother’s rights. They
reevaluated the concept of motherhood offering to the fetus a social status following
conception (Walker, 2007; Duggan, 1988, p. 15).
Feminists have had to face two main obstacles to their theories: that often their
positions were irrational and confused (Artmeni, 2006, p. 138; Libreria delle donne di
Milano, 1987, p. 32) and that they did not consider that their ideas and needs often did
not reflect all women’s ideas and needs. They, therefore, called on all women to live
their lives along feminist lines and condemned society and all institutions influenced
by male ideas. Feminists did not consider that other women could appreciate and/or
obtain satisfaction from their current style of life. In addition, even when feminists
were forced to face the reality that many women, especially in Italy, liked the
“traditional” structure of society, they accused them of being brainwashed and of
lacking any sort of common sense (Richards, 1994). This attitude, combined with their
often too forceful and exaggerated tactics, failed to achieve a feminist consensus, even
amongst women (Coward, 1993). However, even though these methods did not result
in many supporters of feminism, they did help it to attract the attention of society’s
most potent instrument, the media. The media has helped to spread feminist ideas and
with the media’s voice being much stronger than that of the individual, feminist
thinking began to hold sway over public opinion (Cavoni and Sacchini, 2008). In Italy,
women could never contemplate the feminist struggle against family. Still today, the
family in Italy is held together by itself, which contrasts sharply with the UK, where it
is often supported by the state. The family is the pillar of Italian society (Muritti,
2011), sustaining its members morally and economically, partly as a result of the
inability of the state to implement its laws and to offer sufficient social security to the
population (Ferrazzi, 1995), a state that in its 150 year history has failed to
demonstrate either stability or continuity (Viroli, 2010).
54
In the US and the UK feminism is still present, albeit different from the movement in
the sixties and seventies, the time of the first significant battles. In Italy, on the other
hand, the movement has almost disappeared. Italian feminism has had a distinctive
character, fragmented, very inconsistent and non-institutionalized. It arose in
connection with a small number of issues such as divorce and abortion, and then
disappeared again. The reasons for this are several: first of all, the lack of a following
amongst ordinary women (probably the biggest reason); secondly, feminist theories
written for American or British situations did not find a correspondence in a country
like Italy, where traditions have deep roots within society and where, after the
Abortion Act was passed, there was a move away from liberal politics.
This is the climate that the proposed introduction of chemical abortion found itself in.
The State did not want this to come in, even though it was perfectly in line with the
194/1978, thus avoiding any political repercussions stemming from general public
opposition to the practice. The few feminists left, along with a number of radicals,
began again with their radical tactics and the help of the media, but their credibility
was now being challenged robustly. The Church, indirectly, continued to influence
society against abortion as it had done previously with the in vitro fertilization Act.
The result was that chemical termination could not find any firm institutional backing
to encourage its use, and despite legal authorization, it became extremely difficult to
access the treatment because of ulterior obstacles erected by doctors, nurses, hospitals,
regional authorities and the government as will be discussed in the next few chapters.
55
3. METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN
1. Introduction
The proposed project is the first study on chemical abortion that uses opposition to the
implementation of RU 486 to understand how Italian women are defined within
Italian society. RU 486 can be economically convenient for the State and it can help
hospitals to offer an efficient and relatively safe type of abortion (Viale, 2007). In
Europe, chemical abortion is widely offered but in Italy its introduction has faced
many difficulties. It is interesting to understand why this has happened, especially
considering that the all-Italian attitude to often disregard and freely interpret laws
(Collins, 1998) could have led to an indiscriminate use of the drug with abortion
offered beyond the limits of the Abortion Act. The aim of this study is not to offer a
moral judgment on abortion, but by closely looking at the nature of abortion and how
it is and is not offered within Italy, to provide a closer analysis of women’s
construction and to achieve a better understanding of the female condition within
Italian society.
The hypothesis that the opposition that the adoption of RU 486 has faced in Italy, and
is still facing relates to the “familialistic” Italian social structure, where many women
and a large part of the society seem to act to protect the family from every potential
external threat. In fact, it seems that despite feminist ideas, diffused in Italy during the
sixties and seventies, suggests differently, many Italian women focus on motherhood
and femininity than on career and male/female equality to maintain and protect their
central role within the family (Muritti, 2011). This theory has also been confirmed by
the recent study by Bazzi (2011) concerning the decreasing percentage of abortions in
Italy. In 2011, out of 8% of the abortions carried out, only 2% of these were for
Italian women. Bazzi argues that family and female attitude are the first two reasons
that justify the decrease in abortion in Italy amongst Italian women.
56
2. Methodology
The purpose of this study, as described above, is to understand if there is a
relationship between the obstacles to the implementation of chemical abortion in Italy
and the way Italian women define and perceive themselves. In order to do so, it is
necessary to analyze the way Italian institutions interact. Part of the study’s aim is to
understand the eventual role of the Church and of the Italian Government in creating
and manipulating values within Italian society. Chemical abortion and in particular,
its obstruction, is used as a case study to understand the role of the State, the Church
and of women themselves in the definition of female status in Italy. Therefore, the
way the Abortion Act has been approved was analyzed, along with Parliamentary
debates and the media’s spread of often incorrect and politicized information (Cavoni
and Sacchini, 2008). To conduct the analysis, several pieces of secondary data, both
historical and contemporary, were collected, such as feminist and political documents
containing discussions on the most important points of the debates, such as the
availability of total abortions paid for by the State and the exclusion of abortions from
private hospitals. These data were collected using several databases such as JSTOR,
Google Scholar, and adnkronos.com. The key words used to identify the secondary
data are reproduction, gender, feminism, abortion, contraception, RU 486,
conscientious objection, women, “autocoscienza”(Lonzi, 1974), women’s right to
choose and female self-determination.
The secondary data were collected from both the media and official data. The media
used includes daily newspapers, weekly and monthly magazines, the Internet,
television and radio news with the aim of discovering differences in the working
conditions between men and women and dedicating particular attention not only to
the disadvantageous conditions for women but also to any advantages that could
allow them to have more free time than men to perform domestic duties. The media,
as will be discussed in Chapter 6 has had a pivotal role in spreading information and
creating debates especially concerning both the creation of feminism in Italy and the
57
debates on abortion in the seventies and now on RU 486 (Armeni, 2006, p. 158). Then
the official encyclicals of the Church were analyzed in order to understand the
Catholic point of view toward women and their role within society.
The newspapers that have been analyzed are the left-wing La Repubblica, L’Unita’, Il
Tirreno, il Fatto, Il Foglio; the independent Il Corriere della Sera and La Stampa; the
Catholic L’Avvenire, L’Osservatore Romano and the right-wing newspaper Il
Giornale, Il Messaggero, La Nazione. The weekly magazines that have been analyzed
have been the left- wing Espresso, the right-wing Panorama and the Catholic
Famiglia Cristiana. The study has focused on articles concerning women’s values,
abortion both surgical and chemical, contraception, conscientious objection, the
family, and the Catholic Church. The ideology of the newspapers or magazines has an
effect on the way these publications portray female status and the female condition.
The way females are described clearly affects the way abortion, contraception or in
vitro fertilization are described. For instance, right-wing sources describe a woman
that prioritizes family and motherhood as the ideal. These newspapers are strongly
influenced by Catholic values and are opposed to all scientific innovations that can
threaten the key roles of a woman. Women that do not act according to their values
are responsible for dire social consequences. For instance, Il Giornale (31st December
2012) accused women of provoking men when their behaviour does not reflect
Catholic and “traditional” values. The newspaper says: “La donna si e’ allontanata
dalla virtu’ della famiglia: per questo faccia autocritica quando si parla di
femminicidio” (“women that moved away from the virtues of the family should be
self-critical when it comes to femicide”). Newspapers with this ideology will clearly
oppose RU 486 and any definition of femininity, which is inconsistent with Catholic
values. On the other hand, left-wing news papers and magazines idealise women who
prioritize career over family and who aim to obtain equality with men. These sources
have a different attitude toward chemical abortion and scientific innovations that can
help women to find economic and social independence. For instance, La Repubblica
(4th July 2013) celebrates women’s independence, presenting all the women who have
“changed the world” through their innovative spirit. The newspaper states that: “se
avesse dovuto riscrivere la storia avrebbe considerato di gran lunga più importante
delle Crociate (o di altri grandi eventi) un cambiamento epocale che si produsse alla
58
fine del Settecento, quando la donna della classe media cominciò a scrivere” (“if it
had to rewrite history, the epochal era at the end of the eighteenth century, when
middle-class women began to write, would be considered far more important than the
Crusades, or other major events”). Consequently, in order to generate a sustainable
interpretative position on Italian newspapers and magazines, sources from both the
left and right-wings have been collected and analyzed. Articles on the same topic
have been compared between newspapers and magazines. Particular attention was
dedicated to incongruence over information concerning RU 486, definition,
procedure, counter effects, and compatibility with the Abortion Act. To access the
articles relevant for this research, the database of each newspaper was searched using
a key word search for words such as: abortion, RU 486, chemical abortion, women
rights, in vitro fertilization and the Catholic Church. Then, a sample of articles from
each newspaper was selected. For this research it was used as starting point for the
data collection the study of Cavoni and Sacchini (2008) concerning the media
perception of RU 486.
The research also involved the collection and analysis of legislative sources from the
Italian State, from different Italian regions and from Europe. The laws that have been
taken into consideration not only concern abortion but relate to the female condition
in Italy in general, and relate to issues such as in vitro fertilization, divorce and
maternity leave. Considering the general situation for women, it was also necessary to
find out the possibilities available for women of maintaining a career during their
pregnancy.
As has been discussed, this research involved the collection and analysis of historical
and contemporary data. Qualitative data was collected through semi-structured
interviews and participant observations in hospitals and clinics. Interviews were
conducted with a focus group of eight women and seven physicians (either
conscientious or non-conscientious objectors) to understand the reason behind the
high percentage of objectors amongst Italian doctors and on four lawyers, two
engineers and two private workers to be able to understand the real working
conditions of women in the case of pregnancy and necessity to face childcare costs.
59
All interviews lasted between 2 and 3 hours, with the exception of the interview with
the focus group, which lasted 5 hours.
Since it would have been impossible to obtain data representing the whole Italian
female population, it was decided to focus on a smaller group of women. Thus, a
semi-structured interview was conducted with a focus group of women. The decision
to interview a focus group rather than conduct a series of one-to-one interviews was
taken because, as stated by Bryman (2008, p. 487), focus groups with the participants’
interactions tend to be more naturalistic, although this method has been criticized by
some feminist authors such as Wilkinson (1999) who favors the study of “the self”.
As Morgan (1998) suggested, a small group was chosen because, with the topic being
quite controversial, the study’s aim was to obtain the personal opinion of interviewees
instead of “hearing numerous brief suggestions”. Moreover, it was thought that the
interviewees would feel more comfortable discussing the topic more honestly in front
of a smaller number of people. Clearly, choosing a small sample size can limit the
validity of the data collected as answers obtained are restricted in order to prove this
study’s thesis. To strengthen the validity of the data collected, the answers obtained
from the interview to the focus group have been validated through a comparison with
tendencies and opinions expressed in newspapers such as La Repubblica, il Corriere
della Sera, L’Unione Sarda, magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Gente and
television’s programs such as Maurizio Costanzo Show and Amici and other studies
conducted on similar topics. 25
After the identification of the exact thesis’s topic it was decided to focus on the
recruitment of a specific type of participant, namely, on University level educated,
middle-class, Italian women in their late twenties and early thirties from Sardinia. The
women were unknown to each other to avoid that preexisting relationship between the
interviewees, which could contaminate the data collected. Despite some researchers
such as Kitzinger (1994) or Holbrook and Jackson (1996) opting for a “natural
group” (Bryman, 2012, p. 510), due to the controversial nature of this topic, it was
25
See, for example: Muritti (2011); Campanini (2010); Collins (1998); Coward (1993); Armeni (2006).
60
possible that some women might have felt uncomfortable to share their opinion in
front of known people, or they could have been influenced by other interviewees’
points of views. Moreover, as observed by Morgan (1998), using a natural group
increases the risk of “taken-for-granted assumption”. None of these women, in fact,
participated in the struggle in the sixties and seventies for and against abortion, nor
had a detailed knowledge of the Pre - Abortion Act situation and debates, therefore it
is plausible to hypothesize that these women have not been influenced by the PreAbortion Act debates and struggles. Thus it is possible to assume that their position
over abortion topic is neutral and feminist or pro-life ideas have not influenced it.
The women that were recruited had homogenous demographic factors, because, as
Stewart, Shamdasani and Rook (2007, p. 20) suggest, this can improve
communication. Moreover, the women had a social background and a level of
education similar to myself because. I believed that this similarity could help in the
analysis of the data collected. Umana-Taylor and Bamaca (2004, p. 262) also
observed that it is important that the group participants have some socio-demographic
elements in common to allow the flow of the discussion and to guarantee trust toward
the researcher. Therefore, the fact that both the interviewees and I had a similar
background seems to help to validate the data collected. Furthermore, members of this
group had quite a high level of compatibility, making the group more effective and
making my role of moderator easier, reducing time and effort devoted to direct the
group (Stewart et al. 2007, p. 27).
The aim of this study is partly to understand how young women help to define
themselves as Italian women and how their values are identified and manipulated by
other elements of Italian society. Therefore, the participants of the group were all
women between 28/ 30 years old, with no children. The age gap was very important
because the research’s focus was directed at women that had not lived the Abortion
and feminist struggle, but that had some indirect influence being raised by parents that
had participated in these struggles. The research aimed to identify women that would
likely have actively participated in the creation of Italian values and not only
passively accepted external influence, thus it was focused on women with a
61
University level of education. The fact that all women in the group were from
Sardinia depends principally on two factors. First of all, being from Sardinia the
author, she had more contacts from whom she could recruit Sardinian women and
secondly as suggested by Umana-Taylor and Bamaca (2004, p. 264) a particular
group history can influence the way values are perceived and interpreted. UmanaTaylor and Bamaca (2004) did not screen for social class, an element that this
research, on the other hand, considers. This was based on the assumption that that the
class of origin would strongly influence the perception of values and the perception of
the status of women.
It was also assumed that political view and background of participants would make
more various the findings of the study. In fact women supporting the left wing would
likely be less traditionalistic and participants supporting the right wing would
probably be more subject to the Church’s influence. Moreover, women that had a
medical and legal background would probably have more familiarity with subjects
concerning reproduction, contraception and abortion, both medically and legally.
The first part of the interview was dedicated to a general talk allowing the participants
to talk about where they saw themselves in the next 10 years. Then, through a series
of open-ended and general questions, they were asked to define their religious and
moral values. All these women except one worked in the private sector and six of
them considered themselves Catholic while one considered herself atheist and another
considered herself agnostic. This religious differentiation revealed the weight of
Catholicism in influencing, directly or indirectly, Italian women’s values. Their
political views were also identified with the left-wing more willing, in theory, to
support modernity and woman’s emancipation than the right. Fictional names were
used to protect the interviewees’ privacy. Social and cultural influences they had been
exposed to were identified as well the newspapers and magazines they read and their
family used to read. The discussion was maintained as a general one to allow as much
participation across the group as possible. Then, the discussion was directed to
concentrate on chemical abortion. Of particular importance was to discover whether
62
they knew what RU 486 was. The aim was to understand what type of knowledge
they had about chemical termination since it was observed that just a few people
knew about it and usually this was only superficial knowledge coming directly from
the media (Cavoni and Sacchini, 2008). It was also important to understand if a lack
of information was due to the difficulty to access data or a simple lack of interest in
the topic. The women were also asked if they used any form of contraception and
whether they would use any form of abortion. Thus, from this interview it has been
possible to deduce, as will be analyzed in Chapter 9, that many Italian women tend to
obstruct the implementation of RU 486 principally for two reasons. Firstly, they are
not particularly interested in it as abortion is avoidable and secondly, they want to
protect their family from external challenges.
As previously anticipated, a series of semi-structured interviews with seven doctors,
either objectors or non-objectors, was conducted to discover what makes so many
Italian physicians choose to be conscientious objectors. Six doctors were from
Sardinia, whilst the seventh interviewee was from Tuscany. All doctors that were
interviewed were chosen using personal connections. Thus, it seems plausible that the
doctors were all willing to talk and they were comfortable discussing the topic.
Moreover, this connection helped to avoid a common risk of some Italian physicians
being on the defensive and not wanting to allow interviewers to conduct the interview
(Scire’, 2008). The reasons for this selection are principally two: first, regarding the
selection of it was easier to contact physicians from my region of origin; secondly
doctors from Sardinia appeared to be more willing to participate in this study, since
all doctors in Tuscany that were approached, with only one exception, refused to give
their consent to the interview.
The interviews were focused first of all, as previously explained, on understanding the
real reasons behind the high percentage of objectors in Italian hospitals. The
interviews also sought to identify possible internal pressures that are put upon doctors
by colleagues, from superiors as well as external pressures such as the Church,
regional health committees and their own family. The interview was also used to
63
understand the differences between the situation of private practitioners and hospital
staff due to the difference in the percentage of objectors between the two categories.
Part of the interviews were focused on understanding what role doctors, both
objectors and non-objectors, believed they had in the construction of female
reproduction, maternity, contraception, femininity, and the “traditional” form of
family.
Some semi-structured interviews with two engineers and four lawyers were conducted
in order to understand the employment regulations and policy for women in the case
of pregnancy and maternity leave in the private sector. The lawyers and engineers
chosen were all working in private small to medium-sized law firms and technical
offices to gauge a better understanding of the world of the women in the focus group.
The situation of women working in the public sector was not analyzed because for
them the normal regulation for maternity leave applies. Two interviews with two
workers in the private sector were also conducted, in medium to large companies.
These workers normally have a contract, which is very similar to that of public
workers but with less incentives and benefits. It was decided to interview a man and a
woman to see if from their point of view, the new labor law is more favorable for one
sex or whether it does not create any differences. Four interviewees - one engineer,
two lawyers and one private worker - were from Sardinia and four were from
Tuscany.
The study’s hypothesis is that Italian working conditions, especially after the
introduction of the new labor law, are unstable, thus causing disillusionment amongst
young people, therefore the “traditional” form of the family has been revaluated and
become the principal institution able to economically and morally support Italian
people (D’Imperio, 2003). This disillusionment also appears to be the reason, as was
the case after the Great War, for the return to orthodoxy that now seems more
attractive to young people than modernity, since the institutions created by modernity
are not able to support and offer new jobs to the population (Ferrazzi, 2004, pp. 3236). After the Great War, this disillusionment toward modernity may have caused the
creation of regimes such as Fascism and Nazism to protect national identity and
64
traditional institutions (McCarthy, 1995, p. 21). Nowadays, since the importance of
national identity seems to have been revaluated after the opening of European borders
(ibid), this orthodoxy seems more focused on protecting “traditional” institutions
such as the family (Muritti, 2011).
During previous research conducted concerning the relationship between law and
professional practice in Italian hospitals, it was discovered that there was a
discrepancy between the law dictatum26 and the general attitude of hospital’s
personnel. It was therefore decided to perform a form of participant observation in 10
hospitals in two Italian regions - five hospitals in Tuscany and five hospitals in
Sardinia - to obtain information regarding RU 486. Tuscany is a region in the center
of Italy while Sardinia is an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. The first
region is part of the “regione rossa27” (an area in Italy that was under the communist
influence) and it is historically anticlerical; it is therefore a modern area open to
progress and industry. Sardinia, on the other hand, is a very traditionalist and
conservative area28, which has been isolated from the rest of Italy for a long time. The
participant observation that will be described in more detail in Chapter 7, focused on
understanding the real behavior and attitude of hospital staff and how their behavior
reflects and contributes to defining women’s status in Italy.
This approach of directly seeking information from hospitals is an innovative method
that combines three traditional sociological research methods: simple observation,
systematic observation and structured interview. The first part of this sort of
participant observation consists of a simple observation, where nurses and doctors
were observed in an unobtrusive way. The author waited one hour in each hospital in
the waiting area of the gynecological emergency unit to measure the waiting time
26
From Latin, it means the law statement.
As will be better explained later in the thesis, the “regione rossa” (red region) refers to Tuscany,
Emilia Romagna, Umbria and Marche.
27
28
Over the centuries, Sardinia has been invaded several times by foreign populations: Arabs, Spanish,
Toscani, Piemontesi forcing the local population to strongly protect their language and traditions from
foreign influence (Cardia, 1996, p. 266).
65
before being received in the gynecological ward. In this part of the observation, it was
possible to witness the behavior of nurses and doctors without influencing it. This was
useful because it was possible to see the reaction time of the hospitals for every type
of request and concerning topics such as abortion and the day after pill. The second
part of this type of observation consists of a systematic observation and it follows a
rigid observation schedule to allow the systematic recording of the participants’
behaviors and the classification of the behavior as a sample. The hospitals chosen
were similar in terms of location and dimension. The hospitals were selected with the
aim of covering different density conditions; eight of the hospitals were from big
cities with a high density of population, hospitals that could potentially perform a
high percentage of abortions. Abortions being an uncomfortable topic to discuss for
many people, it was assumed that even people from smaller communities, despite
having access to a local hospital, would have chosen the bigger hospital for privacy
purposes. Two of the hospitals were chosen from smaller areas. This type of approach
has been used quite often in Italy in recent years to obtain valid information and to be
able to compare legal requirements with real Italian behavior, in several areas such as
NHS, drug addiction and working conditions. For instance, already in 1975 the
magazine Amica, as described in more detail in Chapter 4, collected valuable data
after sending undercover researchers to investigate the conditions of illegal abortions.
In 2008, two “undercover” researchers conducted a participant observation in half of
Rome hospitals aiming to reveal the trend of doctors in prescribing the day after pill,
despite the law dictatum (Gribaldo, Judd and Kertzer, 2009, p. 564). In 2009,
Gribaldo, Judd and Kertzer used a type of participant observation, similar to the one
applied in this study, to understand the contraceptive behavior of men and women in
Italy. Gribaldo, Judd and Kertzer (2009, p. 560) observed the importance of the
difference between “what people say they do and believe on the one hand, and what
they actually do and (more problematically) what they actually believe on the other”.
Myrdal (1944, p. 69) used a similar method in his analysis of racial diversity in the
US. Myrdal believed in fact that when a topic is contentious a participant observation
is probably the most efficient way to obtain valid data.
Particularly in the US, several concerns have been raised regarding undercover
66
research, especially if it involves collecting data in health care settings – (see Herrera
2000), however, this concern regards the eventual violation of personal autonomy and
refers to researchers that are giving misleading information and who lack the approval
from the Research Ethics Board. In this research, the participant observation, as
previously addressed, does not require sharing any misleading or false information
and ethical approval was granted by the University of Exeter research board, prior to
the collection of any primary data. Moreover, in this type of participant observation it
is not correct to assert that the participants were unaware of being part of a research
study since the consent of the participant were granted before starting the last part of
the observation, when the author introduced herself as a PhD student. Both nurses and
doctors were free to interrupt the interview at any time and to request any data
collected to be disregarded.
The simple observation was always conducted at the same time - 9am – in each
premises and the gynecological guard routine in all hospital was observed during
weekdays and never during the weekend. During this part of the observation, the
waiting time and the attitude and behavior of the nurses toward the women in the
waiting area were written down systematically. This rigidity over the application of
the observation schedule can help to validate the data collected. Then after the simple
and systematic observation the nurses were approached. Only general questions were
asked, such as if in that hospital abortions were performed and in particular if
chemical abortion was available and how it was eventually possible to obtain one, for
instance, if there was a waiting list. Nurses were asked if there were leaflets
obtainable or other documents that could explain the procedure and how many
doctors in the hospital were objectors. The schedule, as Bryman (2008, p.257)
suggests, was organized to have similar characters in the structured interview with
closed questions. The participants were nurses and doctors, from whom information
was requested, and the author. The fact that hospital staff at this point were not aware
of being observed validated the data collected. In fact, this lack of awareness ensured
that the “reactive effect” described by Bryman (2008, p. 265), consisting of changing
behavior when known to be observed, did not occur.
67
The last part of this type of participant observation was organized as a structured
interview with open questions. Only at this point, after the open-ended questions did
the author present herself as a PhD student to be able to compare the stated and actual
behavior of the observation participants. The behavior of the nurses and doctors
before introducing of the author as a PhD student have been compared with that after
the introduction, analyzing their facial expressions and body behavior, the words
actually used by the interviewees and their general attitude. The treatment doctors and
nurses give to people that request a termination and to people that request only
information is clearly different, but the research aim was not to understand exactly
how a woman feels and the struggles she needs to face to have a termination.
However, it was useful to understand the general position and status of women when
they do not have the money to go to authorized private clinics to have an abortion or
to private practitioners to obtain advice and information on chemical abortion. The
last part of the participant observation of hospitals was digitally recorded. Nurses and
doctors were advised of the presence of a recorder only when the writer presented
herself as a PhD student. However, this did not create any ethical issue. In fact, in
Italy the Sentence of the Corte di Cassazione 6633/1994 states that it is not mandatory
to inform an interlocutor about the presence of the recorder. The Sentence in fact
says:
“la registrazione all’insaputa di uno dei due interlocutori non costituisce offesa alla
libertà di autodeterminazione di costui, che ha comunicato in piena libertà, volendo
comunicare” (the registration without one of the interlocutor’s knowledge is not a
violation of the auto determination freedom of the interlocutor, that freely
communicated, with the intention of communicating) .
However, despite the Italian law not requesting it, the author gained the permission
from doctors and nurses to record the interview and to use the data recorded.
To clarify the present situation on abortion and women in Italy more deeply, a
comparative analysis between Italy and the UK was conducted that will be presented
in different Chapters of the thesis depending on its subject, for instance working
conditions will be compared in Chapter 9, and medical attitude in Chapter 7. With the
68
British political and social situation being deeply different from the Italian reality and
with abortion being widely available in the UK, it was possible to better understand
the type of obstacles that society and women have created toward abortion. A
comparative approach can, as per Bryman (2008, p. 58), facilitate the understanding
of this social phenomenon. Despite the difficulties that cross-cultural research can
create, it was possible, due to my ability to speak both Italian and English, to conduct
a cross-examination both in the context of qualitative and quantitative research. The
participant observation was conducted in several hospitals to obtain information about
chemical abortion both in Italy and in the UK, and a collection of secondary data
especially about pre and post Abortion Act debates both in Italy and the UK was
achieved. This cross-cultural analysis also helped to outline how social science
discoveries are integrally connected with a specific culture and reality. Despite the
differences between Italy and the UK, it was possible to compare the data collected
due to the equivalence of the organizations and institutions that have been analyzed.
The participant observation was also performed in the UK, in one NHS Walk-in
Centre and the results obtained were completely different. The procedure in Italy and
the UK were identical with only one exception consisting of the fact that the third part
of the participant observation in Italy was recorded, whereas it was recorded in the
UK to avoid possible ethical issues due to the different legal disciplines in the two
countries over recording conversation. The comparative approach has been very
useful because it has helped to understand not only women’s attitudes toward abortion
in a different country (the UK), but also the different behavior assumed by hospital
staff in a country like Italy, where regulations are often interpreted and debated
(Viroli, 2010), and a country like the UK with a comparably strong State, where
generally laws and rules are accepted and not contested (Jory and Pintore, 1995, p.
97).
All recorded data from the interview of the focus group, the interviews with doctors,
engineers, a lawyer, private workers and the participant observation, were verbatim
transcribed, leaving incomplete sentences of the interviewees intentionally
69
incomplete; to avoid assumptions that could contaminate the data (Stewar, et al. 2007,
p. 111). Names, or anything that could allow the identification of the interviewees
were not transcribed. Everything was transcribed in the original language maintaining
the few dialectal words that the interviewees have used. The translation, from Italian
to English, of the most important pieces that were used as citation in the thesis, was
conducted by the author. The transcript, however, did not represent the entire data.
Gesture, tone of voice, non-verbal communication were considered; in fact these
could completely alter the result of the transcript. Therefore, the recorded data was
supplemented with some notes taken during the interviews.
3. Objectives
This study aims to answer a few questions that will help to clarify the position of
women in Italy. These questions concern the implementation of RU 486, therefore it
is important to identify and analyze the reasons behind the opposition to the
introduction of chemical abortion in Italy. Understanding this opposition is important
especially because, as Collins (1998) and Del Boca (1998) observed in Italy,
population and institutions have the tendency to conveniently interpret the laws
extensively and behave often beyond the law’s limits, but in this case, the law is
interpreted in a restrictive way. The Government and the regions have not invested
funds in the implementation of the drug, the new generation, especially young
women, seem uninterested in abortion considering it avoidable and also medical
associations opt en masse to become conscientious objectors. Thus, the potential
benefits of the drug are annulled by the Government and by society’s attitude. This
thesis’s objective is precisely to understand the reasons for this.
I. How can the opposition to RU 486 help us to understand how the Italian
women self-perception has changed in relation to their status within Italian
society, in particular regarding their role within family?
70
All aspects of reproduction have a central role in the social definition of the status of
women. In Western history, the exigency to control private property led to the
marginalization of women sexuality and reproductive power (Walby, 1994, p. 25).
The role of women has been therefore restricted inside the family to the role of wives
and mothers (Dalla Costa and James, 1972, pp. 23-24). One of the first references
concerning the relationship between private property and female emancipation can be
found in the utopian society described by Plato in the Republic. Plato in fact
suggested the abolition of family and private property to allow women to exercise
equal rights with men (Weiner, 1995, pp. 407-408). Thus, the introduction or
opposition to a new abortive method can likely reveal something about the social
construction of female status in a particular place.
The Italian law allows abortion under certain circumstances and that implicitly makes
abortion legal in Italy, but the introduction of RU 486 as a new type of abortive
method has created many debates, often opening old debates on abortion that had not
been forgotten after the approval of the 194/1978 law. These debates resulted in a
series of discussions in Parliament with the aim of clarifying the compatibility of RU
486 with the Abortion Act, which caused continue restrictions of the implementation
of chemical abortion in Italy (Scire’, 2008, p. 8). This restrictive attitude has been
reflected in some media,29 that repeatedly reported incomplete and confusing
information in a way similar to their previous behavior during the approbation of the
194/1978 law (Cavoni and Sacchini, 2008, p. 7). However, this new decade appears to
be different to the sixties and seventies when the Abortion Act was approved.
Modernism and female emancipation do not seem to represent a priority in Italy
anymore and family and “tradition” seem more attractive (Muritti, 2011, p. 16). This
tendency has been highlighted by the introduction of the very restrictive law on in
vitro fertilization and consequent referenda results.
Since the introduction in 2002 of RU 486 as an experiment in Turin’s hospital,
29
Principally right-wing and Catholic influenced television, magazines and news papers.
71
debates concerning abortion have been revived, showing that many Italian people no
longer consider abortion as synonymous with female self-determination (Lonzi,
1974), but as something that can be avoided thanks to science and contraception.
Moreover, it seems that at present, self-determination as a synonym of the right to
choose has been used, by many, more to justify women’s will to choose family and
children over career, than to justify the choice for abortion (Coward, 1993). The
political reaction toward the introduction of RU 486 amongst Italian hospitals can be
used as further proof that Italian women are going through a process of changing
values, since this time the activity of the Government has not been accompanied by
massive feminist protests and manifestations, like in the seventies, but by the majority
of the population’s consent (Armeni, 2006, p. 12).
Therefore, RU 486 has been used as a case study to help to shed light on the social
construction of female status in Italy. This study’s hypothesis is that a large part of
Italian society is presently experiencing a revaluation of “traditional” values and in
particular a revaluation of the family (Muritti, 2011; Campanini, 2010). As women
are traditionally at the centre of the family, the revaluation of the “traditional” form
of family necessarily involves a revaluation of the role and status of women within
Italian society. This revaluation of the “traditional” role of women does not, however,
seem to be dictated by men and a paternalistic society (Muritti, 2011). It seems in
perfect harmony with female aspirations and desires (ibid). In fact, despite feminist
and modernist articles (Lonzi, 1974; Demau, 1966) it seems that Italian women
support “tradition”, more than emancipation and parity between the sexes (Muritti,
2011). Feminist articles and studies describe women’s aspirations as coinciding with
career advancement and with equality between the sexes30. In reality, it seems that in
Italy and in all the Western World (Coward, 1993; Muritti, 2011) the tendency is
inverting and from the ”careerism” that started to appear in the sixties and seventies,
and now many women are starting to reevaluate the “traditional” form of
“familiarism”.
30
See for example: Lonzi (1974); the Collettivo di Via dei Cherubini (1973), the Collettivo di Col di
Lana (1976), the Demau (1966).
72
To understand the relationship between RU 486’s obstructionism and the creation of
female status the behavior and attitude of several Italian subjects have been analyzed.
The interview with the focus group and with the young generation of doctors helped
to show that the creation of the new “traditional” woman is accompanied by a
reduced interest toward abortion and all types of other feminist flags such as equality
between the sexes and “autocoscienza”. Despite the fact that maternity and childcare
still needs complicated female working conditions as confirmed in the interview with
the lawyers and engineers, at least in some sectors, abortion is not considered a
priority anymore. From the participant observation, it was found that women, in this
specific case, the nurses of the hospitals visited, with the only exception of Empoli’s
hospital, shared the idea that abortion is incompatible with the “traditional” female
role. These women not only acted to limit chemical abortion’s accessibility by
refusing to offer information about it, but they acted with a sort of “maternal” attitude
probably directed to protect women. Not only did their actual words confirm this
impression but also their body language showed a generic antipathy toward women
interested on chemical abortion. This was confirmed especially by the change of
attitude between the first part of the third stage of the participant observation when
the author asked for information about RU 486 and the second part when the author
introduced herself as a PhD student, interested in the topic for academic purposes. It
was more complicated to connect the medical obstructionism to RU 486 to a direct
intention to revaluate family and women’s role within it. The interview with doctors,
demonstrated that professional and economic convenience was the main reason for
doctors to opt to become an objector. However even if it is likely doctors that do not
act directly to revaluate tradition, the fact that the mass adhesion to objection is
allowed by the State or by the majority of women, helps to confirm the hypothesis of
the Italian revaluation of tradition.
II. How do the Italian State, the Catholic Church, doctors and women interact to
create the perception of “Italian women’s” values?
As discussed previously, the whole of Italian society seems to act to protect the
“traditional” form of family, to define the role and status of women and to influence
73
how women should see themselves. This revaluation departs from the idea that Italian
women prioritize family over their career and that they do not need abortion, seeing it
as unnecessary or as something wrong (Muritti, 2011; Campanini, 2010). The results
of the interview of the focus group and of the participant observation of hospitals
seem to confirm this trend and that Italian women share these ideas.
The State, the Catholic Church, many doctors and medical associations and a large
number of Italian women all reacted to the introduction of chemical abortion in a
different way but with the common objective of defending “tradition” and family.
The State, with its inability to subject the population to the rule of law, is in reality
acting to avoid the fact that modernity can change Italian values (Viroli, 2010). The
Catholic Church, which even after the results of the Abortion and Divorce Referenda,
as discussed in Chapter 8, changed attitude and strategy, abandoning a politicized
position, never modified its vision of a woman who is principally focused on family,
reproduction and tradition (Armeni, 2006, pp. 56-58). Regarding doctors, it is true
that the high percentage of objectors, who can potentially paralyze abortions, can
have the indirect result, especially in the absence of any reaction from the State, that
abortion is not seen as a priority for women and for the society, reinforcing the
revaluation of tradition. However, despite the high percentage of objectors there are
also other ways to obstruct the process of abortion and help to define female values
and priorities, like refusing to give information to women or simply offering incorrect
information. To verify these other types of obstacles as well as understand why
people try to prevent abortion, an analysis of the quality of media information was
conducted and the results will be described in detail in Chapter 7. The quality and
accuracy of information is in reality a very important element. As chemical abortion
is only performed up to the seventh week of pregnancy (Armeni, 2006, p. 56),
incorrect information about the procedure or about the place to obtain it can result in
the impossibility of obtaining RU 486, obstructing abortion as conscientious
objection.
Besides the objection to the introduction of chemical abortion in Italy, other activities
have also been performed by these institutions to influence Italian women’s self74
perception. For instance in Chapter 5 it is observed how the State, with its inability to
implement the law and subject the population to the rule of law (Collins, 1998), helps
to maintain mores and tradition where women have a specific role relegated to the
domestic walls. The weakness of the Italian State, as observed by McCarthy (1995)
has helped in fact to maintain the strong “clientelism” in the whole Southern part of
Italy. The “traditional” role of women is strictly connected with this “clientelism” that
acts to maintain power, in those lands, in the hands of a few strong families that
operate beyond the law’s limits. Chapter 7 analyzes how the Catholic Church operates
to confirm how the Church interacts with women and other elements of society to
maintain or reconstruct the reality described by its encyclicals, where women’s main
aim is to be mother and to be the center of the family (Paulus VI, 1968).
III. How Italian women (Sardinian) define their status within Italian society?
The way Italian family is currently organized seems to confirm that many Italian
women not only have a central position within it, in accordance with Italian traditions,
but in opposition to feminist ideas, they desire as Lonzi (1974) states, to maintain this
traditional role. This role represents the real perceived power of women within Italian
society (Armeni, 2006). This central role of many women within the family seems to
bring about both the evident Italian gender division, observed by Armeni (2006), and
the opposition to all new technologies and innovations that can undermine women’s
status and condition inside the family. The fact that radical feminism was never able
to find a strong consensus amongst Italian women, as has been observed by Melandri
(2005, p. 94), confirms this tendency of maintaining female and male roles distinctive
from one another. One of the principal aims of this research is to understand why
many Italian women consider maternity and femininity a priority and career only an
economic need in countertendency with the major feminist theories such as Lonzi
(1974), Brownmiller (1985), and de Beauvoir (1949). This research’s hypothesis, in
line with Melandri (2005) and Armeni’s (2006) thoughts, is that Italian women realize
that their fundamental role inside the family represents their real power and they are
therefore not willing to sacrifice it.
75
This hypothesis seems even truer in a small, isolated area like Sardinia, where the
scarcity of jobs and resources makes it more difficult to start a family and have
children. In fact, in Sardinia in 2008 the average age for having the first child, often
the only one, was 34 for men and 31 for women (ISTAT, 2008). Despite this, the
percentage of marriages in Sardinia the same year was 4.4%, well above the national
average of 4.1%, only behind Sicily at 4.8%, the other Italian Island in the South
(ISTAT, 2008). Here, where public funds are limited due to the scarcity of population,
family and Church have a central role in the community (Armeni, 2006). Thus, the
perception of many Italian women in this area, with regard to their role within the
family, could be stronger than in the rest of Italy and their attachment to “tradition”
could be perceived as greater.
4. Ethics
This research raises a few ethical issues that the author tried to contain. The topic
needs to be treated with particular tact. There has not been any direct contact with
women who either wanted or had an abortion and this limited the risk of touching on
ethical issues. Interview participants were recruited on a voluntary basis with the only
exception of the nurses and doctors that were interviewed during the participant
observation in Italian hospitals. All the people interviewed were recruited through
previous personal connections. For that reason, a certain level of trust was already
there and it is believed that the interviewees talked openly and honestly. The
interviews with doctors were also conducted on a voluntary basis and anonymity was
guaranteed to all the participants.
An initial approach was made by email or letter requesting the interview and in the
case of a positive answer, the questions were shown before the interview, to allow
everybody to refuse to answer any. Verbal consent was requested and all interviewees
were granted access to the result of the interviews before they were written in the
thesis. In case the verbal consent was not enough, a written form of consent was
76
prepared, in which confidentiality and anonymity were guaranteed31. As suggested by
Holmes (2004) names, addresses, or letters of correspondence have not been stored on
hard drives. The interview and focus groups were conducted in a location convenient
to the interviewees and they were recorded on a digital voice recorder for later
transcription, ensuring that the transcription did not include the participants’ names.
All interview recordings will be held in digital format and stored centrally on the
password controlled university server for 10 years. Likewise, all transcripts will be
held in the same manner. These will be encrypted and password protected and the
password will be kept separate from the transcription. The interviewees had the
chance to review the results of the interview before including them in the thesis. All
participants received a thank you letter immediately following their participation and
in addition received a final summary of the research.
The doctors and women received a letter with the description of the work and their
role in the research was made clear to them. The description of the study has been
detailed and a copy of the proposal and of the research plan has been made available
to avoid risk of deception (Bryman, 2012, p. 143). As previously specified, the letter
contained a copy of all the questions that were asked during the interview. The letters
also included contact details for the researcher and for Prof. Anthony King who
supervised the research.
The technique of going to a hospital and requesting information concerning abortion,
which can potentially represent an ethical challenge, did not, in reality, create major
ethical issues because chemical abortion was never requested. Only general
information, non- sensitive in nature, concerning how to obtain chemical abortion and
how long it would be necessary to wait to have one was requested or if leaflets were
available, and the author never declared myself pregnant. The first part of this
approach, which consists of a simple and structured observation of nurses’ and
doctors’ behavior, did not raise any ethical concerns because it looked at the behavior
31
See Appendix.
77
of civil workers in a public place and the author did not influence under the behavior
of these people at any point during the observation. Also, this method did not raise
ethical concerns regarding the invasion of privacy of the participants, during the
structured interview, because no personal questions were formulated to both nurses
and doctors, but only public information was asked for, such as the performance of
chemical abortions in the hospital, the availability of leaflets, where chemical abortion
was performed and the number of conscientious objectors in the hospital. It is
important to note that as the participant observation was conducted in Italian
hospitals, it was necessary to look at the Italian legislation regarding ethical research
and privacy, in particular the decreto legislativo (legislative decree) (Dlg)32 196/2003
Codice in Materia di Protezione dei Dati Personali (Code regarding Data Protection)
(Governo Italiano, 2003), more carefully than at the British one33, that was respected
during the participant observation in the UK, to guarantee that the participants were
not harmed at any time.
This type of participant observation is particularly important because it showed the
actual situation of women. If the author had introduced herself as a PhD student, since
the beginning, she probably would not have discovered the real medical practice and
nurses’ attitudes toward abortion because it is possible to hypothesize that they would
not have liked to advertise an attitude against the law’s dictatum, as also suggested by
Myrdal (1944, p. 69). It is true that abortion is a particularly sensitive topic and it
needs to be treated with a lot of care. It is also true that this research could also have
potentially caused the author some psychological distress. In fact, the researcher
received some hostility and some aggressive questions. However, it was very
important for this research to collect information in this way. The name of nurses or
physicians who gave information or the names of hospitals where the information was
collected were not made public. But after the research, both nurses and physicians
32
Italian legislative decree is a legal act adopted by the Government with Parliamentary delegation.
Decrees have the same legal value as Parliamentary laws. Art. 76 of the Italian Constitution states that
legislative decrees must be very detailed, therefore recently decrees are preferred to Parliamentary laws
for subjects that need to be regulated in detail such as Data Protection (Caretti and De Siervo, 2006, p.
11).
33
The Telecommunications (Data Protection and Privacy) Regulations 1999 (British Parliament,
1999).
78
were allowed to comment on the result obtained. As mentioned previously, despite
the Italian law not requesting it, authorization was requested from both doctors and
nurses during the participant observation in hospitals, to record the interviews and to
use the material that had been digitally recorded. It was not necessary to obtain
restricted and sensitive information for the rest of the study. Indeed the ISTAT
(Italy’s national statistic institute) is public and official Italian statistics, legislations
and debates are public information. Information concerning objectors and nonobjectors is public and for that reason it did not create any ethical concerns.
5. Conclusion
To sum up, the aim of this study is to understand the relationship between the
implementation of RU 486 and the definition of Italian women inside Italian society.
In order to achieve this objective, several pieces of secondary data were collected.
Primary data were collected through semi-structured interviews and participant
observations in several Italian hospitals and clinics. It was decided to choose a small
size sample of women, despite this limiting the validity of the data collected, because
the author was aware of the impossibility of obtaining data representing the whole
Italian female population. The data collected in this way has been validated by
comparing the interviewees’ answers with trends in magazines, newspapers and
television’s programs.
Concerning participant observation, it is believed that this innovative method could
reveal the real attitude and behavior of hospital staff, that otherwise could have been
falsified to conform to the Italian legislation. This method, as discussed above, could
raise a few ethical issues that have been addressed following the data protection and
privacy Acts in Italy and the UK.
79
It is believed that the methods used to achieve these objectives will help to obtain a
clearer vision of Italian females’ definition. They will also help to acquire knowledge
on how Italian institutions interact to influence women’s view on topics such as
reproduction, fertility and contraception. These methods will therefore help to give a
contribution to the knowledge of the female condition in Italy.
80
4. ABORTION IN THE UK
1. Introduction
The purpose of this study is to understand the social definition of female status within
Italian society through an analysis of the implementation of chemical abortion in
Italy. A comparative analysis will be conducted later in this chapter, comparing the
availability of abortion, from a legal and social point of view, and the condition of
women in Italy and the UK. Italy and the UK are both Western European countries,
economically developed and modern. However, their situation is deeply different for a
number of reasons. First of all, the UK has a long liberal political tradition that led to
the introduction of the “rule of law” that requests that every institution or citizen is
equally subjected to the law (Jore and Pintore, 1995, p. 97). The medical associations
that had a huge influence on the way the UK Abortion Act has been formulated
(Lovenduski, 1986), do not represent an exception to this rule and therefore they have
to rigidly follow the law. The “rule of law” concept is almost completely missing in
Italy, which started the process of modernization at the beginning of nineteenth
century, a long time after the UK (Jory and Pintore, 1995). The presence of the
Catholic Church in Italy, strongly supporting “traditional” values, slowed down this
process even when it finally started. Secondly, the UK is much more economically
developed than Italy, even in the poorer areas of the country (McCarthy, 1995, p. 15).
Italy is strongly regionalized and its three main areas represent very different realities.
The North and the Centre are industrialized and economically developed, complying
with the Western European standard, whilst the South is very backward with a very
high level of unemployment. Moreover, the South is characterized by the presence of
a very strong “clientelism” connected to a highly organized form of crime, which the
central government is struggling to eliminate (McCarthy, 1995, p. 60). Thirdly, it is
widely accepted that the feminist movement in the UK was strong and able to support
female needs (Richards, 1980; Rossi-Doria, 2005; Rich, 1976; Donnison, 1977). In
Italy on the other hand, as has been discussed in Chapter 2, there is a division, as
Ellena (2005) states, between those who believe that it was a weak manifestation of
the ideas of a few educated women, who appeared in the sixties and seventies to deal
81
with few issues and that after that disappeared almost completely, and who, as Baeri
(2005), Melandri (2005) and Fraire (2002) argue, consider it a strong movement able
to address female needs but unable to maintain political relevance in the long term. To
be able to proceed with a comparative analysis it is necessary first of all to understand
what led to these differences and why abortion and other reproductive rights have
different values in the UK and in Italy.
2. The British liberal State
The British State, as it appears now, has its roots in the Magna Carta where, in the
thirteenth century, for the first time, the concept of the “rule of law” was introduced,
that is, as Churchill (cited by Jory and Pintore, 1995, p. 102) argues: “a principle …..
of prime importance for the future development of English society and English
institutions”. The “rule of law” indicates that the State is regulated by laws and not
by people. Every single power of the State must conform to the law. Thus, all acts of
the judiciary, of the police and of the legislator itself must conform to the constitution.
The rule of law is a form of control of the power of the State giving the citizen the
absolute knowledge of its rights and freedoms. There are several elements to protect
the “rule of law”: the existence of a rigid constitution that cannot be modified with
the normal procedure for law modification, and the separation and independence of
the three main powers of the State, the executive and legislative and judiciary’
powers. In particular, the independence of the executive and legislative’ powers, as
per de Secondat (1748), represents the strongest form of guarantee that the State will
continue to operate in conformity to the law (Jory and Pintore, 1995, p. 97).
Sovereign and State subjectivity to the law have played a fundamental role in the
development of liberal theories. Locke, for instance, used the “rule of law” and
natural rights to justify the overthrow of the absolutistic Stuart dynasty34. In the UK,
34
The same rule also inspired the lawyers Gropius and Pufendorf who created the foundation of
international law in the 17th Century (Donnelly, 2006, p. 51).
82
not only is the population bound to strictly observe the law but also the State itself
must observe the law and must guarantee the law’s enforcement.
The relationship between the State and law has been an object of complex studies by
sociologists (Johnston, 1984; Clark, 1981). The State uses the legal system to enforce
the law, but it is particularly problematic when the laws that have to be enforced are
ideologically problematic. In such cases, the fear that the law can constrain the State,
forces the legislator to state laws that are intentionally left general, to leave a certain
margin for interpretation, like in the case of the Abortion Act, which will be discussed
in the following paragraphs. Another reason that can help to understand this decision
of maintaining certain generic laws is that, if the topic of the law is particularly
problematic or obscure, new interpretations or scientific innovations would not force
the legislator to adopt a legislative change. External pressures can also be the reasons
behind this phenomenon of intentionally stating general laws. For instance, during the
approval of the Abortion Act a very important role was played by feminist groups and
medical associations who obstructed all attempts to approve a law on abortion that
was too detailed, therefore potentially limiting doctor and women power reducing
their interpretations’ options (Lovenduski, 1986).
As a consequence of this strong relationship between the State and law and the fact
that the State is obliged to guarantee equality between its citizens, the level of social
security35 in the UK appears to be quite satisfactory, especially compared with that in
Italy, as will be discussed later in this chapter and in Chapter 5. It is possible that the
presence of a satisfactory type of social security and better economic situation caused
a change in the role of family within British society. As Ferrazzi (2004, p. 23)
observes, the British family is a very weak element of the society, especially
compared with the Italian family. Members of the family generally do not turn to their
relatives to obtain social or economic support, being able to count on the State for
support.
35
There are several types of benefits offered by the UK State to all British citizens and to the residents
in the UK, for instance: Income support, Housing benefits, Tax credits, Child Benefits, Statutory
Maternity pay and Disability Living Allowance.
83
In Britain, the government, especially in the seventies, but also now, had to deal with
the increasing number of low paid or part-time workers36. Within this category there
was a high percentage of women who planned to go back to work after their children
reached school age. In the past, these women would not have been entitled to
unemployment benefits, due to discontinuing their career following marriage and
children. The fact that Britain has a very high number of single mothers37 has forced
the State to adopt mixed policies for social work and social security. Social policies in
the nineteenth century tended to be principally directed toward supporting men.
Women were supported by their husbands or fathers and if they were unmarried
mothers they did not have any form of assistance since social policy aimed to protect
the traditional form of the family based on monogamous marriage, without giving any
protection to women who decided to live outside this “normal” family. The new
system has completely removed this form of discrimination (Ferrazzi, 2004, p. 20).
Nowadays, all non-working people can have access to income support. Connected to
this type of help there are also council flat allocations and housing benefits.
Generally, women with young children are the most popular applicants for housing
benefits and they receive priority placements. This is probably because, with regards
to income support, it is generally the man who claims the benefit. On the other hand,
for housing benefit, with men statistically most likely to disappear, the claim is often
made in the woman’s name (Ferrazzi, 2004, p. 22). Concerning health support health,
the National Health Service (NHS) in Britain guarantees access to health assistance
for everybody (citizens and residents), with very few exceptions such as a fee for
prescriptions and dental care. In Britain, a social fund that helps poor people to cope
with exceptional situations also exists. For instance, it is possible to apply for this
grant to cover maternity costs. The availability of these benefits changes in the
36
Low paid workers and part-time workers, especially if with children, can qualify to claim Tax credits
and in 2012 could claim up to £13.480 per year, greatly impacting the government’s annual financial
balance (HM Revenue and Custom, 2012).
37
In 2011, lone parents represented 26% of all families with dependent children (Office of National
Statistics, 2012).
84
presence of children. Not only is a higher level of benefits guaranteed, but there are
also certain measures directed exclusively toward the mother and child, such as
vouchers for school meals, milk and vitamins for children and pregnant women.
Moreover, women who are not eligible for Statutory Maternity Leave (SML) are
protected by a maternity allowance. However, the maternity allowance is sometimes
not able to cover all the expenses of childbearing and women are forced to apply for
extra loans. Child benefit is a payment directed only toward people with children.
Generally, the mother claims these benefits but the father can also claim them. The
reason why mothers are generally the claimants is political and lies behind the activity
of feminist movements who sought to compensate women for the fact that men were
seen as the main breadwinners and as claimants for all the other forms of benefits.
Moreover, these benefits could give credit to mothers for basic retirement pensions,
balancing the entitlement due to men depending on work or unemployment (Ferrazzi,
2004, pp. 1-32).
In Britain, social security is strictly regulated and the State is the provider of welfare
for all families in need. Therefore, this form of assistance can also be defined as
universal. In Italy, on the other hand, as will be discussed in depth later in Chapter 9,
assistance is regulated at a regional level. The State only gives some general
indications in the Titolo V of the Italian Constitution and at the moment only 15 out of
21 regions have ad hoc38 legislation. People in need can rely on the State only if no
relatives can economically support them and only if they fall within a minimum
criteria, different not only from region to region but also from municipality to
municipality (Ferrazzi, 2004, pp. 50-52).
Despite the State obligation, coming from the “rule of law”, to guarantee equality to
all its citizens, and the good level of social support offered by the State, British
women in the nineteenth and twentieth century felt that the State was failing to
support them, relegating them to the role of mother and wife and limiting their access
to certain type of jobs39 or to certain benefits, as described in Chapter 2 (Petcheski,
38
From Latin, meaning a legislation formulated specifically to regulate a given topic.
39
Until the 20th century, British women had access only to domestic work and factory labor (Zerilli,
2005, p. 3).
85
1987). In response to these limitations, first-wave feminism took its first steps during
the end of nineteenth century and early twentieth century. It focused firstly on
obtaining domestic equality between men and women and only later started to
converge on women’s suffrage and on reproductive rights (Zerilli, 2005, p. 3). The
main points of the second-wave feminism have been analyzed in Chapter 2, radical
and liberal feminism both indicated the right to choose as a “manifesto” of feminism
(Firston, 1974; Rich, 1976; Donnison, 1977). As described in Chapters 2 and 9, since
recently, the right to choose has been, strongly associated with reproductive freedom
and the right to obtain free access to abortion (Armeni, 2006). For this reason, at the
end of nineteenth century the British feminist lobby started to actively raise their
voice to convince the State that abortion needed to be regulated and needed to become
accessible to every woman in the country (Lovenduski, 1986, p. 52). However,
feminist activity was balanced by the strong British medical associations that, as will
be described later in this chapter, wanted to maintain control over abortion thereby
preventing the approval of a too detailed Abortion Act (Keown, 1988, p. 93).
The British Medical Association (BMA) was founded on 19th July 1832. The
Association’s aim was to promote medical reform and to protect medical’s interests
(Bartrip, 2007, p. 72). The “rule of law”, as clarified above, applies to all citizens and
associations in the country and therefore it also binds the BMA to strictly follow the
law of the State. The BMA therefore must follow the law without being able to escape
it or interpret it, as is the case with Italian doctors, which will be described in Chapter
6. This situation can potentially restrict medical activity if the State regulates a
medical procedure in detail. For this reason, as discussed above, the British medical
associations tend to ask for medical cooperation before a reform or a new law is
approved that concerns medical subjects (Francome, 1984). The medical associations,
as will be described later in this Chapter, reacted to the approval of the Abortion Act.
The BMA and other medical associations were in fact aiming to obtain a general and
balanced law that could leave them some freedom of interpretation.
The relevance of the “rule of law” in the UK, the competent and relatively strong
State and the presence of feminist groups made it possible for the process of
86
abortion’s legalization to start much earlier in the UK than in Italy (Ferrazzi, 2004, p.
32). These elements also meant that the process of approval of the Abortion Act faced
different obstacles in the two countries. In Italy the biggest obstacle was represented
by the Church and by the political party DC, as will be discussed in Chapter 5, whilst
in the UK the biggest obstacle was represented by the medical associations fear of
losing independence. In this chapter the process that led to the approval of the British
Abortion Act will be described, leaving the description of the Italian situation to later
chapters.
3. First steps toward the legalization of abortion in the UK
The whole process that led to the liberalisation of abortion started in 1837 when the
death penalty for abortion was removed with the Offence Against the Person Act
(OAPA). In 1929, Parliament recognised the possibility of “child destruction” with
the intent of preserving a mother’s life, but it did not consider abortion as a way to
achieve that result. At that time, science was not advanced enough to be able to use
termination as a way of preserving a mother’s life. The legality of abortion with the
intent to save a mother’s life was established in 1938 with the important case of R vs.
Bourne (Williams, 1983, p. 295). A. W. Bourne, an important gynecologist,
performed an abortion on a fourteen-year-old girl, who was pregnant as a result of
multiple rapes (Williams, 1983, p. 296). The abortion was performed with the consent
of the parents, in a public hospital and it was completely free. The doctor pleaded not
guilty in relation to the accusation under the S.58 of the 1861 Act, justifying his
action on health grounds and he was acquitted. He said that the pregnancy could
likely cause serious injury and abortion was necessary to save the life of the mother
(Molan, Molan, Bloy and Lanser, 2003, p. 207). The judge, Mr Justice Macnaghten
used the word “unlawfully” referring to abortion. He specified that the meaning of the
word was that not all terminations were unlawful. He said:
“The law of this land has always held human life to be sacred, and the protection that
the law gives to human life it extends also to the unborn child in the womb. The
unborn child in the womb must not be destroyed unless the destruction of that child is
87
for the purpose of preserving the yet more precious life of the mother” (Macnaghten,
1938, cited by Williams, 1983, p. 296, Keown, 1988, p. 51).
These words showed that for the Court it was far more important to protect the health
and life of the mother than the one of the fetus, which “is not yet formed, cannot live
outside the womb and is just a child-to-be” (Williams, 1983, p. 296).
Despite this important sentence, the Bourne case did not produce an increase in
medical abortions40. Often women who were raped or deserted by their husbands
failed to have it done. There were only two hospitals, one in London and one in
Newcastle that performed the operation, but in general the common solutions were
knitting needles, syringes or sticks of slippery elm. There were probably thousands of
illegal abortions per year41, but only approximately one hundred were convicted.
There are numerous reasons to explain this high percentage of abortions despite it
being extremely difficult to obtain accurate figures. First of all, the women who had
the abortion performed on them did not want to report it, and secondly, police
themselves did not consider the abortion as a crime per se, thus it is difficult to have
an exact number of the number of illegal abortions performed before the approval of
the Abortion Act (Williams, 1983, p. 300).
4. The Abortion Act 1967
The Abortion Act was ratified in the UK in 1967, when the Parliament gave its assent
to the Abortion Bill presented by the liberal MP David Steel. However, the approval
of this Act faced some difficulties and many debates. In particular, as will be
discussed below, it met the opposition of the Medical Association, afraid that a
Medical abortions on the grounds of saving the mother’s life are still not common. Data are
accessible only from 1967, when the Abortion Act was approved and official statistics became
available. For instance, in 1990, only 151 abortions were performed to save the mother’s life. This is
0.004% of all abortions (Jarmulowicz, 1994, p. 5).
40
41
No official statistics are available regarding Abortion prior to the introduction of the Abortion Act
1967.
88
detailed law on abortion could limit their activity. In contrast with the Italian
situation, physicians and medical associations in the UK are rigidly subject to the law
and therefore doctors feared that the State could limit their professional freedom
(Keown, 1988, p. 93). In Italy on the other hand, due to the Italian attitude of the
population to disregard or freely interpret laws (Viroli, 2010), as will be discussed in
Chapters 5 and 7, doctors feel less pressure from laws, and as result of this they did
not strongly react to the introduction of the Italian Abortion Act. This difference in
doctors’ attitude is also observable in the different perception regarding conscientious
objection given by British and Italian doctors and medical associations.
The sixties in the UK were the years of liberalization, abolition of capital punishment,
decriminalization of male homosexuality and the issuing of the Divorce law. The
reasons that justified the passage of David Steel’s bill are various. First of all, in the
1960s there was a particularly strong parliamentary liberalism that was probably
influenced by the new wave of young MPs who were part of the Labor majority
(Keown, 1988, p. 93). Secondly, at the time there was a neutral government
composed of some ministers mainly favorable to reforms. The Abortion Law Reform
Association (ALRA), a group formed in the 1930s, had a fundamental role in
preparing the population for the idea that abortion deserved to be regulated and
legalized. On the other hand, at the time, there were no counterpart groups; in fact, the
Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC) was first introduced at a press
conference on 11 January 1967, with the intent to stop the passage of Steel’s bill
(Keown, 1988, p. 94).
In the early 1960s, the ALRA thought that it was better to reform the existing law
instead of implementing a new law to decriminalize the practice, thus his main goal
became the introduction of a reform bill. To strengthen its position, the ALRA sought
the approbation of different groups and associations such as the Family Planning
Association, The National Council of Women, and the Women’s Cooperative Guild.
This campaign achieved important success and it helped the initiative by giving it
significant support (Lovenduski, 1986, p. 52). However, not all interested factions
were in favor of the reform bill, in particular, the medical associations, which, as
89
every member of British’s society would be strongly subjected to the law, feared that
the legislator was planning to remove or limit medical control over abortion. Thus,
several
Medical
Association
Committees
started to
produce reports and
memorandums in an attempt to make the medical point of views and concerns widely
known (Keown, 1988, p. 94).
In 1966, the Royal Medico-Psychological Association (RM-PA) wrote the first of
these warnings, a Memorandum on Therapeutic Abortion, that was in favor of a new
legislation on the grounds that members believed a new law could be more beneficial
than minimal changes to the present legislation. They complained that the bill was
inhibiting doctors from advising on or performing abortions. Their opinion was that
the mental health of the mother and of the family had to be safeguarded, allowing
abortions to be performed under certain conditions. The Memorandum was in support
of eugenic abortion as well. Indeed a mother
“might need relief not only from the pregnancy itself but from the cares of looking
after another infant in an already overlarge family” (R.M.-P.A., 1966).
The report said that abortion should be used as a beneficial instrument for society,
especially in the case of young or unmarried girls, victims of rape or women with
difficult family situations (Keown, 1988, p. 94). From their memorandum, it was also
clear that they felt that abortion was the best solution in cases of a pregnancy of a
woman with severe or chronic mental illness. The report in particular, outlines the
concern of the RM-PA over the possibility that the law can infringe or limit clinical
freedom:
“doctors would not wish a situation to be created by law which would encroach upon
their independence in matters requiring professional and ethical judgment” (RM-PA,
1966).
The report from the Medical Women’s Federation (MWF) was published the same
year. The report agreed with the RM-PA that abortion needed to be regulated and it
suggested that only trained and skilled doctors could perform it. The association
90
specified that in case of risk of fetal abnormalities, abortion should depend only on
medical decisions and not on pre-defined legal indications whilst legal indications
could be used to authorize abortion in the case of rape or when the pregnant woman
was below a given age. They also introduced the idea that abortion should never be
performed against a woman’s will and thus all abortion certificates would have to
contain the written authorization of the consenting woman (Keown, 1988, p. 95).
The Royal College of Gynecologists (RCOG) and the BMA warned the legislator to
be sure about medical cooperation before reforming the law. In particular, the BMA
said that:
“…too much change could result in women telling their doctors what to do….(and
that)….nobody other than the doctor could make the assessment of whether or not the
pregnancy should be terminated” (Francome, 1984).
The same year a special report on Therapeutic Abortion from the Committee of the
BMA was also published. The Committee, more moderate than the RCOG, expressed
its concern about the preservation of professional freedom. It argued that the decision
to perform an abortion can depend on many different circumstances and the final
decision should be left to medical opinion:
“The ultimate decision to advise termination of pregnancy rests with the doctors in
charge of the case and, subject to the conditions laid down to safeguard the security
of the pre-viable fetus, the law should not seek to influence this decision by further
defining the degree of risk, which must be present before termination can be regarded
as lawful” (BMA, 1966).
Thus, the Committee believed that the law needed a reform, believing that the law
that regulated abortion at that time was too restrictive and did not even include
eugenic abortion. However, they argued that the reform had to be approved through a
consideration of medical interests and opinions. The Committee requested to include
in the reformed law, the case of abortion in the case of serious abnormalities of the
fetus. However, it did not ask to include in the reformed law the case of rape, incest or
91
lawful intercourse with a subnormal woman (Keown, 1988, p. 90). The RCOG
published the most conservative report. The RCOG’s position was that there was no
need for legal reforms. They appreciated the freedom offered by the law at that
moment, which in reality allowed doctors to take unquestioned decisions. In fact, the
College said: “the flexibility of the existing law allowed doctors to terminate
pregnancy after consultation whenever it was felt to be in the interests of the woman
and her unborn child”. The association also suggested that in the case of any reform
of the law, the legal modification would have to be general to give to doctors the
possibility to interpret the norms (Keown, 1988, p. 93).
If the extreme and defensive position of the RCOG was not taken into much
consideration, the BMA report was analyzed by the Steel commission and as a
consequence, David Steel withdrew a clause contained in the first draft that allowed
abortion on social grounds (Keown, 1988, p. 95). The elimination of that clause, seen
by the ALRA as a betrayal, permitted the bill to pass the Commons stage with almost
no complications (Lovenduski, 1986, p. 93). After the approval of the bill it seemed
that the abortion issue was finally solved. However, after the first approval of the bill,
ten amendments were presented and in eight cases the aim of the modification was to
restrict the law. These proposed amendments caused many debates, but ultimately,
they did not result in particularly important restrictions due to the intervention of the
strong group, the National Abortion Campaign (NAC). This group, compared to the
other pro-abortion groups such as LIFE or SPUC, had a powerful influence due to its
economic resources and to the support offered to it by the feminist network that
emerged in the Labor movement in the seventies (Lovenduski, 1986, p. 50).
Since the amendments proposed after the approval of the law did not result in
significant changes in the following years, four parliamentary challenges to the
Abortion Acts were presented. In particular, the James White’s 1975 bill asked to
diminish the role of charitable agencies. This bill had significant parliamentary
support despite the positive Report of the Lane Committee presented in Parliament
regarding the performance of the 1967 Abortion Act. In 1977, William Benyon’s
amendment bill, that aimed to eliminate the charitable advisory services, was
92
presented and made low-cost abortion available to women who did not have sufficient
help from the NHS. This amendment bill completed its committee stage but did not
reach the report stage. Then in 1979 John Corrie presented a particularly restrictive
amended bill that represented the biggest attack on the legislation. The intentions of
the amended bill were to reduce the limit of abortion from twenty-eight to twenty
weeks, reduce the social grounds, give the possibility for doctors and nurses to refuse
to perform abortions on moral grounds (conscientious objection), and finally to limit
the activity of the charitable agencies introducing new procedures and separate
agencies and clinics that performed abortions, with the consequence of making
abortion more expensive and the procedure longer. The amended bill had a lot of
possibilities of success, since in 1979 the elections saw the victory of the conservative
party and both the majority and the PM were in favor of a restriction of the Abortion
Act (Lovenduski, 1986, pp. 51-53).
The Conservative victory was not the only reason that the restrictive process could be
potentially simplified. In fact, at the end of seventies, some of the pro-abortion
associations such as SPUC and LIFE started to lose their consensus and became
involved in a series of scandals that attracted media attention42. By the end of the
seventies, even the feminist groups had lost their political strength; in fact, the internal
divisions weakened the movement, thereby benefiting to the reformist side (Ferrazzi,
2004, p. 29). The ALRA was still on the scene but the most important group that was
active in defence of the Abortion Act was the NAC, established as a consequence of
Wright’s bill in 1975. NAC with the ALRA started the campaign against the 1979
amended bill in collaboration with the Labor Abortion Campaign (LARC), and,
despite the favor of the new Government and the weakening of the pro-abortion
associations and feminist groups, Corrie’s bill failed to be approved for a series of
reasons. First of all, its restrictive nature met with opposition from the medical
category because specifying all possible circumstances in which abortion could be
performed, was limiting medical freedom. Secondly, supporters of the bill refused to
reach any type of compromise with the other factions in relation to the possible
42
Media here refers to radio, television, newspapers and magazines.
93
reduction of the limit from twenty-four weeks to twenty, complicating any possible
negotiation (Lovenduski, 1986, p.58).
Despite these many amendment requests, the Act is very innovative and influenced
debates concerning abortion in many countries. For example, the US and Italian
Abortion Acts would probably not have taken their present shape without the 1967
UK Abortion Act43. However, the British Act, as Francome (1984) observes, has two
important limits: the first is that women do not have real control over their decision,
being obliged to convince two physicians that their reasons are valid. The second
limitation is that the NHS is not obliged to guarantee a free abortion to every
woman44.
5. The situation after the introduction of the Abortion Act 1967 in the UK and
differences between the British and Italian laws
After the introduction of the Abortion Act, the percentage of abortions grew steadily
from 23,641 in 1968 to 167,149 in 1973. After that, the percentage kept oscillating
until it reached its peak in 2007 with 205,598 abortions performed in the UK
(Department of Health, 2009). The vast majority of abortions45 are performed in NHS
hospitals and independent hospitals under NHS contracts (Department of Health,
2011).
After the amendments discussed in the previous paragraph, the Act has been subject
to several other amendments, principally to conform the Act to the new legislations
43
In 1976 the Senate discussion that led to the approval of the bill that later became the 194/1978 law
(Italian Abortion Act) referred several times to the British Abortion Act comparing the bill, object of
discussion, and the British law (Scire’, 2008, p. 122).
44
In 2009, 94% of abortions were funded by the NHS (Department of Health, 2009).
45
96% of abortions performed in 2011 were performed in NHS hospitals or facilities under NHS
contracts (Department of Health, 2011).
94
and to medical innovations. For instance, in 1990 the Abortion Act was amended by
the Human Fertilization and Embryology Act of 1990, that regulates abortion in the
case of in vitro fertilization, a regulation that is missing in the Italian legislation, as
will be discussed in Chapter 8 (Department of Health, 2011). Despite these
amendments the introduction of RU 486, which today is the more used method to
perform abortion below the 9 weeks of gestation46, has been a complex issue. Even
though the British legislation is open to scientific innovation as with RU 486, the
strong bureaucracy has not allowed a fast innovation of the system. In fact, although
RU 486 had been approved, in 1991 only one third of all the NHS hospitals ordered
the pill (Henshaw, 1994, p. 88), and in 2000 just 46% of all NHS hospitals offered it47
(Jones, Henshaw, 2002, p. 157). However, in the UK the situation has changed
rapidly and now almost everywhere women can have access to a chemical abortion up
to 63 days from their last menstruation. The official procedure consists of
administration of Mifepristone to a woman in a licensed facility. After two days the
woman comes back to the facility and is administered with the necessary dose of PG
vaginally and orally that will stimulate the uterus to expel the product of conception.
The woman has to stay in the facility until she expels the product or a surgical
termination is performed. To conclude the procedure, it is necessary to have another
visit in the following 1-2 weeks to verify that the abortion has been completed and
that no hemorrhages have occurred (Jones, Henshaw, 2002, p. 154).
Although the UK law says that abortion has to be performed by a physician, it is
possible that nurses can administer the drug with a doctor’s prescription. This solution
can help to solve the problem connected with medical abortion and the deadline. This
kind of procedure needs to be performed in a short time (63 days from the last
menstruation) otherwise the efficacy of Mifepristone proportionally decreases until it
is no longer able to guarantee an abortion. At the moment, forbidding the nurse to
administer the drug would result in limiting the use of this method. In fact, the long
waiting lists at NHS hospitals and the procedure that requires two physicians to
46
In 2011 60% of abortions under the 9 weeks were performed with RU 486 (Department of Health,
2011).
47
In 2001 only 20% of abortions under 9 weeks were performed using RU 486.
95
declare that abortion is in the best interest of the woman, makes it very difficult to
guarantee that the deadline is respected. For that reason, on 27th July 2007, during the
annual medical meeting, doctors voted to guarantee easier access to early abortions.
The main objective of the vote was to standardize chemical abortion with other
medical treatments and allow its use only with the informed consent of women, which
in
turn,
would
eliminate
the
two
physicians’
authorizations
(Bartrip,
2007). Notwithstanding the vote, the procedure for chemical abortion has not changed
and it is still treated as any other type of abortion with the only exception that the
drugs can be administered by nurses and not exclusively by doctors.
As discussed in the previous paragraphs, the British State is a relatively strong state
characterized by few political parties, thus is able to easily maintain Parliamentary
dominance for a full term. The “rule of law” is strictly applied and the binding
character of laws is probably the reason why the British medical associations such as
the RM-PA were so opposed to the reform of the Abortion law in 1967 (Lovenduski,
1986, p. 52), whilst Italian medical associations did not publicly complain against the
Italian Abortion Act, but preferred to use the escape route represented by
conscientious objection (Scire’, 2008, p. 290). The different attitudes from the two
medical associations could be due to the fact that the Italian medical associations are
much weaker than those in Britain and therefore they would have much less chance of
influencing the approval of the Abortion Act.
The difference in the perception of law, which will be discussed in depth in the next
chapter, is only one of the signs of a weakness in the Italian State. This weakness is
probably due to several reasons such as the strong regional division, the presence of
the Church over land and territory and the inability of the State to support its citizens
and implement its laws (McCarthy, 1995, p. 60). Even if the law is perceived in a
different way in Italy and in the UK, both populations ask their State to guarantee a
minimum level of social security (Ferrazzi, 2004, pp. 32-36). Italy, as will be
discussed in chapter 9, fails to offer a sufficient level of social support especially in
the private sector (D’Imperio, 2003). This lack of regulation forces a family to
maintain a central role within Italian society to support its members, moreover it
96
forces workers, especially women, to develop their organizational skills to be able to
combine their domestic and career needs. In Britain, the level of social support
appears to be more satisfying and this allows the family to have a different role within
society (Ferrazzi, 2004, p. 23).
Despite the British Abortion law influencing the Italian legislation on abortion48, the
two Acts have several differences, principally caused by the different types of State in
the two countries. The biggest difference between the two Acts is that as will be
discussed in the following Chapter, the Italian Abortion Act is more detailed in order
to improve the chances of the law to be implemented and to avoid extension of the
meaning of the law in cases that the legislator did not evaluate at the time the law was
approved (Scire’, 2008, p. 240). The British Act, however, following the pressures of
medical associations (Keown, 1988), is more generic to allow the medical
associations to maintain some independence and to be able to maintain the law,
without continuous updates, in case of new scientific discoveries, like in the case of
the RU 486. However, this is not the only difference between the two Abortion Acts
(Keown, 1988, p. 95).
Another difference concerns the maximum term abortion can be performed. The
British law originally stated a maximum limit of 28 weeks to perform abortion and in
1991 it was made 24 weeks. In Italy, the maximum term to perform abortion when the
life of the mother is not in danger is 90 days. Yet another difference is that the British
legislation protects not only woman’s health, as the Italian Abortion Act does, but
also the health of her family and of the existing child. The British Act was followed
by many debates to be able to identify how great is the risk in order to justify a
termination on the grounds of health and it was finally stated that the risk must be
“greater than if the pregnancy were terminated”. These family health issues were
considered in the same way as the absence of the minimum means to guarantee a
48
Observing the way the two laws have been written is easy to notice the similarity. The Italian Act,
despite being more detailed in the procedure, and having more restrictions in the limits abortion can be
performed and with a few other differences that are described in this paragraph, looks very similar to
the British Act (Scire’, 2008).
97
certain standard of life (Williams, 1983, p. 301). Another difference concerns the
modality to obtain abortion authorization. In the UK abortion can be practiced if there
is approval of two registered medical practitioners formed in good faith (Home
Office, 1967), whilst in Italy only the certification of a doctor, who confirms the
presence of the condition requested by law to authorize abortion, is necessary. Both
laws request that abortion is conducted in public hospitals. British law, states that
terminations have to be performed in “a hospital vested in the Minister of Health or
the Secretary of State under the National Health Service Acts, or in a place for the
time being approved for the purposes of this section by the said Minister or the
Secretary of State” (Home Office, 1967). This aspect of the Italian law will be
analyzed in Chapter 6.
Probably due to the fact that the UK Abortion Act was the first regulation concerning
abortion in the Western world, there are some limitations. First of all, the Act does not
authorize abortion in the case of rape or in the case of the mother being underage.
Williams (1983) argues that rape would not have to be listed under the official
condition of the law for privacy reasons and that rape could influence the doctors in
their decision of authorizing an abortion on health grounds. Therefore, a clear
statement in the Act is not necessary. The Italian regulation considers rape as one of
the conditions in requesting abortion. The law, authorizes abortion considering “le
circostanze in cui è avvenuto il concepimento” (the circumstances in which
conception occurred) (Scire, 2008, p. 86). This is an interesting difference between
the Italian and British regulations, and is an example of the main difference between
the two Acts that are outlined above. In fact Italy, probably aware of the general
attitude of the population and Institutions in disregarding or interpreting laws
(Collins, 2008), had to consider every option, often remaining generic in order to try
to include every possible option in the law with the aim of regulating it. Every blank
space creates issues as in the case of RU 486, while the British regulation, leaving the
law intentionally vague, opens the door to different interpretations and scientific
innovations without the necessity for legislative change. Moreover, leaving blank
spaces in the law enabled Britain to compromise with the influential medical
associations through fear of limiting or restricting their freedom. The “blank space
strategy” (Williams, 1983, p. 301), which has clearly had a positive effect in the UK
98
where the State is strong and able to control medical procedures, would not have the
same effect in Italy, where the State must strictly regulate every option to avoid losing
control over medical procedures. Williams (1983, p. 302) argues, however, that this
vagueness of the British legislation can lead to abortion being authorized for social
reasons instead of strictly medical grounds.
Another difference between the two Acts concerns conscientious objection. The
difference concerns not only the perception but also its application, as will be
discussed in Chapter 7. In Italy, conscientious objection is potentially the biggest
obstacle to the practicability of abortion (Scire’, 2008, p. 290). The large majority of
doctors and hospital staff opt to become objectors and it has been observed that
recently, despite the law requests to justify the choice to become objector, it has
generally become necessary to justify the choice to be a non-objector. Non-objectors
are disadvantaged in Italy, where they are forced to work longer hours for the same
salary and where they end up only performing abortions. In the UK the situation is
very different, as will be discussed in detail in Chapter 7, and in 2001 only 4% of
doctors refused to refer a woman for abortion on the grounds of conscientious
objection (Department of Health, 2001).
Differences between Italy and the UK can also be seen in other laws regarding the
type of social security that the two States offer to the populations. As will be outlined
in Chapter 9, Italy fails to offer sufficient social security forcing family and the
Church to substitute for the State in providing basic assistance to people. The UK, on
the other hand, offers a sufficient and very detailed type of social and economic
support to citizens and British residents (Ferrazzi, 2004, pp. 32-36).
It is exactly this element of flexibility of British doctors compared to their Italian
counterparts in interpreting the law, which is probably the reason why the British
medical associations were so fiercely opposed to the approval of a new restrictive
abortion law in 1967. For that reason, in the UK doctors seem to offer a service and
they offer what the patient/customer asks for. In Italy, on the other hand, doctors
99
appear to feel sufficiently authorised to express their opinions clearly in an attempt to
influence the patient, offering options as well as judgments.
6. Conclusion
To sum up the fairly strong British State, under the influence of the powerful medical
associations, approved the quite generic UK Abortion Act of 1967. This law
represents the first official Act approved in the Western world on the topic. The UK
Abortion Act strongly influences many other European and American legislations on
abortion (Scire’, 2008). The approval of the law was quite lengthy and accompanied
by debates and by the resistance of medical associations, who were concerned that the
government could challenge medical independence and freedom of choice on medical
grounds (Lovenduski, 1986). It is probably thanks to this strong medical opposition,
that aimed to reduce to a minimum the limits imposed by the law, that the Abortion
Act appears to be particularly generic and open to interpretation, leaving doctors often
free to extensively interpret the law in the presence of scientific innovations.
Despite the fact that the UK Abortion Act 1967 inspired the Italian Abortion Act of
1978, the two Acts present several differences: in particular, the Italian law is much
more detailed to limit its possible interpretations, as will be discussed in the next
chapter, whilst the British Act is quite generic, as mentioned above. The differences
between the two states concern not only the Abortion Acts and related subjects such
as conscientious objection, but also the type of social security that the State
guarantees to its citizens. The UK offers a sufficient and very detailed type of social
and economic support, whilst Italy, as will be discussed in Chapter 9, fails to provide
basic social support, forcing family and the Church to assist the population in need
(Ferrazzi, 2004). The result is that family, and therefore women’s status and role in
the society, is fundamentally different in Italy and in the UK. The availability of
abortion and RU 486, as a means of reproductive control is therefore different in both
countries.
100
5. THE FRAGILITY OF THE ITALIAN STATE
1. Introduction
This chapter aims to comprehend the role of the State in the social definition of
female status in Italy. In particular, it aims to assess whether the structure of the
Italian State is correlated to the opposition to the implementation of RU 486 in Italian
hospitals. As has been discussed in Chapter 4 a fairly strong state, like the British
State, subordinated only to the law, can represent a guarantee of an impartial
implementation of laws and an equal treatment of the population. On the other hand,
different types of states, like that in Italy, that is considered by many authors
(McCarthy,1995; Viroli, 2010) a fragile state, can result in social “confusion”, where
citizens and institutions consider themselves free to follow or ignore morally debated
laws of the state, as will be described later in this chapter. However, as Collins (1998)
observes, Italian society seems to operate and survive, without a strict application of
the law, creating kinds of “social sub-groups” that help to direct the society.
The definition of state has been the object of many studies within the sociological
literature. The literature is principally divided between two ideas of state: as an
autonomous entity operating according to strict internal rules and resources or as an
object of a capitalistic society (Valocchi, 1989, p. 349).
Despite these possible
interpretations regarding the nature of the state, it is widely accepted, as Jory and
Pintore (1995) argue, that the State is a socially autonomous entity created by the
union of three elements: sovereignty, population and territory. Regarding the Italian
State, if it is incontestable that the State has a territory, it seems that the other
elements are missing or at least partially missing. First of all, the authors describe the
State as autonomous; however, it seems that on more than one occasion the Italian
State has acted under the influence of other institutions such as the Church and more
than being interested in social issues the State’s concern has been in maintaining
political control. Even when some of the most important Acts such as the Divorce and
the Abortion Act were approved, the reasons behind the approval were not so much
101
about addressing real social issues49 but only the attempt to satisfy different political
factions and to maintain stability inside the Parliament (Campanini, 2010, p. 21).
2. The reasons behind the fragility of the Italian State
Several authors have focused their studies on the nature of the Italian State and its
characteristics (McCarthy, 1995; Viroli, 2010; Pasolini, 1986; Sartori, 1965). From
these studies, the Italian State has been categorized as a ‘fragile state’. A fragile state
can be defined as a state whose sovereignty is not fully recognized by the whole
population and the laws of the state are ignored or liberally interpreted by the
citizens” (Viroli, 2010, 43). These authors proceed to an analysis of the elements
constituent of the state to support their allegation of fragility of the Italian State. As
mentioned above, the State is composed of three elements: sovereignty, population
and territory (Jory and Pintore, 1995, p. 89). These three elements are the basic
component of every state and the lack of one of more of these can result on fragility
of the state. The analysis of sovereignty is integrally linked to an examination of the
population since that the population must recognize the sovereignty of the state. The
territory, on the other hand, can be analyzed separately.
The Italian State was created in 1861, from the union of several different states that
had different languages and traditions. These cultural differences resulted in a strong
regionalism and the population, especially in the South, does not recognize the
authority of the central State and unofficially accepts the supremacy of organized
crime50 (McCarthy, 1995, p. 64). One of the consequences of this inability of the State
to gain general consensus is that the law of the State, often unable to address general
needs, is, as will be discussed later, not followed by the totality of the population in
49
For instance the problem of illegal abortion and the problem of the many de facto families where the
couple was not married and where the children of the couple could not be recognized as legitimate led
to many social and economic consequences, such as the inability of the illegitimate child to inherit
from the father (Campanini, 2010, p. 21).
50
In the South of Italy, there are several forms of organized crime, including, the Mafia in Sicily, the
camorra in Campania and the Ndrangheta in Basilicata.
102
the belief that they would not be punished by not following it (Viroli, 2010, p. 81). It
is quite common for the population to invest more energy in finding a way to avoid
following the laws and remaining unpunished than to behave according to the law.
Corruption is very common, especially following the end of the fascism, and it is still
quite diffused among the population. Moreover, the State itself seems to favor the
corruption culture allowing often exceptions to the laws51. This regionalism, the
corruption and lack of trust toward the law of the State has contributed to weakening
the central State and weakening the sovereignty element of the State. When
sovereignty is weak, as Viroli, (2010, p. 80) observes, the state is unable to maintain a
stabile form of government and in fact in Italy since the introduction of the Republic
not one political party has been able to maintain power for the whole four years of
mandate, reinforcing the mistrust of the population toward the central government.
However, this mistrust is not a new feeling for the Italian population, in fact mistrust
and lack of consensus have been very common since the creation of the Republic. The
lack of trust that the population has toward the State is accompanied by trust and
almost reverence toward the Catholic Church52.
The only common element of the new Italian population, at the time of the unification
of Italy was the religion. Since that moment, the Church has continued to seek to
regain the lost political control of the country53 (McCarthy, 1995, p. 60). However,
the first real results in the attempt to regain political weight were reached only during
the fascist period, in fact Fascism and the Church created an alliance to strengthen
51
For instance, in the case of zoning law the State, instead of demolishing buildings built against
planning regulations, periodically offers a “condono” (amnesty for infringement of local building
regulations) that can be seen as an indirect admission of corruption by the State (Perlingieri, 1997, p.
377).
52
Recently many authors (Armeni, 2006; Muritti, 2011) have argued that the Italian population and
political parties are now showing a new inclination toward the Church and its values. An example of
this attitude can be seen, as will be discussed later, in the approval of the very restrictive new in vitro
fertilization law in 2004.
53
Until 1870, the Church had complete control over Rome and all central Italy. With the Presa di Porta
Pia (when Porta Pia was taken) Rome was conquered and Pope Pius IX was taken prisoner in the
Vatican Palaces (Guerriero, 1996). Since then the Church has been attempting to regain political
power, often changing strategy, following Italian social changes (Armeni, 2006, p. 19).
103
both their positions. Fascism54, which since the unification of Italy, was the only
serious attempt to create a solid state in Italy, realised that an alliance with the
Church, thanks to the Catholic’s influence over the Italian population and Italian
values, would have helped the new State to obtain general support. Until the end of
the war, the fascist state hardly had any opposition not only thanks to the Catholic
alliance but also due to other important alliances that Fascism had created with the
industry (McCarthy, 1995, p. 21). Moreover, Fascism was able to control the masses
and suffocate all political opposition. Pasolini55 (1986) described the capacity of the
regime to convince potential rebels that their beliefs could in reality find their original
source in fascist ideals, transforming potential rebels into fascist sustainers. Pasolini,
talking about himself, said that he was “a political man whom Fascism had
wrongfully suffocated without my knowing it”. In particular, the regime focused on
the attempt to transform the pre-capitalistic extended form of family56 as the main
form of Italian family with the support of the Church (McCarthy, 1995, p. 22). The
consequence of this decision was that the government started to legislate and to
organise a society based on values where women had limited access to basic rights
especially from a reproductive point of view. Legislation and society were modelled
for a man’s world and it was very hard for women to find a place in a society other
than that of being a mother or a wife (Dalla Costa and James, 1972, p. 24).
When the Fascism fell, the Church did filled the vacuum left. The Church, as a former
ally of Mussolini, had the consensus of the population that still supported Fascism and
since the Pope had not left Rome when the King fled57, and had worked to defend the
54
Fascism in Italy lasted from 30th October 1922 when Benito Mussolini was elected Prime Minister
until the end of the dictatorship on 25th July 1943.
55
Pier Paolo Pasolini was an important Italian writer, film director and journalist. His ideas strongly
influenced the Partito comunista (communist party) and all other left-wing parties.
56
In the pre-capitalistic society, family was central to agricultural and artisan production and to
education. Women, children and the elderly had a power deriving from the family dependence on their
work. All members of the family had a role and had to cooperate. However, women, children and the
elderly were relegated to a domestic type of work whilst the men were able to work outside domestic
boundaries (Dalla Costa and James, 1972, pp. 23-24).
57
Vittorio Emanuele III and the Maresciallo Badoglio left Rome on 9 th September 1943. This escape
resulted in complete chaos as the military leaders of the Italian army left the Italian population with no
defence (McCarthy, 1995, p. 20).
104
population from the war, persuading the Nazis not to deport and the Allies not to
bomb, gained the support also of the remaining part of the population. The
fundamental role of the Church was however cultural. As Fellini58 (1993) said: “How
can you not be a Catholic if you are born in Italy?”. From these words, it can be
deduced that the majority of Italian people identify themselves as Catholic59. This
identification with Catholic values, especially after the war, resulted in the political
party Democrazia Cristiana (DC), the Catholic party, becoming the dominant party in
Italy (until the Mani Pulite’s scandal60) with the election of De Gasperi as Prime
Minister (PM). However, the direct control of the Church over the DC ceased in the
seventies when the DC, after the result of the Divorce Referenda61, decided to detach
itself from the Church and to start a new alliance with the PCI to maintain political
dominance (McCarthy, 1995, pp 20-23).
When Italy became a Republic in 1946 there was little consensus amongst the Italian
population over the value of democracy and modernity and the referendum
concerning the change from Monarchy to Republic62 saw the Republic winning only
by a few votes. The Vatican did not support this view toward democracy; in fact, as
Cardinal Domenico Tardini (1943, cited by McCarthy, 1995, p. 23) argued, the
Church did not believe that Italy was ready to be a republic. Moreover, the Church
was afraid that a republic inspired by communist values would be a potential threat to
its hegemony and survival (Cardia, 1996, p. 163). Linz (1974, p. 124), defined Italy as
58
Federico Fellini was a famous Italian film director. The strong relationship between the Church and
Italian population has been described in his film The Nights of Cabiria (McCarthy, 1995, p. 22).
59
An interesting description of this identification of Italian as Catholic has been presented by the
Guareschi (1948) The little world: Don Camillo where the communist major of the village, Peppone,
despite continuously arguing with the priest of the village did not miss a Sunday mass or any religious
festivity and even requested his new born son to be baptised, despite the official anticlerical position of
the communist party.
60
Mani Pulite or (clean hands) was a judicial investigation focused on political corruption. The
investigation resulted in the disappearance of many Italian parties such as PSI, and DC and the arrest of
many political leaders.
61
In May 1974, Italians were called to vote in a Referendum to decide whether to maintain or abrogate
the Divorce Act 1970. Italian voted to maintain the Divorce Act despite the opposition of the Catholic
Church. This was the first defeat that the Church faced before the approval of the Abortion Act in 1978
(Caldwell, 1978).
62
The referendum concerning the change from Monarchy to Republic was held on 2 nd June 1946. The
Republic won with 12,718,641 votes versus 10,718,502 (Perlingieri, 1994, p. 4).
105
“the least stable among the democratic regimes of Europe”. The general lack of trust
toward democratic values that was present in Italy at the end of the WWII is still
present today and many Italians, as Viroli (2010, pp. 80-86) outlines in his analysis of
the Berlusconi’ “Seconda Repubblica”63, are not able to behave or to identify
themselves as free individuals.
At the end of WWII, the Italian State, in its attempt to modernise the State and
transform it from a dictatorship to a democracy, sought to offer more equal laws to
the population. Following the American influence after the end of the WWII, the State
was probably attempting to replicate American or British society (McCarthy, 1995, p.
48). However, all the attempts to change the pre-fascist form of society resulted in a
partial failure. Despite the attempts to expand women’s rights and to change the
structure of family, the weakness of the State unable to support its citizens almost
annulled these changes, as will be shown below (Armeni, 2006, p. 44). With the new
Constitution in 1947, the first important change adopted was the introduction of new
rights for women and the design of a new type of family. In 1968, the law on adoption
was granted which, for the first time, introduced a significant modification to the
family structure reinvented by the Fascism. In 1970, after long parliamentary
struggles and public debates, divorce was introduced, and in 1975, family law
contained in the Italian civil code was modified by the Parliament. However, despite
all these attempts from the State to introduce parity between the sexes in Italy, it
seems that women and men still have a strong repartition of roles within society and
the family today (Armeni, 2006).
In the sixties and seventies, as described in Chapter 2, feminist theories started to
request parity of sexes and women’s emancipation (Brownmiller, 1985; Richards,
1980). As a result, some changes were, in part, introduced, at least on paper, to
eliminate this disparity of roles. However, despite this attempt to eliminate all types of
differentiations between the sexes, the State still shows some difficulties in offering
63
The Seconda Repubblica (the Second Republic) of Berlusconi was the fifty-seventh government of
the Italian Republic, famous now as the longest serving government of the Republic.
106
sufficient social assistance and in supporting the younger generations (Campanini,
2010, p. 83). For instance, the introduction of the new labor law in 2003, which
opened up the possibility of many new types of work contracts in addition to the
traditionally permanent contract has been seen as one of the principal causes of the
instability of young generations that struggle to find a permanent job and therefore are
not able to create their own family in their twenties and thirties. Even though the law
guarantees the same treatment for women and men, it fails to offer social support to
the population, such as proper benefits or working support (D’Imperio, 2003). In fact,
the criteria to access these benefits are very restrictive and often it is possible to
access them only if there are no relatives able to offer any economic support (Pocar
and Ronfani, 1978, p. 421). The approval of this law has been accompanied by new
feelings of disillusionment amongst the whole Italian population, especially the
younger members who, as previously discussed, have more difficulty in finding stable
work. Men and women therefore have to face a lack of stability and support and this
holds younger people back from having their own family (Scire’, 2008, p. 120).
The Church’s influence and the general lack of trust toward democratic values, seen
above, contributed to the creation of a fragile state that, as a consequence, is unable to
offer an exhaustive form of social security to its citizens, which in turn further
weakens the State. Whilst in the UK, as shown in Chapter 4, the presence of
satisfactory social security has led to the loss of centrality of the family, especially the
“traditional” form of family, where women play a determinant role, in Italy the lack
of social support made the “traditional” form of family again desirable, despite all the
attempts of the State, described above, to modernise it. It seems in fact that the
centrality of family in Italian society is proportionally inverted to modernity (Muritti,
2011). With the recent revaluation of “traditional” values, many people have ceased
to criticise the disparity of roles amongst women and men that was debated during the
sixties and seventies, as shown in Chapter 2. This has subsequently led to requests for
laws which support the biological differences and which therefore allow women to
work as well as to maintain a central role inside the family (Hanafin, 2009, p. 236).
107
As has been anticipated above, the Italian Government, represented by the dominant
party, is often more concerned with maintaining a political hegemony than solving
social problems (Campanini, 2010, p. 21). Indeed, even when attention is directed to
solve social issues the very fragmented nature of the Italian Government makes the
State unable to solve them. In truth, every time an issue is discussed, it raises long
debates and confrontations within the parties inside and outside Parliament with the
media64 spreading information, often politically orientated, and not particularly
interested in reporting the real nature of social issues (Cavoni and Sacchini, 2008, p.
2). Moreover, as in the case of the Civil Code’s definition of the family or the
Abortion Act, the solution is often geared more toward finding equilibrium between
the different parties’ positions than solving the problem in an effective way. The
Italian party system is characterized by the presence of several small parties with
completely different ideals, that tend to reach continuous political coalitions between
each other only, and which break down after a few months (Viroli, 2010). In contrast
to what happens in other countries, such as the UK, where there are only a few
dominant parties with similar ideals (Johnston, 1984), this inconsistency causes the
continuous fall of the Government and the necessity of frequent new elections, as
discussed above. This makes it difficult to organize any social change or solve any
issue. This is probably caused by the general disinterest of Italians over political
matters. Although it is possible to contest this conclusion arguing that Italians showed
their interest toward political issues in the sixties and seventies with the students
demonstrations, terrorism and feminist groups (Lonzi, 1974), it can, however, be
argued that this interest was temporary, as well as being inconsistent.
The territory, the third element of the state, as discussed before, contributes to
weakening the hegemony of the Italian State (Jory and Pintore, 1995, p. 89). As
mentioned above, Italy was the result of the union of several states with different
languages and traditions (McCarthy, 2005, p. 64). Regionalism, which resulted from
this union, is still very strong in Italy and in several areas the population is asking for
independence and separation from the Italian State. Two of the biggest examples of
this separatism are the Lega Nord and the Partito Sardo d’Azione. In 1994, the Lega
64
Media here refers to newspapers, radio, television and the Internet.
108
Nord obtained 122 seats in the House of Parliament and from that moment the
requests for independence of Lombardy, Piedmont and Veneto increased (McCarthy,
1995, p. 130). The Partito Sardo d’Azione has requested independence for Sardinia,
claiming that since Sardinia has a different language and strongly different traditions
that differentiate it from the mainland Italy, there were no reasons to justify the annex
of Sardinia to Italy65 (McCarthy, 1995, p. 131). Thus, it is correct to say that Italy has
a territory but it is also correct to say that in certain parts of this territory the
sovereignty is contested and part of the population does not recognize the central
power of the state. This uncertainty concerning the territory contributes to the
weakness of the State, which finds it difficult to implement its laws in areas that claim
independence.
3. The implementation of the law
The “rule of law” as discussed in Chapter 4, prescribes that the state and all its
institutions are subjected to the law. The state is not only subjected to the law, it is
also responsible for its implementation (Jory and Pintore, 1995, p. 97). As discussed
in the previous paragraph, the Italian State is failing in this responsibility. The Italian
citizens and institutions appear not to see themselves as being subjected to the law
and often, especially in the presence of morally debated laws, they feel free to ignore
or interpret the law in the most convenient way (McCarthy, 1995; Viroli, 2010,
Collins, 2008). Examples of this attitude can be seen in Chapter 7, when the high
percentage of conscientious objectors is analyzed. A result of this attitude has also
been the strong opposition to RU 486 that has been evidenced in hospitals around
Italy. The lack of authority of the State could have resulted in the complete
liberalization of abortion and the uncontrolled introduction of new scientific abortive
methods like the RU 486 in public and private hospitals. On the contrary, the inability
of the State to implement its laws resulted in strong opposition and the high
percentage of objectors.
65
Vittorio Emanuele I, ancestor of the first King of Italy, was Prince of Savoy and included Sardinia in
his territories to gain the title of King since Sardinia was a Kingdom. Il Partito Sardo d’Azione is at the
moment the fourth party in Sardinia (McCarty, 1995, p. 134).
109
Tarrow (1977, pp. 193-194) argued that the fragility of the Italian State and in
particular, its inability to enforce laws could have resulted in the complete fall of the
State or in the transformation of the Republic in a despotic state. However none of
these forecasts eventuated. It is possible that, as Collins (1998) argues, this depends
on the fact that the Italian society is able to survive even outside the “rule of law”,
adjusting its behavior depending on the particular situation. In his comparative
analysis of the traffic between Italy and the US, Collins argues that the American
traffic would completely collapse if the drivers suddenly started to ignore the general
Highway Code. In Italy, on the other hand, an antisocial act like starting a manoeuvre
without indicating the desire to leave a parking space, would become a reasonable act
with the collaboration of the community. Aware of the tendency of Italian drivers to
ignore the general Highway Code, the Italian State could reinforce the traffic police or
increase the number of fines given to drivers, to force drivers to rigidly follow the
law. However, there is no evidence to suggest that the reaction from the State could
result in a better management of traffic than the one conducted by the community.
Therefore, it is reasonable to say that in Italy the responsibility to avoid accidents is
shared by the community, and that even in “careless” behavior “repairs any potential
disruption before it become serious” whilst in America the responsibility remains
individual with the individual driver strictly responsible for following the law
(Collins, 1998, p. 304). This capacity of the community to adapt itself to different
circumstances to maintain the society and its “traditional” values can be observed
also in different areas, and the recent attempt to implement RU 486 in Italy is another
perfect example.
It is possible that the several obstacles that the implementation of RU 486 faced, as
will be further discussed in Chapters 6, 7 and 9, are related to the inability of the State
to enforce its law and to the belief of the population that they can avoid applying a
law that they consider morally questionable, without incurring any reaction from the
State (Collins, 2008). For instance, the high percentage of conscientious objectors
amongst Italian doctors could potentially be avoided by the State, as will be discussed
in Chapter 7, but here the State seems to leave the responsibility to regulate the
110
society to the community as in the case of traffic described by Collins (2008). This
tendency of the State to indirectly delegate its own responsibility can be observed also
in the level of benefits and social security that it offers. As will be discussed in
Chapter 9, the State is unable to offer a satisfactory level of social security to the
population, in contrast with the UK, as discussed in Chapter 4, leaving the economic
and social responsibility of the citizen to the family (Ferrazzi, 2004, pp. 32-36).
4. The role of family within the Italian social system
As has been clarified above, one of the main consequences of the fragility of the
Italian State is the creation of a social system where the “traditional” form of family
has a central role, being the nuclear element of the community (Muritti, 2011;
Campanini, 2010, p. 94). Women, in the pre-capitalistic form of family, had a
fundamental and central role within this type of family, being not only essential for
the moral and educational assistance of husband and children but also for the State’s
objective concerning reproduction (Dalla Costa and James, 1972, p. 24). In fact, in an
attempt to strengthen its nationalistic aim, it the fascist regime started an alliance with
the Church supporting the central reproductive role of women within the family. Both
the fascist and Catholic idea of family had, as a starting point, the heterosexual
marital union of two people living together with the extended blood related family
composed of grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. Due to the Catholic’s influence,
marriage became fundamental and one of the embryonic forms of society (McCarthy,
1995, p. 21). As per Campanini (2010, p. 96) marriage became the basic educative
centre of the whole society and not only of children.
During the sixties and seventies, marriage and maternity, which during the fascist
period were considered to represent the real power of women, became the object of
feminist critiques. De Beauvoir (1949), Friedan (1963) and Lonzi (1974) for instance,
argued that both maternity and marriage must be refused and they requested the
society to cease to consider these as the only possible objectives for women. Friedan
(1963, p. 309) describes a woman forced by society to find her identity and
111
satisfaction in the only channels remaining open to her like sexuality, maternity and
possession of material things. Frieden continues saying that the only way to struggle
against this is to empty maternity and sexuality of any “traditional” value and to take
the strategic decision to allow abortion and contraception, making them legal and
available for the population. In particular, these authors believed that the only
possibility for a woman to detach herself from the social established role was the
complete refusal of marriage, reproduction and family making divorce and abortion
the central element of the feminist argument. This position, that found followers in the
US and the UK, did not, however, find particular support in Italy, where many women
were not able to detach themselves from the “traditional” form of family and their
role within it (Campanini, 2010).
The effect of this inability to share values with the masses resulted in the failure of the
feminist movement in Italy and in the creation of a new-feminism inspired by the
“traditional” values shared by the population. As Muritti (2011) describes, many
exponents of the new generation, in spite of some differences, share many values with
their grandmothers and prioritize family rather than career. Moreover, the idea of
maternity has been completely revaluated acquiring new meaning and importance. the
effects of this revaluation of family and maternity can be seen in the strong opposition
that the State and women showed to the implementation of RU 486 in Italy. However,
the opposition of State and women has different roots and also different forms of
manifestation. If some women manifested either disinterest or direct opposition to
abortion, as will be described in Chapter 9, to protect family and their position within
it, the opposition of the State is indirect and it comes from its inability to implement
law, which will be described in the following paragraph. The State, did not directly
obstruct the implementation of RU 486, it only failed to force the Italian institutions
and medical associations to respect the law.
Following this new-feminist theory and the revaluation of “traditional” values,
despite a few changes principally due to economic reasons, the structure of family in
modern society, still reflects the characteristics of the “traditional” form of family
112
introduced during the fascist period. During the “Miracolo Italiano”66, despite the
general belief that the development of the economy could potentially be a form of
threat to the family structure (because of the need to migrate to larger towns for
work), the Italian family was not modified by economic growth. Instead, it seemed
that economic growth increased a family’s economic means since multiple
generations would live and share their work under one roof (Muritti, 2011). As Boris
and Prugel (1996) show, the fact that in Italy the economy is principally represented
by small families conducting their own family business67 proves that during the
economic boom the family acquired a new and stronger role within society and the
economy. Nowadays, due to the fact that Italy is facing one of the deepest economic
and political crises since the end of the WWII, the role of the family is becoming even
more fundamental as the backbone of Italian life. Families now seem to be protected,
as Muritti (2011) argues, especially by women, who recognize the real source of
female power and stability within it.
During the interview with the focus group of women, all the interviewees referred not
only to their idea of family, often criticizing the new modern form of family for its
lack of values, but they also described how they wished to create for themselves a
family based on the “traditional” form of family. Claudia, 29, an engineer and single,
had four siblings and all five of them lived with her parents in their city flat and she
described her family as very noisy saying:
“there was no space or privacy, everything was a family matter, and I used to hate it.
My cousins were also continuously around and my grandparents always wanted us to
spend our summer and Christmas holidays all together. However, now that I am a
woman I appreciate what my parents and especially my mother did for us and I
believe that that was a “real” family. All that sharing made us close and that is the
type of family that I want to create for myself”.
66
Miracolo Italiano (Italian Miracle) refers to the economic boom that followed WWII (McCarthy,
1995, p. 5).
67
94% of Italian businesses are family owned. In these companies all the employees are members of
the same family (Boselli, 2005).
113
Despite the discomfort caused by the lack of privacy and space in her house, Claudia
recognized the benefits of sharing experiences with siblings and cousins. She referred
to her parents and especially to her mother as a “traditional” type of parents and
mother, whose principal aim was to look after the family, as in the fascist’s idea of
family. Another interviewee, Giulia, 28, a lawyer and single described her mother,
this time in negative terms as responsible for the failure of her family since her
mother
“was so busy continuing her career and proving that she was as good as my father
that she hardly ever had time for me, leaving me with my grandparents almost all my
childhood”.
Here again the perception of the central role of women within the family seems to be
clear. The mother, due to her central role within the family, is always responsible,
both in the case of success or failure.
The role of women within the family is today different than it was during the fascist
period. During the regime family and women were central for their reproductive and
educative purposes (Cardia, 1996, p. 142), whereas now, especially after the approval
of the new labour law in 2003, they appear to be central to the personal development
and economic survival of its members (D’Imperio, 2003, p. 30). Career has also
assumed a new role. If in the sixties and seventies it was associated with female
personal gratification today it is associated, by many (Campanini, 2011; Muritti 2010,
D’Imperio, 2003), with economic needs. Coward (1993) in her analysis of the “new”
woman and “why women let men get their way” confirms this position, in particular,
showing how career is now seen as secondary in women’s life. Family is now at odds
with career, which, is considered “stressful and a cause of female competition”. This
contraposition is becoming common amongst Italian women, who consider the family
equivalent to power and control versus the career, which is equivalent to competition,
frustration and domination. Thus, a career that only a few decades earlier was
considered the only way women could obtain economic independence and therefore
equality to men is now being reassessed and is now seen as the obstacle to the
complete realization of a woman’s potential. Economic needs are still very important
particularly now as it is extremely difficult to find a well-remunerated job in Italy, and
114
all members of the family have to work to help the family to survive. This change in
economic conditions is another reason why the whole idea of family and the woman’s
role within it has been revisited, making the “traditional” pre-capitalistic form of
family more difficult to obtain but more appreciated. Another reason that seems to
justify the revaluation of the “traditional” form of family, which consists of several
generations sharing the same habitation, is the complete failure of the more modern
type of family in other countries, which is demonstrated by the high percentage of
divorces68.
It is however important to outline that not all Italian women agree with Muritti (2010)
and Campanini (2011) and the revaluation of the “traditional” form of family. There
are in fact, some who, as Bonino (2012), states, see female emancipation as a priority
and describe career as one of the main source of personal satisfaction for women. It is
possible that this different point of view between prioritizing family over career and
valuing female emancipation depends on social class. The women of the focus group
who, partly, confirmed Muritti (2010) and Campanini’s (2011) ideas were all women
in the middle class, educated at the University level and all from Sardinia. It is
possible that women of a different social class and from more developed areas, such
as Lombardy or Piedmont, that have more options and career possibilities would still
prioritize career over reproductive potential and family. However, as was explained in
Chapter 3, due to the limited resources, this research could interview only a few
women representing only a small part of the Italian society.
5. Italian legislation regarding the status of women
Despite the weakness of the Italian State that has been analysed in paragraph 2 and its
inability to implement laws, many laws have been written in an attempt to modernise
68
In the UK, in 2012 the percentage of divorces was 3.8 per 1000 people whilst in Italy in the same
year 0.27 per 1000 people (European Commission Statistics, 2012).
115
the Italian State and society and reinforce the power of the State. In particular, a few
important laws have been written to regulate family structure and reproductive health.
This section will proceed with a chronological analysis of the laws concerning female
status and family. Without this historical approach it would be difficult to understand
all the necessary steps that led to a Catholic State, which was constructed around
family, ratifying a law that legalised abortion even if in few limited cases (Scire’,
2008, p. 58).
Before the Italian Civil Code in 1942, there was almost a total lack of regulations
regarding the family. It was considered a private domain and the police and the
judiciary system were hardly ever involved in dealing with any issues arising. Before
the new Civil Code, there were only formalisations of norms coming from the
codification of 1865. The justification for this can be found in a statement by Cardia
(1975 cited by Pocar and Ronfani, 1978, pp. 607-608):
“Any particular approach which is required to meet the needs and usage of the day,
and especially the consequence of the phenomenon of the working woman, is perfectly
reconcilable with the fundamentals of this legal regime for the family, and in the
absence of any real exigency, there is no reason to amend formulas which have held
the strength and prestige of a long established tradition”.
The 1942 Italian Civil Code took a very conservative and discriminatory position
toward women and children, even compared to previous legislations. This new Civil
Code, influenced by Fascism, created a particularly structured family where
husband/father had absolute control over all members of the family. The father and
mother had the same obligations, but the wife was subordinate to her husband.
Furthermore, husbands were more privileged, for example, in the case of adultery
where women were punished much more severely than men. The restrictive
interpretations given by the courts and legal doctrine made the Civil Code even
stricter. For instance, some courts authorised a husband to force his wife to give up
her work when family reasons required it (Pocar and Ronfani, 1978, pp. 607-609).
116
With the downfall of Fascism, a new era started for Italy and the first step was the
Italian Constitution, which was introduced in 1947. The Italian Constitution sought to
compromise between the social and political conflicts present in Italy in the post-war
period. The two main parties, the PCI and the DC, were internally divided between
aspirations toward a new democratic state and the desire to maintain the “traditional”
structure of family (Hanafin, 2009, p. 228). The Constitution introduced new
important principles that would become the basis for changes to women’s status in
Italy in the ensuing years. However, even though the principles of gender equality
were stated in the new law, social changes were not immediate and as Hanafin (2009,
p. 228) said: the State
‘was still organised on the basis of the traditionalist model of controlling the sphere
of female sexuality”.
Three articles in particular are dedicated to the family and to the role of its members,
Articles 29, 30 and 31. The moral and juridical equality of husband and wife was
introduced in Article 29. However, this showed limitations, reflecting the period in
which it was written - considering the family as only being based on marriage, and
not on mere cohabitation (Pocar and Ronfani, 1978, p. 609). Article 30 introduced the
concept of equality of the parents in educating and supporting both legitimate and
illegitimate children. Finally, Article 31 introduced the obligation for the Italian
Republic to support and protect families, maternity and the youth (Assemblea
Costituzionale Italiana, 1947). Although these articles represent a clear break from the
past vision of family, the vast majority of the juridical sector made every effort to
delay the implementation of the Constitution in order to defend traditions and the
Catholic position. In particular, it was said that in matters such as family law, the
Constitution was only “vague statements of principles and programmatic starting
points” (Pocar and Ronfani, 1978, p. 609). However, Guerra (2005) suggests that the
Constitution sought to represent a new form of family reflecting changes in society
and not the Catholic form of family. The Constitutional Court supported Guerra’s
position with sentences 126/1968 and 147/1969 which declared the constitutional
invalidity of every law that did not respect the new principles of parity between
spouses (Pocar and Ronfani, 1978, p. 609). The Constitution not only defines family
and its members, but also the woman’s role and priorities. In Article 37, the
Constitution addresses the position of women’s status, reflecting the socio-cultural
117
position of women at the time. In fact, it reiterates the superiority of the maternal
function, clearly defining women’s role within the society (Andall, 1994, p. 239).
Every legal change concerning the family and women’s status was reached after long
Parliamentary processes and every single process was the cause of public debates
amongst the population and social movements divided between innovation and
tradition, a clear example being the events concerning the introduction of divorce.
What is interesting to note is that generally all laws concerning family tend to be a
compromise between the dominant “traditional” current and the other currents
represented by feminists and radicals, among others (Scire’, 2008, p. 200). However,
in the case of the law on divorce, for example, a new tendency emerged and very
unusual alliances were created in Parliament. In fact, the law was approved not only
by the left wing and by the communists, but also by the liberal parties of the right
wing, leaving the DC, monarchists and the new fascists alone (Scire’, 2008, p. 201).
These new alliances probably had more significance than the law itself and they were
the consequence of the new way that Italian public opinion chose to express its will.
While it was normal for Italians to express their opinion through organised parties,
this time the population chose to raise its voice with spontaneous movements such as
youth manifestations or feminist groups (ibid). The reason behind these spontaneous
movements cannot be found in the fact that family law was considered to be of the
highest interest to every member of society (Caldwell, 1978, p. 82). Other laws were
also discussed and approved in the same period that could interest the whole
population, for instance, the reform of the tax law or the regulations set for the
development of South Italy, but these were not met with the same reaction. Probably
the real reason behind this is the fact that family law is less technical than fiscal or
economic topics and for that reason parties themselves decided to use this
particularity of family law and the public’s involvement to change balances within the
Parliament (Scire’, 2008, p. 203). These debates, supported by the masses, lost their
legal weighting and instead acquired a more political, ethical and moral tone (Pocar
and Ronfani, 1978, pp. 610-612).
118
In 1967, the Law on Special Adoption was approved. Prior to this approval, adoption
was still regulated by principles inspired by Roman law and the aim was to satisfy the
requirements of people without heirs. It consisted of an agreement between natural
and adoptive families, so that it would not cause a rupture between the natural family
and the adopted child (Pocar and Ronfani, 1978, pp. 608). During the fifties, the issue
of abandoned children grew in Italy69, especially with regard to the high number of
children taken into public care (Campanini, 2010, p. 21). The reasons behind this
were many and some of the reasons were the same as those which caused so many
illegal terminations before the 194/1978 law was introduced. Having a child outside
wedlock was a scandal for many women. Illegitimate children did not have the same
rights as legitimate children and the majority of them, when born, were put into public
care. Even the Church was vigorously discouraging adoption partly because the
Church was seeking to protect the “traditional” form of family based on blood
relations and partly because, as outlined above, the Church had almost total control of
orphanages in Italy (Pocar and Ronfani, 1978, pp. 610-612). This situation was the
object of many reforms, which sought to encourage the mother and father to recognise
their role and responsibility toward their child, thus avoiding the need to send those
children, born outside of marriage, to adoption. Moreover, public opinion started to
connect crime with early institutionalisation. Therefore, the option to put children in a
family instead of an institution was seen as a form of crime prevention and social
protection. For these reasons, adoption changed from an institution whose aim was to
offer economic support and to protect the patrimony for the adopted (as in the
previous legislation) to a shift toward offering moral support in order to help the
development of the child and to prevent the diffusion of crime connected with
institutionalisation (Pocar and Ronfani, 1978, pp. 612-614). The first presentation of
the law was in 1964 but the Parliament refused to approve it, stating that a reform of
family law had to be consistent and general and not made up of single laws. This was
in perfect line with the Parliamentary attitude of the time that was still seeking to
protect the “traditional” form of the family (Pocar and Ronfani, 1978, p. 616).
69
The official number of children abandoned in Italy in the sixties was 5000 children per year,
however, it is believed that the real number of abandoned children was much higher (Sala, 2007).
119
When the law was finally adopted, it stated that the adopted child would assume the
status of legitimate child of the new family whilst ceasing every contact with its
natural family (Pocar and Ronfani, 1978, p. 614). However, the law in practice, did
not have live up to expectations, principally because of the lack of juvenile courts
with jurisdiction on adoption and because these courts were not so willing to apply
the new law. Another phenomenon that undermined the law was the “market” of
children run by midwives and heads of institutions etc, that used to secretly “sell”
children immediately after birth to families in need of a child that could register the
child as a legitimate child in order to avoid long waiting lists for adoption and that
child being classified as an adopted child70. Sometimes, this avenue was preferred in
order to avoid the public acts of regular adoption or to avoid the risk that the name of
the mother could appear on official documents (Pocar and Ronfani, 1978, p. 615).
Therefore, a law that could have led to a reduction in illegal terminations was in part a
failure, and this was further exacerbated by the lack of trust toward the State and its
institutions, as well as the Italian society not being ready for a new form of family
(Pocar and Ronfani, 1978, p. 619).
In 1970, the Divorce Act was finally approved - one of the most challenging acts
introduced in Italy. Its introduction represented a cornerstone necessary for the
following approval of the Abortion Act (Scire’, 2008, p. 6). In Parliament, both the
political right and left argued in favour of divorce ever since the unification of Italy
(Pocar and Ronfani, 1978, pp. 618). However, all the proposals on divorce were not
considered until much later, due to the strong presence of the Church in Italy (Scire’,
2008, p. 6). During the sixties and seventies, the socio-cultural reality of Italy was
ready for it and several debates started addressing divorce. The Church overestimated
its political weight and relied on the referendum result. The general idea was that in
the case of a referendum, Catholic groups would have been the obvious winners. This
dissuaded any attempt to discuss the topic in Parliament (Andall, 1994, p. 240). In
spite of this, in 1968 two deputies, the socialist Fortuna and the liberal Basilini,
presented a draft bill to Parliament. The situation was different to what was expected
70
This is one of the reasons why it is difficult to have firm data concerning the number of abandoned
children in Italy in the fifties and seventies.
120
and public opinion started to support the draft. Spontaneous demonstrations and the
media supported it. Several debates followed, first in the Chamber of Deputies and
then in the Senate, but finally the draft became law (Andall, 1994, p. 242).
As would later happen for the 194/1978 law, the public referendum that followed it,
instead of abolishing the law, reinforced it proving that times had changed and the
Italian population was in favour of this law. The DC, Monarchists and neo-fascists
strongly fought against the law. The DC complained about the results of the
referenda, declaring that the Act represented an attempt to change the “traditional”
form of family causing changes to society that could lead to a destruction of society
itself (Mori, 2008, p. 68). On the other hand, whoever, was in favour of the law, such
as the PCI, did not see divorce itself as a danger to the family. In fact, it could finally
legalise the large number of families de facto created by the impossibility to dissolve
legal and sacred bonds between spouses, with various economic and social
consequences for all members of the family (Mori, 2008, p. 69). Moreover, they saw
this introduction as a way to finally dissociate family from the Catholic Church, and
to leave sole control of all personal relationships to the State (Pocar and Ronfani,
1978, pp. 618-619). It seems strange that a law of such impact within Italian society
did not create an interest among researchers and did not cause many debates after the
referendum, which took place in the spring of 1974 and that saw 59.1% of votes in
favour of the law (Pocar and Ronfani, 1978, p. 622). The whole sociology of law did
not give much importance to this law. The reason behind this is probably that the law
arrived when almost of the society had already accepted divorce, and the law was
only an adjustment to an existing reality, giving the impression shortly after its
approval that divorce was not a moral issue anymore (Scire’ 2008, p. 4). This was in
sharp contrast to what happened with the introduction of the Abortion Act.
In 1975 another important law, 405/1975 concerning the public family counselling
service was approved. The aim of this law was to support the family and motherhood;
in particular, counselling was to be offered to help give social and psychological
121
advice to family members, to provide birth control advice, and to support women’s
health and the procreative function (Pocar and Ronfani, 1978, p. 630). As can be seen
through an analysis of the 194/1978 law, these new institutions were to have a
fundamental role in the Abortion Act. Until 1971, advertisements for contraception
were illegal in Italy and this was seen as one of the causes for the extremely high
numbers of illegal terminations in the country (Scire’ 2008, p. 11). Before the
introduction of this new service, advice and information on contraception was
relegated to the activities of private associations operating against the law. But finally,
after 1971, the State realised the importance of its involvement in offering
contraception and sexual education more widely (Pocar and Ronfani, 1978, p. 636).
All parties presented a proposition for a bill concerning the family counselling service
and the biggest concern was birth control and maternity support. However, the DC
requested that this service was dedicated more to assist families economically and
socially than to focus principally on reproductive issues (Scire’ 2008, p. 12). When
the law was approved, as on many other occasions previously, it was a compromise
between different propositions (Armeni, 2006). For example the law does not mention
contraception but it uses “responsible parenthood” even if the issue of offering out
contraception is probably the most important role of this new service. The law gave
the regions control over this service and every region within a year from the
promulgation of the law had to create its own service. However, in 1978 only 9 out of
20 regions implemented the law (Scire’ 2008, p. 12). The cause of this delay was
probably that the law was too general because of the compromise between parties,
which did not make the service clear enough (Armeni, 2006). This general
formulation opened new debates without ever clarifying the situation (Caldwell, 1978,
p. 84). Some Socialists suggested that counselling should only be used for health and
welfare, whereas others, such as the DC, suggested that it should concern all family
matters. Other groups, such as the Communist party, said that counselling should
offer
“a service giving tangible support to motherhood, as a social value helping the
woman to free herself from the burdens of maternity seen as her role in life”
(Cavicchi et al, 1976 cited by Pocar and Ronfani, 1978, p. 637). Following these
considerations, feminist unions sharing the Communist party’ ideas, were hoping that
this counselling could have a role in the movement of women’s emancipation (Scire’
122
2008, p.13). In 1978, research was conducted by the magazine Amica in order to
understand who was using this service and for what reasons, and the result was that
the service was principally used by women and that they were looking for support in
medical problems, mainly contraception, with very little need of help in the
psychological, legal and social fields (Pocar and Ronfani, 1978, p. 638).
6. The Abortion Act
Before 1978, the services offered by the State to support motherhood were
insufficient. There were only enough facilities in hospitals to serve 50% of Italian
women giving birth, and in certain areas of the South this percentage was only 20%.
The country had the highest infant mortality rate of all Western countries and
unmarried women were used to receiving only the minimum possible assistance
(Galeotti, 2003, p. 101). There was a scarcity of nurseries to support working mothers
and also an extremely high percentage of miscarriages, stillbirths, sterility and
children born with deformities (Caldwell, 1978, p. 84). Illegal termination was a
common practice71 almost accepted by society, despite the law still considering
abortion a crime. Judges and prosecutors generally ignored the high percentage of
illegal abortions. In 1975 the magazine Amica published the result of an experiment
conducted by a journalist who had declared herself pregnant in an attempt to obtain a
termination in Milan. 36 out of 50 doctors were willing to perform the termination
with payment of a sum between 350.000 and 700.000 lire72 (Scire’, 2008. p. 69).
These results showed an underlying acceptance of termination because it was
something caused by the incapacity of the State to educate on contraception (it was
illegal under Fascist legislation) and especially in taking a stance against the strong
Church’s position (Scire’, 2008, p. 5). The combination of these two factors caused
women to ignore basic forms of contraception. It was difficult even to talk about
sexuality inside a relationship or with the doctor. In fact, the only form of
71
1 out of 5 pregnancies resulted in an illegal termination (Galeotti, 2003, p. 101).
72
Just to be able to understand the value of that sum, in the same year a Fiat 500 car was sold for
565.000 lire (Sannia, 2008).
123
contraception that a Catholic doctor would have been able to suggest was the OginoKnaus73, the only method admitted by the Church (Scire’, 2008, p. 6). Beside the lack
of education, the lack of social support was another reason that added to the high
percentage of illegal terminations in Italy. In France, there were real solutions to help
national growth, families and especially women, such as family cheques and loans. In
Italy, however, there was no real encouragement or forms of help for families. The
State was aware of this deficiency and probably for that reason the situation was
silently accepted (Scire’, 2008, p. 8).
The struggle involved in introducing legislation that could regularise abortion
mobilised many different groups and caused many debates. A real compact feminist
group still does not exist in Italy. As discussed in Chapter 2, different groups, like the
Demau group or the Collettivo di Col di Lana in Milan, were created to face specific
issues and after the specific struggle these groups disappeared (Rosember and Sellier,
2005, p. 20). During the years immediately before 1978, few groups, especially in
Milan and Rome under the leadership of Carla Lonzi74, rose up to protect the right of
every woman to decide over her own body. As stated above, the situation at that time
was particularly challenging. The number of illegal terminations was extremely high
and contraception was forbidden under Article 553 of the 1930 penal code, known as
the Rocco Code, which prohibited the advertisement, sale or distribution of
contraception. As a consequence of this, Italian women were almost completely
ignorant about contraception, and abortion became the most common form of birth
control (Scire’, 2008, p. 6). Moreover, during the years of Fascism, a real effort was
made to promote a form of family inspired by pre-capitalistic values and the Church’s
ideas, based on the presumption that sex outside marriage was a sin. The Rocco penal
code contained a series of articles dedicated to abortion: 545-551 and 555. These
articles made abortion a crime against the wholeness and health of the race with the
threat of a prison sentence for both the woman attempting to have an abortion and for
the third person performing it. Abortion and contraception were put almost on the
73
This contraceptive method, discovered in 1924 by the Japanes doctor Kyusaku Ogino, known also as
the calendar-based method, consists of the strict observation of the female menstrual cycle to identify
the woman’s fertile and non-fertile days (Weschler, 2002).
74
As discussed in Chapter 2, Carla Lonzi was the main exponent of Italian Feminism.
124
same level as a result of the Church’s policy that condemned both75 (Caldwell, 1991,
pp. 89-90).
In 1971, it was clear that a law that could regulate abortion was necessary and inside
Parliament a real struggle to issue one began. Feminist groups in Milan such as the
Demau group, Rivolta Femminile and the Collettivo del Col di Lana , started to use a
new technique to attract political attention. With the Lonzi’s “autodeterminazione”
and the “pratica dell’inconscio” they started to publicly discuss topics like abortion,
contraception and homosexuality, forcing the State and the Government to finally
face subjects, which for long time had been ignored (La Libreria delle donne di
Milano, 1987 p. 22). A fundamental ally of these feminist groups was the media,
which simplified the diffusion of feminist ideas (La Libreria delle Donne di Milano,
1987, p. 28). Scire’ (2008) assigns to these groups the success of the the Abortion Act
being approved by the Italian Parliament, however, Pocar and Ronfani (1978)
observed that this was a false victory for feminism for several reasons. First of all, in
reality the Italian State did not approve the Abortion or the Divorce Act as a
consequence of feminist requests, but allowed the DC to maintain a political
hegemony. Moreover, the Abortion Act only pretended to meet feminist needs whilst
in reality it did not legitimize, abortion legalizing it only under certain specific
conditions.
Coming back to the Parliamentary struggle of the seventies, in 1971 there were two
private members’ bills that aimed to legalise therapeutic termination, but they did not
reach the discussion stage. In particular, the first of them was openly inspired by the
British Abortion Act and requested two medical authorisations, but did not specify
time limits or a location where the abortion would have to be performed (Scire’, 2008,
p. 41). In 1972, an election was called to seek stability in the country. During this
election, divorce was the principal issue discussed by the opposition parties, with
75
It is interesting to notice that art. 551 regulated a reduction of imprisonment up to 2/3 in case
abortion was performed “to save the woman of her family honour”. (Rocco Penal Code, 1889). This
article shows how the value of honour was still so highly valued in Italy to be able to mitigate even the
abortion penalty (D, Elia, 2008, p. 16).
125
abortion also beginning to appear on the political agenda. In particular, the deputy
Fortuna presented a bill concerning abortion. The Constitutional Court requested a reinterpretation of the law, and a collection of signatures for a referendum on the
existing legislation started. However, the time was not right for a struggle on the issue
of abortion. The PCI was more concerned with avoiding internal debates than starting
a struggle on, abortion. Therefore they decided to focus on what they considered more
pressing issues, such as divorce and Concordat, rather than abortion (Donzelli, cited
by Scire’, 2008. p. 42).
In 1972, for the first time, a few official exponents of the Church started to analyse
the abortion issue under a laic point of view. For instance, Payretti (1971, pp. 113119) argued that the issue of abortion needed to be studied in a socio-cultural contest
without the illusion that a law ad hoc could have represented the end of debate. Very
close to his position were the ideas of Padre Ernesto Balducci (1973) who argued that
the biggest mistake was to consider that Italians were principally Catholics and that
the will of the Church corresponded to the citizens’ wills and ideas. This tacit
presumption encouraged Italian civil law to conform to Catholic ethics and principles;
however, this was far from the real Italian citizens’ ideals. His suggestion at this point
was to realize this lack of harmony between the legal system and the society and to
start to work on the identification of Italian values and the “quality of life”. However,
this advice was generally ignored and public opinion concentrated its attention on the
creation of a law without any attempt to really understand what Italy needed. The
result of this was the compromised law of 1978, which left almost everybody
unsatisfied. This has meant it is still at the centre of many debates and attempts to
change it a (Armeni, 2006, p. 15).
Finally, in 1976, the Senate approved a combined bill, but it was blocked by a few
votes from the DC and the MSI senators. For feminist groups, this reinforced the idea
that political parties were unable to legislate according to social changes and
moreover, that they were completely disinterested in women’s reproductive and selfdetermination rights (Andall, 1994, p. 243). Therefore, feminist groups called for a
huge mobilisation. It was clear for all dominant parties that abortion could not be
126
completely liberalised as feminist groups were requesting. This mobilisation brought
about new elections in 1976 and abortion was the password, especially after the
Seveso disaster76. After the disaster, in January 1977 a new united bill was presented
with the title “Norme sull’interruzione della gravidanza” (Regulation on termination)
that brought about long discussions concerning sexual education, prevention of
termination and protection of the mother. This new bill stated that the woman was
entitled to decide whether to have a termination or not. Abortions were available for
under age women, with the last word, however, given to doctors who had the duty to
offer women alternatives to abortion. The distinction between different periods,
before or after 90 days from conception, was introduced and conscientious objection
for doctors and nurses was finally considered (although this did not exempt anyone
from assisting pre and post termination) (Scire’, 2008, pp. 123-124). This bill passed
the Chamber of Deputy’s evaluation, but it was rejected in the Senate in the same
year. Finally, for the sake of Parliamentary procedure, which did not allow other
representations, the bill finally passed in both houses. The DC abstained from the
final vote and presented 23 amendments to the law, but this did not stop the law being
passed. The law was a compromise and nobody was satisfied (Armeni, 2006).
Two years later, four referenda were presented against the bill - two referenda from
the DC and Mpv77 and two from the radical party. The first referendum proposed by
the DC and Mpv requested the complete abrogation of the Abortion Act while the
second requested a few restrictive changes. On the other hand, the radical party’s
request aimed to completely liberalize abortion and outlined two of the biggest
limitations of the law: the first was represented by Article 14, concerning abortion for
under age women. The law allowed abortion only in the case of consent from the
person who had authority over the underage woman, or with the authorisation of a
judge, and therefore did not consider the pregnant woman’s own wishes. The second
limitation of the law was represented by Article 8, which excluded the possibility of
76
On July 10th, 1976, a toxic cloud emitted from the Hoffmann-La Roche chemical factory in Icmesa,
had devastating consequences. After just four days, all animals and plants in the area started to die and
after 10 days, the first signs of health issues started to appear. Newspapers, television and radio started
to diffuse information about the risk to pregnant women. In the first few days, 26 therapeutic
terminations were performed out of 462 pregnancies (Scire’, 2008, p. 124).
77
Movimento per la vita, a Catholic group.
127
having an abortion in a private clinic (Scire’ 2008, p. 213). However, not all proabortion groups were in favour of the referenda. Radical feminist groups in particular,
were strongly against it. They wanted to protect the law from any form of attack and
they considered the “yes or no” of the referenda “reductive” (Caldwell, 1986, p. 105).
They wanted to protect the changes that Italy had made regarding women’s status
and, in particular, abortion was for them something untouchable (Caldwell, 1986, p.
106). All proposed referenda failed, and this forced all political and religious groups
to reconsider their present position (Galeotti, 2003, p. 123; Caldwell, 1986, p. 105).
After the failed referenda, the Abortion Act became practically untouchable (Galeotti,
2003, p. 123). Its final title was “Norme per la tutela sociale della maternita’ e
sull’interruzione volontaria della gravidanza” (Norms for the social protection of
maternity and the voluntary termination of pregnancy). Even if this law is a
compromise between political parties, as it was explained before, it is still particularly
innovative within the Italian context and needs to be seen in the legislative context in
which it was approved. In fact, it represents the first step for a whole series of changes
that were soon to happen, such as the abolition of “I delitti d’onore” (honor crimes),
forced weddings, infanticide and homicide and personal harm for the sake of honour
(Scire’ 2008, p. 204).
From a careful analysis of the law, it is possible to see that the aim of the Abortion
Act is not to legitimize abortion, as was requested by feminist unions like the Demau
group (1966) or the Collettivo di via Cherubini (1973), but to prevent, dissuade,
inform and support women (Scire’ 2008, p. 206). Despite the Abortion Act’s aim to
reduce the rate of abortions, in 1979, the media showed that the trend post the
Abortion Act was not exactly in accordance with the law’s aim: abortion rates rose
steadily to a peak of 16.9% in 1983, then the rate started to decline until it reached
9.8% in 1993. These rates vary significantly from region to region with the highest
being in more secular and modern regions and lower in the more traditional South
(Bettarini and D’Andrea, 1996, p. 267). In line with these results were those on illegal
termination. These were substantially reduced in the North of Italy, but in the South
the situation was unchanged. The same results occurred concerning family planning
128
clinics. In Italy in 1979, there were only 850 family planning clinics, 640 as part of
the NHS and 210 private clinics. As per ISTAT data, they were principally
concentrated in the North, where these clinics were used in the 54.7% of cases of
abortion requests, whereas in the South in 9.8% and on the two islands, Sicily and
Sardinia, only 2.2% of cases of abortion requests (Scire’, 2008, p. 201). In particular,
the number of objectors was extremely high, causing a complete blockage of the
service especially in certain areas of Italy. From the mid-eighties, the number of
clinics started to grow. In 1981, there were 1456 public clinics and 167 private
clinics; by 2006 the number was 2188 for public and 103 for private clinics However,
the services offered and especially their function was still very limited and
unsatisfactory, with regard to the Act’s original plan (Scire’ 2008, p. 269). Another
proof of the limits of the Act is that in 2006 there were still some illegal terminations
and the number of these was around 15,000 per year, of which 90% were performed
in Southern Italy (Hanafin, 2009, p. 235).
7. Conclusion
To sum up the main points of this chapter, it can be concluded that the instability and
inability of the Italian State to implement its law and to fulfill its social role of
morally and economically supporting Italian citizens forced the “traditional” form of
the family to become the very centre of Italian society. There are several reasons for
the instability of the Italian State. First and foremost, it is the lack of governmental
autonomy and the lack of sovereignty that causes the inefficiency of laws and
deficiency of nationalism amongst the population (McCarthy, 2005, p. 60). Secondly,
it is the presence of the Catholic Church that attempting to maintain some political
power, weakens the state power and autonomy. The State instability also caused
further drawbacks. The government was so concerned with maintaining a political
balance that it rarely sought to solve social issues and even when it tried to solve
general issues, the results were often not satisfactory (Ferrazzi, 2008). In fact, the
Italian Government, being composed of several small parties with different values,
129
was hardly ever able to take a strong position, which forced the Parliament to adopt
certain laws and to reach only a compromise between parties (Armeni, 2006). This
can be seen on several occasions as in the case of the introduction of the concept of
the family in the Civil Code and in the Adoption law and the Abortion Act. All of
these laws, that were often too generic to be really effective, reinforced the general
Italian feeling of mistrust toward the government (ibid). The inability of the State to
enforce laws, and general mistrust could be said to be the fundamental reason behind
the Italian phenomenon of freely interpreting and morally contesting laws that this
thesis has so heavily focused upon. This inability of the State to enforce its laws could
have potentially brought a misuse of the Abortion Act with abortions performed well
beyond the limits of the law, as happens with traffic regulations (Collin, 2008).
However, this did not happen. This law tends to be interpreted very restrictively as in
the case of conscientious objection that will be discussed in Chapter 7. It is
particularly interesting to understand why in the case of RU 486 that could have
potentially been a more economic, efficient and safe way to perform abortion that the
State, directly or indirectly, allowed so many obstructions. A first answer to explain
the strong opposition to RU 486 can be found exactly in the inability of the State to
implement its law, allowing Italians to interpret the law in various ways. However,
the weakness of the Italian State can only explain why the State did not react to the
population’s disregard of the law, it cannot alone explain why population and
institutions decided to oppose the implementation of RU 486. Thus, it will be
necessary consider other Italian institutions such as the Church (Chapter 8) and how
doctors, hospital staff (Chapter 7) and women (Chapter 9) perceive the female
condition and abortion.
130
6. THE LAW AND RU 486
1. Introduction
The implementation and especially the obstacles to the introduction of the RU 486 in
Italy have been analysed to better understand the perception that Italian women have
of their condition within the Italian society. As has been discussed, in the previous
chapter, the inability of the Italian State to implement its law represents one of the
reasons that made possible the opposition to the introduction of the drug in Italy. In
fact, this characteristic of the Italian State and the general attitude that the population
has to interpret or disregard laws, has allowed doctors and hospital staff to opt for
conscientious objection en masse, making abortion difficult to schedule and organize
in public hospitals. Moreover, as was observed, the incapability of the State to offer
satisfactory social security led to a re-evaluation of the “traditional” form of family
where women have a central role (Muritti, 2011). To protect both family and
women’s centrality inside the family, many women seem now willing to act against
every innovation that can potentially represent a challenge for the family and their
position in it.
This strong female, medical and indirect governmental opposition to the RU 486
made Italy one of the last countries to introduce this drug in its hospitals, t with long
parliamentary debates and media78 headlines regarding the compatibility of chemical
abortion with the law 194/1978 (Cavoni and Sacchini, 2008, p. 2). Apart from
possible legal boundaries, the other obstacle that chemical abortion had to face was
that of ethics. Ethics and bio-ethics have recently become important instruments of
scientific control of new technologies that can affect human existence; it has thus
became an instrument to mark the boundaries of all new research. Debates about areas
such as stem cells, genetically modified organisms and cloning, have populated media
headlines and political agendas (Armeni, 2006, p. 5). The Church and anti78
Media here refers to newspapers, television, the Internet and radio.
131
abortionists have sought to use every possible means to stop the use of RU 486 in
Italy, both before its introduction and then after, when it became more widely used in
chemical terminations within hospitals. Even now that the Italian Parliament officially
has ratified a circular that authorizes chemical abortion in Italy, it is still very difficult
to access it or even to obtain general information about its practice and where it can
be obtained. The only information available to the masses is diffused through the
media, which is often careless about the quality of information reported79.
When the first experiments with RU 486 started, the social and political situation in
Italy had already changed dramatically from the liberal sixties and seventies when the
Abortion Act was ratified. Italian feminism practically disappeared in the eighties and
both politics and society had opted for a return to “tradition”80 (Muritti, 2011;
Campanini, 2010). The drug had to face many obstacles such as public debates,
official interruptions from the Minister of Health, and parliamentary discussions. It is
now potentially available but still barely used amongst Italian hospitals.
2. The history of the drug
The important role of progesterone in pregnancy was discovered at the end of the
sixties. An insufficiency in this hormone can cause miscarriage and Arpad Istvan
For instance, the right-wing newspaper Il Giornale on 7th November 2002, says “Il metodo
farmacologico costringe chi vuole abortire ad assumere due compresse…. Nel giro di 36-48 ore” (the
pharmacological method forces those who want an abortion to take two tablets…. within 36-48 hours),
therefore comparing it to the ,morning-after pill that needs to be administered within 72 hours. When
the maximum term to administer RU 486 is 49 days from conception. Panorama, the right-wing
magazine, on 21st November 2002 says “La RU 486 non va presa piu’ di 35 giorni dopo il
concepimento…. Una donna che scelga questo metodo riceve in ospedale tre pillole” (The RU-486
should not be taken more than 35 days after conception .... A woman who chooses this method receives
three pills in hospital). Here, the terms are wrong again and the magazine refers to three pills instead of
the official two.
79
80
After the adoption of the Divorce and Abortion Act in the seventies, Italian society and the
Government showed a return to values inspired by the Church. In fact, the in vitro fertilisation law,
adopted in 2004 represents one of the most restrictive pieces of legislation of the decade (Armeni,
2006; Muritti, 2011).
132
Csapo81 hypothesized that a short interruption of it was enough to cause abortion in
early stage pregnancies. Following this hypothesis, in April 1980, Etienne-Emile
Baulieu and other Roussel Uclaf scientists synthesized the RU 38486 that later
became well known as the RU 486. The drug is in reality a steroid called Mifepristone
that has an anti-hormone effect, which is able to interfere with hormonal messages
(Klein et al, 1991, pp. 57-60). Mifepristone can be used as a receptor of progesterone
inside the uterus, causing chemical abortion. During the first experiments, the
percentage of success was quite unsatisfactory with only 80% of terminations, a
percentage that decreased further in pregnancies over 42 days. During these first
experiments, a dose of 600 mg of Mifepristone was administered to interrupt a 42day pregnancy (Klein et al, 1991, pp. 4-6). One of the most serious issues caused by a
failed abortion was that, not being able to determine the possible side effects of the
drug on the fetus, after the attempted chemical abortion it was necessary to undergo a
surgical one. This risk and the low percentage of success was unacceptable for the
scientific community, thus new research and experiments were conducted, until in
1985 two gynaecologists at the Stockholm Karolinska hospital, discovered that the
percentage of success could increase rise to 96% in a 49-day pregnancy if 36-48 hours
after the Mifepristone was administered, a small dose of Prostglandin (PG) was also
administered.
Many studies have been conducted on the possible side effects of the combination of
the drugs Mifepristone and PG. However, the mechanism used by the drug to induce
termination guarantees the absence of long-term side effects. The drug works in
depriving the reproductive process of an ingredient instead of adding something to it.
In 1990, Roussel Uclaf published an official report on the efficiency of RU 486. The
study considered a sample of 10,250 women, 9,769 of whom expelled the fetus with
the new combination of RU 486/PG. This study showed a percentage of success of
95.3% with only 4.7% failures. In spite of these results, the pharmaceutical company
decided to register the drug in single countries only when backed by an official
government request. This was probably a strategy to avoid anti-abortion group
protests and the possible boycotting of other products of Roussel Uclaf. The fear of
81
Professor at the Rockefeller University – United States.
133
the anti-abortionists’ reaction was not unfounded. In fact, when the French Minister
of Health requested the registration of the drug in France, the production lasted only
one month (Casini, 2001, p. 12). Later, the French press reported that the company
producing the drug had to stop its distribution due to boycott attempts on other
products and personal threats made against employees. Only two days later, Claude
Evin, the French Health Minister, wrote an open letter to the company asking to
remarket the product as it was now the “moral property of women” (Kingman, 1989,
cited by Klein et all, 1991, p. 13). After these events, the company decided not to
permit the registration in other countries where anti-abortionist groups were
particularly active (Casini, 2001, p. 14).
Baulieu and Rosenblum (1990) conducted an analysis of the real nature of RU 486, to
comprehend why the drug was gaining so much attention. In particular, they
complained that anti-abortionists focused only on one dimension of RU 486,
forgetting all other possible uses (for instance as a contraceptive). In their opinion “to
dislodge an implanted embryo in its first weeks” was not abortion but
“contragestion”. However, they recognized that probably the reason why RU 486
became such a debated issue was the fact that media and politicians associated it with
abortion. People generally react to the word abortion and in fact different groups
started to react to the drug when it was associated with abortion, either to oppose it or
to request that it be made available depending on their perspective. For instance, after
the introduction of the idea of RU 486 as the “moral property of women” created by
Evin (1990), this idea became an American feminist slogan to support the
introduction of the drug in the States (Casini, 2001, p. 15). Despite of all these
debates, thanks to radical feminist pressure and the fast spread within the scientific
environment of the knowledge of the effects and results of the drug, the slogan “new
technologies, new choices” started to become widespread, which put pressure on
Roussel Uclaf to commercialize the drug. However, the biggest obstacle to this
commercialization was, that in the US PG was not registered for the purposes of
abortion but only as a cancer treatment, therefore it was not possible just to simply
manufacture the drug. In addition, it was necessary to have a specific registration for
abortive purposes, which would mean opposition from anti-abortionist groups (Casini,
2001, p. 16). In the meantime, the company started to receive requests for registration
134
from almost all Western countries. In 1991, the UK Minister of Health requested and
obtained the registration of the drug in the UK, where, after a few obstacles,
principally due to the complicate bureaucracy of British hospitals, the drug is now
widely used82 (Klein et al, 1991, p. 88).
3. RU 486 and its difficult introduction in Italy
Although in Europe the introduction of RU486 started in the nineties, in Italy it was
necessary to wait until 2009, when the Minister of Health officially authorised the use
of RU 486, and what was particularly interesting was the iter83 that the drug had to
follow before being introduced to Italian hospitals. This process has not only been a
legal one, characterized by Parliamentary debates regarding the Abortion Act, but also
a social one because it was not the Government who principally refused the drug, but
doctors, nurses and everyday people who still think that abortion should not be made
easy (Casini, 2001, p. 18). The same thing had happened few decades previously
when an American doctor, Dr. Karman, introduced a new method of surgical
termination, the curettage of the uterus84. At that time, Italian doctors did not show
any interest in the new method (Armeni, 2006, p. 114).
In spite of all these difficulties, RU 486 was trialed in Italy for the first time in 1986.
The World Health Organization (WHO) started an experiment in several countries
and Italy was one of them. The experiment was conducted on a sample of 200 women
at the III Clinica Ginecologica dell’Universita’ degli studi di Milano. This experiment
was successful (Casini, 2001, p. 18). However, it was not followed by any official
request for registration of the drug. Moreover, Exelgyn, the company that at that time
82
In 2011 in the UK 60% of abortions below 9 weeks of gestation were performed with RU 486
(Department of Health, 2011).
83
From Latin meaning the process/path.
“Dilation (or dilatation) and curettage (D&C) refers to the dilation (widening/opening) of the cervix
and surgical removal of part of the lining of the uterus and/or contents of the uterus by scraping and
scooping (curettage). It is a therapeutic gynaecological procedure as well as a rarely used method of
first trimester abortion” (Merrill, 2006).
84
135
distributed Mifepristone, decided to exclude from the mutual registration of the drug,
regulated by the European directives 1975/319/EEC and 2001/83/EC, Italy and only
other two countries: Portugal and Ireland. The reason seems clear, these countries
were traditionally conservative and Catholic and the Exelgyn did not want to repeat of
what had happened to Roussel Uclaf in France (Roccella and Morresi, 2006, p. 81).
Moreover, even later when the company showed its willingness to commercialize the
product in Italy, there was a lack of Italian pharmaceutical companies willing to start
the production (Casini, 2001, p. 19).
For a few years the drug was almost forgotten until Dr. Silvio Viale85, a gynaecologist
and member of the radical party, requested to start a new experiment at the Sant’Anna
of Turin. The doctor was planning to compare four ways to procure termination. In
2002, the experiment obtained the approval from the regional bioethical commission,
but it had to wait three more years before obtaining approval from the National
Institute of Health (Casini, 2001, p. 22). Finally, the experiment began in 2005
accompanied by protests, debates and internal opposition. After the start of the
experiment, the Minister of Health interrupted it, denouncing an irregularity reported
by the AIFA86. The principal concern was that the expulsion of the fetus could occur
outside the hospital when Article 8 of the 194/1978 law in its main interpretation
states that abortion should occur inside public hospitals and authorized clinics. Antiabortionists and the Church hoped that this interruption would stop the experiment
indefinitely (Roccella and Morresi, 2006, p. 83). However, after a few procedural
changes87, the experiment was resumed. Shortly after the beginning of the experiment
in Turin, another doctor, Dr. Srebot, this time in Tuscany this time, decided to utilize
the 646/96 law that gives hospitals the power to order drugs abroad that are not
produced in Italy. Clearly, the law had a different aim than to go round the normal iter
of registration of the drug in Italy. It was in fact ratified so that drugs could be
85
Dr. Silvio Viale, a member of the radical party, is the biggest Italian supporter of chemical abortion.
Not only requested to start a new experiment in Turin in 2002, but he wrote several articles to support
the use of RU 486 in Italian hospitals.
86
Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (the Italian Drugs Agency).
87
It was decided that women participating in the experiment would be admitted to the hospital from the
moment the RU 486 was administered until the complete expulsion of the fetus (Casini, 2001, p. 26).
136
procured for terminal patients with rare illnesses. In spite of all the critics and media
attention, the Giunta Regionale (Regional Committee) of Tuscany supported this path
and the Lotti hospital of Pontedera became the first Italian institution to order the drug
directly from France (Il Tirreno, 2010). However, only a few months later, the
Minister of Health interrupted this procedure, blocking all acquisition of the drug
bought without ministerial authorization (Roccella and Morresi, 2006, p. 84). Only in
2009 as an alternative to surgical abortion in Italian hospitals, was the use of RU 486,
authorized. It is now the responsibility of single regions and hospitals to guarantee
that chemical abortion becomes available to women.
In spite of the official ministerial authorization, there is still some confusion about the
true nature of the drug (Casini, 2001, p. 26). With RU 486 being both an abortive and
a post-coitum contraceptive, it is often confused by women and by hospital personnel
with the morning-after pill. This confusion can bring about delays when time is of
paramount importance in chemical abortion and RU 486 is administrable only until
the 7th week of pregnancy (Armeni, 2006, p. 56). Presently, although the legality of
this type of termination has been declared, the combination of a high percentage of
objectors, lack of correct information, scarcity of funds from regions and hospital
staff attitude toward abortion, makes this form of abortion still very difficult to obtain.
In fact, as will be discussed in Chapter 7, when the participant observation was
conducted in a few Italian hospitals in order to seek to obtain information about RU
486, it was very difficult to obtain information concerning the drug. With exception of
only one hospital88, it was not possible to obtain satisfactory information concerning
the procedure or whether RU 486 was available.
4. Italian Parliamentary debates and compatibility with the Abortion Act
After the approval of the Abortion Act in 1978, feminist unions and the radical party
started to lose support and almost immediately the activities of feminist groups
88
Empoli hospital in Tuscany.
137
ceased. Once the option was given for legal abortion, politicians and people in general
lost interest in innovation and went back to the reassuring “traditional” way of life.
This “traditional way of life” was described by Dalla Costa and James (1972) as the
pre-capitalistic extended form of family that was adopted by the fascist movement as
the official Italian form of family. New scientific innovations were regarded with
suspicion, especially when they dealt with subjects such as reproduction (Muritti,
2011). For instance, until now it has been difficult to get a prescription for the
morning-after pill or other forms of ‘new generation’ contraception.
This tendency to return to “tradition” was clear in 2005 when the 40/2005 law,
regarding in vitro fertilization, was approved. This law is one of the most restrictive
within Europe. This clearly shows Catholic and “traditional” influence and
represented a victory for all anti-abortionist groups, achieving a new law to contradict
the Abortion Act89 and complicate the in vitro fertilization process and therefore,
women’s access to it (Armeni, 2006, p. 120). At almost the same time as the debates
concerning the 40/2005 law, Dr. Silvio Viale requested authorization to start
experimenting with RU 486 in Turin. This caused a new series of debates, at first in
the newspaper headlines90 and then at a parliamentary level. The bigger issue
concerning RU 486 was the presence of a formally untouchable Abortive Act, thus it
was difficult to block the introduction of a chemical termination without touching on
the Abortion Act (Roccella and Morresi, 2006, p. 92). The 194/1978 law, as discussed
in the previous chapter, was in fact a difficult compromise between political parties
and all parties made sure that no changes were approved, although many attempts to
change or annul it had been made (Pocar and Ronfani, 1978, p. 423). Thus, the only
way to block the introduction of a chemical termination was to demonstrate the
incompatibility of the termination and its procedure, with the 194/1978 law (Armeni,
2006, p.121). Many debates arose in Parliament with the object of understanding the
compatibility of RU 486 with the Abortion Act.
89
The 40/2005 law does not allow the elimination of an excessive number of embryos that must all be
implanted in the woman’s uterus, forcing a woman that did not want them to abort them following the
194/1978 law (Armeni, 2006, p.121).
90
La Stampa 2002 and La Repubblica 2002, as will be discussed later in this chapter.
138
The object of debates has been Article 8 concerning the locations where abortion can
be performed, Article 15 regarding hospital staff training and abortion procedure
innovation and Article 9 pertaining to conscientious objection. Article 9, which will
be analyzed in paragraph 5 of this chapter, represents potentially the biggest obstacle
not only for chemical abortion but for all types of abortion in Italy, allowing doctors
to refuse to perform terminations due to moral grounds. These articles used to be the
most discussed articles of the law even before the introduction of chemical abortion in
Italy, raising doubts that in reality the objective of the opposition to chemical abortion
was the complete elimination of the Abortion Act, rather than to demonstrate the
incompatibility of RU 486 with the 194/1978 law (Viale, 2003). In particular, the
analysis of these articles can help to prove the weakness of the Abortion Act that, as
consequence of the frail nature of the Italian State, assumed a form that did not reflect
the intentions of any bill presented by the different factions (Pocar and Ronfani, 1978,
p. 423). Concerning particularly chemical abortion, the law does not specify that
abortion should be conducted surgically, thus there are no basic limitations on the
utilization of RU 486 (Armeni, 2006, p. 122).
The section of Article 8 of the 194/1978 law that was object of debates and different
interpretations is the part that specifies where abortion needs to be performed. The
article in states that abortion must be performed “presso” hospitals or authorized
clinics. This word “presso” has been interpreted in different ways by supporters of
abortion and anti-abortionists and the interpretation given by the anti-abortionists was
the reason why the experiment with RU 486 conducted in Turin by Dr. Viale, was
stopped by the Minister of Health. In fact, in line with anti-abortionists, Morresi and
Roccella (2006) believe that Article 8 requests abortion to be performed “inside a
hospital or an authorized clinic”, making RU 486 illegal in the case that expulsion of
the fetus occurs outside the hospital or clinic. Viale (2003) interpreted it in a
completely different way, saying that Article 8 only requests that “abortion is
conducted by doctors that work in a hospital or authorized clinic”. Therefore, if
administrated inside hospital, RU486 would have been within the law, even if the
actual expulsion had happened outside the hospital’s premises. However, in an
139
attempt to restart the experiment quickly, Viale preferred a fast change in the
procedure rather than long parliamentary debates. Thus, he changed the procedure so
that every woman who decided to opt for chemical abortion would need to stay in the
hospital for 3 days, making sure that the expulsion of the embryo would happen under
medical supervision (Casini, 2001, p. 26). This stands contrary to all the advantages
that chemical termination was bringing to hospital schedules, but it allowed the
experiment to commence once again (Viale, 2003).
Another article object of particular attention was Article 15 of the 194/1978 law that
requires regions, universities and hospitals to organize periodical training to update
doctors and nurses with all new techniques and innovations regarding reproduction.
The law clearly states that these new techniques should be used if they improve the
practice of abortion and better protect the women’s mental and physical health. Thus,
supporters of RU 486 and in particular Viale (2003) and other radicals believe that
Article 15 of the Abortion Act requesting universities and scientific laboratories to
conduct continuous researches in order to offer to women an always safer and more
effective abortive method, makes RU 486 compatible with the law. In Parliament, the
radical party challenged anti-abortionist groups and the Church, requesting them to
prove that using the drug was incompatible with the law and in particular with Article
15. This challenge was, however, ignored by the parties supporting the Church in
Parliament. The radical party was only able to obtain the comment that the only part
of the article that deserved to be considered was the part where it stated that women
must receive sexual education to be able to choose when and how to become a
mother.
The answer given by the anti-abortionist parties and the Church in relation to Article
15 is an example of the general Italian attitude to interpret morally debated laws in the
most convenient way (Collins, 2008), as discussed in Chapter 4. This attitude from
the Church and other official institutions, shown almost daily, gives people an
unofficial authorization to behave against the law and to throw obstacles at a service
that they consider unworthy (Viroli, 2010, p. 81). This attitude was clear during the
participant observation conducted in hospitals and, as will be shown in Chapter 7, it
140
demonstrates the general dissatisfaction and disbelief that Italian society has toward
its institutions and therefore its laws. The State was well aware of this general attitude
and this knowledge was probably the reason why Article 9 of the 194/1978 law was
written. This article introduces conscientious objection and gives people an official
and legal excuse to refuse to practice abortion. However, the State probably did not
foresee the high percentage of objectors that Italian hospitals had; a percentage high
enough to challenge or even prevent the service completely (Scire’, 2008, p. 290). In
the face of this critical situation, where abortion is not offered fully and
comprehensively, conscientious objection can also be seen as a stretching and free
interpretation of the law, making hospitals and regions in theory obliged to guarantee
balance between objectors and non-objectors. An analysis of objectors as a group and
not as individual physicians or nurses was conducted by Armeni (2006, p. 143), who
argued that the impact of the group must be considered in different way than the
impact of the single. Armeni, considering the objector as a single entity, argues that
doctors or hospital staff are free to become objectors because it is the law that offers
this option. In this case, it is not the individual doctor who is responsible for the
eventual misinterpretation of the law that requests abortion to be performed under
certain circumstances, but hospitals and regions that do not guarantee the service and
do not put doctors under pressure to perform abortion. However, considering doctors
and nurses as part of a group, it is difficult to imagine that all objectors are not aware
of the consequences of the high percentage of objectors. Therefore, their decision to
become objectors seen within a group is an indirect way to invalidate the Abortion
Act. Whether this invalidation is conscious or unconscious and whether its reasons are
personal or religious, or other types of interests will be discussed in Chapter 7. If the
high percentage of objectors can dubiously be a form of law misinterpretation, the
refusal to offer information, the long queuing and inopportune comments are
definitely manifestations of non-application of the 194/1978 law, which states in
Article 2 that women must receive all information concerning their rights and services
offered within the region (Parlamento Italiano, 1978).
5. Conflicts over Article 9 of law 194/1978: conscientious objection and RU 486
141
Article 9 is the most controversial article of the Abortion Act, as has been discussed
above, and it is still the object of many debates. This article introduced the option of
conscientious objection, allowing doctors and hospital staff to avoid abortion practice
and procedure if it went against their conscience. The relevance of Article 9 however,
seems to go beyond the simple recognition of conscientious objection. In fact, as Di
Pietro et al (2005) outlines, the Abortion Act has a “special value” compared to the
normal and general rights recognized in Italian legislation. The Italian Constitution
and all its laws aim to protect human life, whilst the 194/1978 law allows, under
certain conditions, exactly the opposite. In Di Pietro’s opinion, Article 9 is the only
part of the Abortion Act that is in harmony with the rest of Italian legislation,
allowing moral conscience to prevail over legal authorization to perform abortion.
The ratio91 of article 9 is in fact to protect two types of rights. First of all, in objective
terms, it protects the fetus’s right to life and secondly, more subjectively, it guarantees
the right of doctors and hospital staff to refuse to perform acts against their
conscience. This interpretation seems to be further supported as Casini and Cieri
(1978. p. 156) state, by the difference between conscientious objection to military
service, which is now no longer part of the Italian legal system, and to abortion. In
fact, the objector to abortion “seems to operate in conformity with the Italian
Constitutional system…..it seems that the law justifies and recognizes the objector’s
refusal to obey the ordinary law”.
Almost immediately after the approval of the Abortion Act, Catholic groups and
feminist associations started to analyse Article 9, attempting to uncover contradictions
and incongruence with the purpose of either strengthening or eliminating the article
(Di Pietro et al, 2005, p. 12). There were doubts about who can opt for conscientious
objection, which activities it is applied to, and under which circumstances the right to
be objector are lost. Perrone (1992), in analysing who can opt to be objector,
discusses how the article seems to contradict itself. In fact, the legislators were more
concerned with balancing the right to conscientious objection with the act of abortion
itself, in other words, the ethical with the medical, so that it did not clearly state to
whom conscientious objection would be of value, only saying in the Abortion Act that
91
From Latin meaning the objective of the article.
142
conscientious objection is applicable to all “personale medico-sanitario” (hospital
staff). Thus, it is not clear if only gynaecologists and nurses can be conscientious
objectors or if every type of doctor such as anaesthetists, radiologists or cardiologists
could opt to be objectors. Moreover, it was not clear if hospital staff like cleaners
could, for instance, refuse to clean rooms where an abortion was performed if
declaring themselves objectors (Morresi and Roccella, 2006, p.81). Debates about
who can choose to be an objector found an easy solution with the Constitutional Court
Sentence 27/1975, that states that objection is applicable only to the personnel that
directly participate in abortion procedures, restricting the interpretation of who can
opt to become an objector only to gynaecologists, anaesthetists and nurses working on
the gynaecology ward (Armeni, 2006, p. 144). More complicated are the debates
concerning which act can be avoided due to conscientious objection. The law does not
define which activities doctors must perform and which procedures can be avoided
due to conscientious objection. What makes the identification of these acts even more
important is the fact that Article 9 states that it is possible to lose the status of objector
if “any act” that directly relates to procure an abortion is performed.
Concerning which acts must be performed and which can be avoided due to
conscientious objection, many interpretations have been given. Catholic and antiabortionist groups aimed to extend the number of acts that could be included in
Article 9’s provision; including in it all acts pre- and post abortion, from the first
examination and the release of the abortive authoritative certificate until the release of
the certificate to allow the woman to leave the hospital (Morresi and Roccella, 2006,
p. 82). However, radicals and pro-abortion groups sought to limit these acts to the
actions only strictly and directly connected to the abortion procedure (Armeni, 2006,
p. 145). For instance, Scire’ (2008, p. 175), a Catholic exponent, argues that objection
should be extended to all abortion procedures from registering the woman’s intention
to abort up to the moment the woman left the hospital. Caraffa (1978), one of the
biggest exponents of the Catholic movement, in order to support these conclusions
discusses how the Abortion Act is a pure transcription of social customs, reducing the
concepts of truth and justice into empty ideas. Following these considerations, Caraffa
(1978) argues against the law, declaring that despite social pressures, doctors must
respect their duties to cure human beings and protect life, thus conscientious objection
143
is part of a doctor’s duties, and thus it needs to regard all acts connected to abortion
from the beginning until the end. This categorically Catholic interpretation, requesting
the exclusion of doctors from all procedures related to abortions could however have
a counter effect. As Santolini (cited by Armeni 2005) argues, the Abortion Act is
principally a dissuasive law, but if objectors are excluded from talking with women
requesting abortion they would not be able to at least attempt to dissuade them,
weakening the dissuasive effect of the law. Thus to protect both the law’s aim and
Catholic values, it would be better to allow objectors to participate in all procedures
involved in the family clinics, but without releasing the abortive authorization
certificate. To solve this issue, Di Pietro (2005, pp. 15-16) suggests keeping separate
the act of releasing the abortive authorization certificate and the dissuasive strategies
conducted during the family clinic meetings. In fact, Di Pietro says that it is
incontestable that the certificate that authorizes abortion is a “necessary and
sufficient” act in order to have an abortion. Thus, this procedure should be considered
as an act where conscientious objection should also be applicable. However, all the
routine duties performed on all patients and performed during the family clinic’s
meeting that have no direct relevance to the prenatal visit where pregnancy is
confirmed and abortion is authorized, should be excluded from the conscientious
objection exoneration. Moreover, objectors should be allowed to talk with all women
in doubt or that have already requested abortion, to be able to offer them alternative
solutions and honour the dissuasive aim of the law. This confusion over when
objection is applicable has caused also direct complications in hospitals’ organization
and abortion schedules. In particular, it was not clear if conscientious objection could
be applicable to therapeutic abortion or when a woman’s life was in danger. Thus,
Rodota’ (1978) suggested that the Constitutional Court Sentence 27/1975 should be
referred to. The Sentence states that the term “intervento” (procedure), used by the
law, should have a restrictive interpretation. Thus, only acts that are directly
connected to the actual elimination of the fetus should be considered relevant to
conscientious objection. However, not everybody agreed with this interpretation and
recently new extensive interpretations have been given to the term “intervento”,
extending it to the prescription and commercialization of the morning- after pill
(Casini, 2001). Recently, the extension of conscientious objection to pharmacists has
been requested to allow them to refuse production of post coital contraceptives,
considered by Catholic and anti-abortionists as abortion drugs. Related to this
144
proposal
was
the
proposition
to
extend
conscientious
objection
to
the
commercialization of RU 486. However, the RU 486 not only raised issues of
compatibility with conscientious objection in relation to its commercialization, but
also and particularly, concerning its administration (Armeni, 2006, p. 147).
Chemical abortion is performed in different ways compared to surgical terminations
and this could potentially create ambiguity in the applicability of Article 9. The
biggest problem that has raised concern is the medical capability to object to abortion
once the process has already started, but before fetal expulsion has occurred (e.g.,
Mifepristone having already been administered to the woman). In reality, as Casini
(1998) clarifies, this issue can be solved by a correct interpretation of Article 9.
Article 9, paragraph 3 states:
“conscientious objection allows the refusal to perform all acts specifically and
necessarily directed to the actual act of abortion. Conscientious objection does not
apply to acts which precede or follow the abortion and assist the patient directly”.
Thus, what needs to be clarified is what acts subsequent to Mifepristone
administration and preceding fetal expulsion can be considered as “acts following
abortion”. Casini believes that these acts must be considered “acts specifically and
necessarily directed to perform abortion” and therefore that conscientious objection is
applicable in this case. He supports his argument with several considerations. First of
all, he argues that the literal meaning of surgical/pharmacological operation includes
all procedures, “finalized to modification of the present somatic condition”. Surgical
abortion cannot be considered as being concluded with the death of the embryo; the
actual embryonic expulsion and elimination is necessary. Thus, any act which occurs
from Mifepristone‘s administration to the actual expulsion, cannot be included in the
definition of “acts that precede or follow the abortion”, allowing doctors to refuse to
perform these acts if against their conscience. Secondly, he refers to the relationship
between cause and effect. Casini argues that although subsequent to Mifepristone, any
interventions do not contribute to abortion, in reality, an objector’s participation in
chemical abortion in the intermediate phases can result in an increase in the number
of abortions occurring. Hospitals schedule abortions depending upon the availability
of those doctors able to assist in all phases of the abortion. Thus, the end or
145
intermediate phase is taken into consideration at the time that abortion is scheduled.
Therefore, whoever participates in any of these phases in whatever medical capacity
must be considered responsible for the abortion. Mantovani (1992, p. 174) supports
this view, referring to the juridical theory of “conditio sine qua non”. Therefore,
conscientious objection should also be considered applicable to all acts subsequent to
Mifepristone administration. Casini (1998) concludes his argument by outlining the
differences between “acts directly leading to abortion” and “the assistance which
follows abortion”.
He believes that if the legislators’ aim was to exclude
conscientious objection from all acts preceding and following abortion, they would
not have specified in Article 9, “acts which assist directly”. Thus, only acts of
“assistance” can be considered excluded from conscientious objection and everything
else related to the abortion process should be included in this option.
The media has played a fundamental role in the debates about the compatibility of RU
486 with the Abortion Act and especially concerning the applicability of the
conscientious objection’s clause concerning chemical abortion. The media have the
power to highlight and characterize certain information and to omit other information.
Especially now that the media has started to use the Internet more as a channel for
information, its power has become almost incomparable with any other means of
disseminating information outside of the media. Newspaper and television’s news has
helped to diffuse information and to maintain live debates that without the media
intervention would probably not have attracted any attention (Armeni, 2006, p. 156).
For instance, it is possible that media intervention, RU 486 would have remained
completely unknown, and the research on Mifepristone would never have found the
necessary funds to start experiments and eventually discover the effect the drug has
on abortion (Cavoni and Sacchini, 2008, p. 10). As will be outlined in Chapter 9, even
feminist and radical theories and actions, would most likely not have been able to
obtain the results they have without media attention (Armeni, 2006, p. 158). In Italy,
this reality is even more apparent because the media’s power is almost unlimited. It is
not certain what the reason behind this is, and it would probably need a study of its
own to discover and analyze these reasons. However, in Italy this unique media power
is proved also by the fact that Silvio Berlusconi, owner of the biggest Italian media
146
empire, became Prime Minister as well as the most powerful man in Italy (Viroli,
2010, p. 2).
6. The media’s role in Italy and its fundamental role in the awareness of RU 486.
As discussed above, the media had a fundamental role during the implementation of
RU 486 in Italy (Cavoni and Sacchini, 2008, p. 67). This was possible especially for
the absolute power that the media generally have in Italy. Almost everywhere around
the world, currently, the media are probably the most important and effective
instrument to diffuse information and in Italy this statement is even more true (Viroli,
2010, p. 2). However, if this instrument is not properly used it can be used to diffuse
inaccurate information and to guide the opinion of the masses to pursue political,
religious or other interests. A characteristic of the Italian media is that the political
persuasion of that media will dictate how that information is conveyed (Cavoni and
Sacchini, 2008, p. 4).
The case of abortion is not exclusive. It has either become an emblem for women’s
freedom, or an instrument of death depending on the media slant at the time.
Immediately after the implementation of the abortion Act in 1978, the media92 started
to be heavily involved in the political struggle to change or abrogate the Act (Scire’,
2008, p. 2). In fact, being a political compromise, the 194/1978 law did not leave
anybody satisfied (Armeni, 2006). Thus, after its ratification both sides,
feminists/radicals and anti-abortionists/Church, started the process of abrogating or
modifying the Act through a referendum. For the referendum to reach a minimum
quorum93, mass support is fundamental; thus a struggle between parties started and
used the media as a principal weapon to obtain people’s favour. Even after the failure
of all referenda, debates continued in newspapers for years, always in support of new
92
In 1978 media refers to newspapers, television, radio and magazines.
The Oxford Dictionary (2001) defines quorum as “The minimum number of members that must be
present at a meeting to make its business valid”. In this case quorum is the minimum number of
citizens that must vote to make the referendum valid (Caretti and De Siervo, 2006, p. 89).
93
147
attempts to change the law (Scire’, 2008, p. 223). For decades, the approach of the
media did not change and depending on the political orientation of the newspapers or
television shows, it continued to be on the side of either the radical or the antiabortionist ideology94 (Viroli, 2010, p. 11). In 2005, when the quorum, necessary for
the referendum on modification of the 40/2005 law regarding in vitro fertilization was
not reached, the approach changed. This was probably due to the fact that everybody
realized that Italy was ready for new strategies and that perhaps now a modification to
the 194/1978 law was possible (Muritti, 2011). RU 486 was introduced in Italy in the
period when the general attitude was changing toward a more “traditional” direction
influenced by Catholic values. Therefore, chemical abortion was not seen as a new
and simpler form of termination, but both as a threat to the new strategy to finally
eliminate or modify the Abortion Act and to the attempt to reevaluate “traditional”
values in Italy. Again, the media had a fundamental role in supporting the political
order and RU 486 started to appear regularly in the news95 (Cavoni and Sacchini,
2008, p. 4).
Cavoni and Sacchini (2008) conducted a study focused on analyzing the impact of the
media on global society in general, and Italian society in particular. Part of their study
concentrated on disseminating information about RU 486. The two authors illustrated
how the Italian media concentrated their efforts on supporting political parties and
their strategies, with little concern for the quality of the news. Thus, information was
reported with a strong moral and ethical judgment instead of a clear description of
facts with the exception of only two newspapers, the Catholic L’ Avvenire and the
Socialist il Foglio (Cavoni and Sacchini, 2008). The media misinformed the public in
many respect such as the history of the drug, its composition, the procedure and
consequent counter effects (see for example, il Giornale, 2002, Panorama, 2002). For
instance, the study of Cavoni and Sacchini cites the confusion concerning the nature
94
Italian newspapers or television shows are strongly subject to political influence. Especially after the
election of Silvio Berlusconi as PM almost all Italian television, with the only exception of La7
television’s channel was under the control of the right wing and Berlusconi (Viroli, 2010, p. 2).
95
Right-wing newspapers started to cover the RU 486 introduction almost on a daily basis, whilst leftwing newspapers and magazines did not really cover the topic, indirectly confirming that the Italian
situation was now different from the seventies when the Abortion Act was approved (Cavoni and
Sacchini, 2008, p. 4).
148
of RU 486 as a contraceptive, abortive or contragestive, without a clear definition of
the meaning of the used terms, as seen in the article of the independent newspaper, La
Stampa (29th October 2002, p. 18), that says:
“La pillola RU 486 permette di interrompere chimicamente la gravidanza anziche’
chirurgicamente…. Questa tecnica e’ chiamata contragestione” (The drug RU 486
allows a chemical interruption of pregnancy rather than chirurgical…… this
technique is called contragestion),
without explaining how the abortion is obtained, and what contragestion meant.
Cavoni and Sacchini (2008) observed that if the terms “contraceptive” and ”abortive”
are clear, “contragestive’’s obscure meaning can create confusion over the real nature
of the drug. In Italy, the habit of using or creating new terms without explaining the
meaning to the masses is an old technique adopted by the media, to escape legal limits
or to attract the mass attention. For instance, contraception was illegal in Italy until
1971, when the manufacture of contraceptives became legal. However, it was still
illegal to advertise them as a contraceptive method, which forced pharmaceutical
companies to come up with new names to be able to sell them (Scire’, 2008, p. 5).
Another effect of the media’s confusion over the real nature of the drug was that RU
486 has been interchangeably described as an alternative to the morning-after pill.
Italian newspapers generally refer to RU 486 as a “pill” not as a drug. For instance the
left-wing La Repubblica (29th October 2002) titled its first article concerning RU 486
“via libera alla pillola per abortire” (green light for the abortion pill). It is not clear if
the decision to use this word was a clear attempt to confuse the morning-after pill and
RU 486 to influence the public opinion or if the journalists genuinely believed that the
two types of drugs were the same: Mifepristone can also be used as a post-coital
contraceptive, however, Italian debates have not been concerned with the
contraceptive nature of the drug, but only its abortive action. This confusion had the
dual effect of attacking both RU 486 and the morning-after pill. For a long time,
elements in the Catholic Church and anti-abortionist groups wanted to abolish or
make the morning-after pill unavailable. In particular, they also wanted to extend
Article 9 of the 194/1978 law to the morning-after pill. The opening of new debates
concerning RU 486 has also been seen by the Church as an occasion to reinforce the
149
struggle against the morning-after pill. The media seems to work in that direction too,
when they equalize the two types of drug. Mina’ in La Stampa (3rd November 2002)
says:
“In un diluvio di pillole del giorno prima e del giorno dopo, arriva in Italia la
sperimentazione della pillola abortiva RU 486” (After a flood of morning- before and
after pills, experimentation of the abortion Pill RU 486 has arrived in Italy).
This intention to gain an extension of the Abortion Act in different cases was shown
in an official request from the Church to the Government to allow pharmacists to
refuse the sale of RU 486 (Casini, 2001).
Several newspapers have reported a completely incorrect and simplified version of the
procedure of RU 486. For instance, La Repubblica (2005) described the procedure of
the oral administration of RU 486 and the consequent immediate expulsion of the
fetus, completely forgetting to mention the administering of PG, which is actually
necessary to induce the expulsion. In an interview with a woman that had a chemical
abortion, the newspaper (16th September 2005, p. 5) stated: “…la pillola era in un
barattolo… l’ho presa ed era finita. Sono andata a casa” (the pill was in a pot…. I
took it and everything was over. I went home). However, what attracted the media’s
attention more, especially regarding the potential incompatibility with the Abortion
Act, as outlined above, was the timing related to the expulsion of the fetus. In
particular, information regarding fetal expulsion occurring outside hospitals and
without medical supervision and with possible haemorrhages caused the Health
Minister to block Dr. Viale’s research in Turin. In this case, this obstacle was
relatively easy to overcome and an official written procedure was presented to the
Minister of Health to prove compatibility with the law. The new procedure clearly
states that whoever starts chemical termination will be under medical supervision
until the expulsion of the fetus. This is for two reasons. The first is to support the
woman during the chemical termination in case of complications like a haemorrhage.
The second is because sometimes the combination of Mifepristone/PG is not effective
and the woman must be subjected to a surgical termination. Moreover, it has been
150
decided that it is not possible to have to a chemical termination after the seventh week
of pregnancy to guarantee the best possible chance of success and so as to avoid the
need for a surgical termination on the woman taking RU 486 (Cavoni and Sacchini,
2008, p. 177). However, this did not stop the media from continuing to report that
abortion was often occurring outside hospitals or authorized clinics, describing, for
example, as per Morressi and Roccella (2006) a “lonely woman abandoned by doctors
and society in this difficult moment”. This series of articles reporting that RU 486
caused abortion outside hospitals forced Dr. Viale to publish a declaration in the
newspaper La Stampa (11th September, 2005) saying that“ ….La donna resta in
ospedale finche’ non c’ e’ stata l’espulsione. E finche’ non si e’ verificato con un’
ecografia che conferma che non ci sia piu’ gravidanza..” (the woman stays inside the
hospital until the expulsion has occurred and until it has been verified with a scan that
the pregnancy has ceased).
The media has also extensively focused on the technicalities of administering the
drug. The fact that the drug is physically taken by women themselves and nothing is
technically done by medical staff has been seen positively by radicals and feminists
because “it is a pure expression of the women’s right to choose” (Armeni, 2006, p.
121); the woman is not only in control of the decision to obtain an abortion but she is
also active participant in the procedure as she alone has to take the drug. On the other
hand, the Church and anti-abortionists saw this as a very dangerous option, thus
newspaper headlines started to criticize the liberalization of abortion. The media
rebuked the direct administering of the drug, believing it could create two effects:
women would make the decision to abort more readily because the process is much
simpler than an intrusive operation as Sgreccia in Medicina e Morale (2002, p. 1016)
feared. Secondly, it could make the ethical decision of some doctors, who were
originally against surgical abortion, much easier. As La Repubblica (29th October
2002) reads: “L’RU 486 fara’ tornare indietro dall’obiezionie di coscienza alcuni
medici donna che non se la sentivano piu’ di praticare interruzioni di gravidanza
chirurgiche..” (RU 486 will make some female doctors opt out of conscientious
objection that they originally chose because they are unwilling to perform anymore
surgical abortions) - they would in fact merely be prescribing a drug and then leaving
the final decision to take it or not to the woman. Studies have been conducted in other
151
countries about an increase in the number of abortions after the introduction of
chemical termination, but such fears have been totally unfounded and there have been
no reasons to think that in Italy these numbers could change. The New York Times
(25th September 2002), reads “Abortion Pill Slow to Win Users Among Women and
Their Doctors”. The newspaper argues in particular that chemical abortion is more
expensive compared with the surgical one and it takes longer time, thus it is difficult
that it will become the preferred abortive method in America.
As regards the side effects, several studies have been published on the absence of
anything long-term (Klein, et al. 1991). However, it has been proven that there are
some immediate side effects that subside in the short-term. The media, again
following political leanings, have published several contradicting articles. For
instance, La Repubblica (29th October 2002, p. 13) reported that the drug did not have
any side effects and that it was completely safe “tecnicamente somiglia a
mestruazioni piu’ dolorose” (technically it is more like a painful menstrual period).
Conversely, L’Avvenire, focused on all deaths connected to the use of RU 486 and
started to call it the “kill pill”. The media reported the opposing positions depending
on the political environment and probably the only source of factual information
would have been official documents released by hospitals and academic studies. The
access to these official documents is difficult but access to the documents was granted
by Empoli’s hospital and from looking at this document it is possible to see a clear
description of the possible side effects, the procedure itself and the conditions
surrounding it (see Appendix 6).
It is true that a few deaths have been associated with the administering of the drug and
all of these were caused by haemorrhaging. The haemorrhaging, as discussed by
Roccella and Morresi (2006), seemed to have been caused by a combination of
factors, such as the age of the woman, the amount of cigarettes smoked, and the
absence of any medical assistance at the moment of expulsion. The hospitals have
evaluated and considered all the facts regarding the chemical abortion procedure and
presented them to the Minister of Health. In reality, the most common side effects that
152
have been discovered are nausea, bleeding and abdominal pain, not comparable with
the risk connected to anaesthesia and post operation symptoms.
Another issue that the media has continued to detail was the cost of RU 486. Several
reports have been published about the cost of importing the drug, as well as the cost
of undergoing the procedure (The New York Times, 25th September 2002), Moreover,
it has been discussed whether regions should have funds in place for hospitals to keep
women admitted for three days following a chemical termination whereas for surgical
termination generally only one day is necessary (Viale, 2006). This stands in line
with the belief that Italy is presenting obstacles where it can in preventing the use of
chemical abortion (Scire’, 2009, p. 49). It is the very same procedure, as discussed in
paragraph 4 of this chapter, which hospitals had to formulate to obtain ministerial
approval that seems disadvantageous toward women, hospitals and regions. For
instance, in the UK there is a different procedure that is widely considered not
dangerous for women as well as very effective for doctors and hospitals (Jones and
Henshaw, 2002, p. 157). In Italy, women are admitted to hospital or an authorized
clinic at the moment of taking the first drug, Mifepristone, that interrupts production
of progesterone, the hormone necessary for a pregnancy’s continuation. After this,
women stay in hospital under supervision for two days before taking the second drug,
PG, which then causes contractions of the uterus, which in turn causes the fetus to be
expelled. In the UK, women are admitted for 2 hours, Mifepristone is administered
and then they are dismissed with the request to come back after 2 days to have PG
administered. After this, they are kept under medical supervision until the fetus is
expelled. It is true that in a few cases the expulsion happens after the consumption of
Mifepristone, but it is very rare and also women are requested to contact their doctors
immediately if they start to have contractions. What is clear is that the UK procedure
is more suited to the characteristics of chemical terminations, allowing all benefits
from the drug: better hospital schedules, reduced costs and assistance offered to the
women (Morresi and Roccella, 2006, p. 82).
7. Conclusion
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We are now in the position to have a clearer vision of the relationship between RU
486 and women’s status in Italy. The drug that has been associated in France with
abortion has been, all around the world, the object of debates and demonstrations to
prevent states allowing its proliferation and utilization. These debates have been
particularly strong in countries like France, the US and Italy where abortion is legal
and regulated by specific laws. Thus, the real reason behind this strong opposition is
not a genuine opposition toward abortion itself, but a new attempt to undermine
women’s rights, making a new process unavailable that could otherwise improve
abortion. However, in countries like Italy, it seems that this theory is not applicable.
In Italy, it is possible that the real reason behind the strong opposition to RU 486 is
more political and social, partly due to an attempt to save the family and its
“traditional” values. In fact, the fragility of the Italian State, as discussed in Chapter
5, brought about a revaluation of the “traditional” form of family with women at the
centre of it. Therefore, in the Italian case, the opposition to the implementation of the
RU 486 more than representing an attempt to undermine women’s rights seems to be
an attempt to protect the position that women have inside the family. The weakness of
the Italian State and its inability to implement laws is relevant also because it makes it
easier for the population to develop an attitude of interpreting and disregarding laws
that are morally questionable. The inability of the State to implement laws is
associated also with the high percentage of conscientious objectors amongst public
practitioners.
It has been shown in Chapter 5 that the opposition to RU 486 has had different actors
and it has manifested in several ways. Amongst all the opposition, as outlined in the
previous paragraph, the media has played the most important and effective role. The
media attention dedicated to chemical abortion has helped to focus society’s attention
on RU 486 but with the diffusion of often incorrect and incomplete information they
have also brought about confusion concerning the real nature, the procedure and
possible collateral effects of the drug (Armeni, 2006). For example, without the
media’s intervention Mifepristone would probably only have been a laboratory
discovery and would never have found funding to start the research that resulted in its
154
eventual use in abortion (Armeni, 2006, p. 158). The interest that RU 486 has
provoked in the media has also shown the political potential that this drug could have.
This political potential was made clear in the several parliamentary debates that
started after the first few attempts to introduce the drug in Italy. These debates
principally focused on the incompatibility of chemical abortion with the 194/1978
law.
To conclude, it is possible to say that in Italy the opposition to RU 486, more than
being a paternalistic attempt to limit women’s rights has been a social attempt to
protect family and women from the possible challenge represented by the introduction
of the new abortive method. Many women, the State the Church, the vast majority of
doctors and overall the whole society act directly or indirectly to protect the nucleus
of the Italian society represented by the “traditional” form of family.
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7. THE MEDICAL POSITION ON ABORTION AND THE ITALIAN
PHENOMENON OF CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION
1. Introduction
This chapter’s aim is to understand the role of conscientious objection in the
opposition to the introduction of RU 486 inside public hospitals. Chapter 6 has shown
the vicissitudes of RU 486 from the first experiments until the official implementation
in certain hospitals; in particular, who were the principal opponents and what types of
strategies have been used to interrupt the introduction of the drug in Italy. In this
chapter, the objectives are, first of all, to understand if there is a correlation between
the inability of the Italian State to implement its laws, discussed in Chapter 5, and the
high percentage of conscientious objectors amongst Italian doctors. The second
objective is to comprehend the reasons behind this high percentage of adhesion to
conscientious objection and, in particular, if these reasons can be related to the social
definition of women in Italy. The high percentage probably represents the biggest
obstacle to the implementation of RU 486 in Italy and, as shortly discussed in Chapter
6, can result in emptying the Abortion Act of any value and potentially being able to
paralyze abortion’s procedure.
Conscientious objection represents one of the most discussed and debated topics
within reproductive rights. In fact, as will be discussed later in this chapter, this
option, officially recognized by some states, can be one of the biggest impediments
not only to abortion but also to several types of scientific innovations. What puts
conscientious objection at the centre of so many debates is however, not the nature of
the option but the fact that often doctors and hospital staff decide to choose this option
not for personal moral reasons, as requested by law96, but for professional
convenience. Another reason for concern about conscientious objection is that the
reasons to opt for it are constantly expanding, allowing doctors and hospital staff to
96
See Article 9 of the Italian Abortion Act.
156
use it more extensively than in the past (Armeni, 2006, p. 86). Conscientious
objection, which was traditionally only related to abortion and military service, is
today connected to contraception, in vitro fertilization, and other treatments involving
moral and ethical values. To understand the reasons behind the high percentage of
objectors, a series of semi-structured interviews with both objectors and non-objectors
were conducted. Since the ISTAT97 in its data stated that the percentage of objectors,
high amongst public practitioners, decreases amongst private doctors, the interviews
also focused on understanding what lies behind this discrepancy.
To better
understand the professional culture of doctors in Italian public hospitals, which can
also help to comprehend the reasons that justify the high percentage of conscientious
objectors amongst hospital staff, a participant observation was conducted, as
described in Chapter 3, in some Italian hospitals. This type of observation has been
beneficial because it has helped to understand the real hospital culture and not the one
mediated by newspapers or by the medical attempt to protect themselves from
possible reactions to the hospitals’ disregard of the law.
2. Definition
Conscientious objection has been defined as the refusal to observe a valid and
legitimate law due to incompatibility of this law with personal moral beliefs (Di
Pietro et al, 2005, p. 7). As previously discussed, it is a deeply debated topic,
particularly, in relation to its nature and applicability, therefore several studies have
been conducted to understand the nature of conscientious objection and to clarify if it
is a form of obedience to the law or of disobedience to the law. In an attempt to
identify the nature of conscientious objection and to understand if it is legitimate
behavior or not, Di Pietro (2005) differentiates eight possible behaviors: “obbedienza
cosciente” (conscientious obedience), when someone is absolutely convinced of the
validity of a law and obeys it without hesitation; “obbedienza formale” (formal
obedience), when someone obeys a law but without believing in its validity;
97
ISTAT is the Italian National Institute of Statistics and it is the main source of official statistical
information in Italy.
157
“evasione occulta” (hidden evasion), when someone does not obey a law and if he
does, it is only to escape penal sanctions; “obbedienza passiva o non obbedienza”
(passive obedience or disobedience), when someone refuses to follow a law,
considering it unworthy, even if this disobedience can result in penal sanctions;
“obiezione di coscienza” (conscientious objection), when someone refuses to obey a
law because that law’s requested behavior is in contrast with the person’s moral
values; “disobbedienza civile” (civil disobedience), when a law is intentionally
transgressed by an organized group of people; “resistenza passiva” (passive
resistance), when transgression of the law aims to subvert a political situation, but the
disobedience of that law is not accompanied by violent protests and finally,
“resistenza attiva” (active resistance) when transgression of the law aims to subvert a
political situation, and the disobedience regarding that law is accompanied by violent
protests.
The first four types of behavior are classified as “forms of obedience to the law”,
whilst the last three types are “forms of disobedience against the law”. It is difficult
to classify conscientious objection because it is technically a form of disobedience.
However, this transgression aims to protect higher values. Guzman Lopez (1997)
suggests that, for this reason, all legislations should recognize the value of
conscientious objection and should offer it to their citizens in certain cases. However,
he states that even when a state refuses to acknowledge the importance of
conscientious objection, it should never be considered a type of disobedience of the
law, because the aim of conscientious objection is not to subvert a political situation,
but only to avoid a behavior that is considered immoral. The potential conflict
between one’s moral conscience and a positive law that causes conscientious
objection is not a new conflict. For centuries, people have believed that they had to
act following their conscience, even if that behavior could result in the nonobservance of the state’s laws. Moral conscience is not a static element, it is dynamic
and progressive and it is influenced by different external factors. An individual can
refuse to obey a particular law, which aims to protect a citizen’s rights at a certain
time and in a certain society, when some parts of the law are in contrast with his
moral values. This is allowed because the state, considering that not everything
contained in the state‘s laws is always ethically licit, admitted a sort of “tolerance”
158
(Di Pietro et al, 2005, p. 12). This introduction of “tolerance” consists of the state’s
admission that certain behaviors cannot be forbidden even if they cannot be
considered ethically legitimate. Sometimes, a state authorizes a type of behavior,
knowing that it is morally questionable, because it believes that any prohibition could
be ineffective or that it could bring about greater damage. This is the case with
abortion. Even if a state does not believe that abortion is morally and ethically licit, a
prohibition could bring about a high percentage of illegal abortions98 with
consequential risks for women’s health (Di Pietro et al, 2005, p. 13). The Italian
Constitution does not officially recognize conscientious objection but it implicitly
recognizes it when Article 2 says that the Constitution protects “inviolable human
rights”. Moreover, conscientious objection has been officially recognized by several
International laws. For instance, in Article 18, the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and
religion……”. Thus, coming back to the correct classification of conscientious
objection it seems generally accepted to define it as a “form of obedience to law” and
as a right. However, as Cannold (1998, p. 50) and some others have argued, when the
refusal to provide a service, regulated by law, causes the complete shut down of the
service, this refusal should not be defined as conscientious objection but as “civil
disobedience”.
3. Development of Conscientious Objection in Italy, France, the UK and the US
A comparative approach can help to sheer light on the real reasons behind the high
percentage of conscientious objectors among Italian doctors. In fact, it can help to
understand, for instance, if the high adhesion to the objection in Italy depends on
religious values and the Church’s influence, as suggested by Viale (2006). For that
reason it was decided to compare four countries with different characteristics. France,
a traditionally secular state, where the Church has very limited power (Cain, 1970, p.
282), the UK, an officially Anglican country, where again the Catholic Church has a
98
In Italy prior the introduction of the Abortion Act in 1978, 1 out of 5 pregnancies resulted in an
illegal termination (Galeotti, 2003, p. 101).
159
restricted influence over the population (Cain, 1970, p. 289), and the US where, like
Italy, religious lobbies can have quite a lot of power (Cain, 1970, p. 289). Comparing
the four countries and their Abortion Acts it was also possible to understand if the
high percentage of objectors in Italy depends on the way the Abortion Act has been
formulated. Finally, this comparison could help to comprehend if the nature of the
state, strong or weak, can be related to medical behaviors.
In the 1940s, conscientious objection surfaced for the first time in Italy. It was granted
only in two cases: to avoid mandatory military service and to refuse to perform
therapeutic abortion. In the first case, any objection lost its relevance due to the
elimination of the mandatory military service in 2003. Moreover, any conscientious
objection to military service was not an object of debate since individuals hardly ever
asserted it. For example, if an individual objected, then his right to possess a weapon
was taken away and he could no longer be involved in the popular past time of
hunting. Also, his right to self-defense would be sacrificed. Furthermore, the act of
objecting to military service represented a lack of virility, and was therefore hardly
ever invoked (Casini and Cieri, 1978, p. 155). On the other hand, the second form of
conscientious objection regarding abortion did not have any negative outcomes and
did not bring about negative consequences for the objector. This type of objection
limited doctors’ responsibilities, allowing them to organize their working schedule
better and relieve them of political and religious pressures. Moreover, this second
form of conscientious objection seems to be conforming to the Italian Constitutional
system, which implicitly justifies and recognizes it99 (Casini and Cieri, 1978, p. 156).
The Church has always supported both types of objection (Di Pietro et al, 2005, p. 5).
However, despite the general idea that Italian people follow religious values and the
Church dictatum, it seems that in regard to conscientious objection, other reasons
direct the population’s choices more than religious values. Regarding military
objection, in fact, as discussed above, the connection with the lack of virility and the
limitation to hunt, seems to suggest that the Church had hardly any influence over the
99
See Art. 2 of the Italian Constitution.
160
decision for people to become objectors (Casini and Cieri, 1978, p. 155). Regarding
objectors to abortion, as will be seen later, it seems that other reasons such as
professional and economic convenience were dominant over the choice of whether to
become an objector or not.
In France, the situation is very different. A statute adopted in 1963 strictly regulates
conscientious objection100. However, the statute regulates only conscientious
objection in the case of refusal to handle arms and says nothing regarding abortion
(Cain, 1970, p. 282). Here, despite calling the authorized behaviors conscientious
objection, it seems that the refusal to defend the country is seen more as a type of
“civil disobedience”, as discussed in the previous paragraph (Cain, 1970, p. 285).
France does not appear to be supportive or tolerant toward conscientious objection,
reflecting the French fear of foreign attack. In fact, in France it is illegal to attempt to
convince someone to be of conscientious objector status (Cain, 1970, p. 291). The
conscientious objection in the case of refusal to perform abortion is regulated in
France by the 1975 loi Veil101. Despite the formulation of the Italian and French laws
regarding conscientious objection being very similar, the percentage of objectors in
the two countries is very different (Boltanski, 2004, p. 227)102. Thus, it is reasonable
to think that the high percentage of objectors in Italy does not depend on the
formulation of the law that makes it easy to become an objector, but on other factors,
such as the structure of the State. It is true that the Italian and French States are very
different. If the Italian State, as discussed in Chapter 5, appears to be a fragmented
and weak state (McCarthy, 1995, Viroli, 2010), the French State has been identified
as a stable and centralized one (Cain, 1970, p. 277), able to implement its laws and to
support its citizens.
100
344 deputies voted in favor and 94 against (Cain, 1970, p. 282).
101
Simone Veil became health minister in 1974 and the same year she simplified the access to
contraception for the population. The following year she promulgated the Abortion Act, famous as the
Loi Veil, that decriminalized abortion under certain conditions (Boltanski, 2004, p. 226).
102
In 1988 the percentage of objectors amongst French doctors was 14.58% (Venner and Fourest,
1988, p. 12).
161
In the UK, two forms of conscientious objection are also recognized. The military
conscientious objection received legal status since 1916 during the First World War
and it is now regulated by the National Service Act 1948. The attitude in the UK is
very different from that in Italy, where military objection is equated with a lack of
virility and France, where this type of objection is seen, as discussed above, as a sort
of “civil disobedience”. The UK is very tolerant toward conscientious objection and in
the post WWII period around 650 people were registered as objectors every year
(Cain, 1970, p. 289). In the UK, it is possible to find the most pure form of
conscientious objection (Di Pietro et al, 2005, p. 15). Even if the British Abortion Act
allows conscientious objectors to opt out, what appears to be the real difference
between Italy and the UK is the different medical, hospital and academic attitudes
toward conscientious objection. The FIGO Committee (2006), which limits the
conscientious objection’ options, requests that objector practitioners do not “suffer
discrimination on the basis of their convictions”. This provision would probably not
be necessary in Italy, where protection should be granted to non-objectors. In the UK,
it has been clearly stated that the “primary commitment of obstetrician-gynaecologists
is to serve women’s reproductive health and well being” (FIGO, 2006). The FIGO
Committee continues, stating that: “If a physician is either unable or unwilling to
provide a desired medical service for non-medical reasons, he or she should make
every effort to achieve appropriate referral”. Thus, objection is allowed only if a
referral is possible and always maintaining a focus on the primary commitment of
practitioners that is “women’s reproductive health and well being”.
The attitude toward conscientious objection in the UK has also resulted in less doubt
concerning legal limits in the application for objection, compared to Italy. In fact,
whilst in Italy there are still doubts over when objection can be invoked, in the UK,
after the case Regina vs. Salford Area Heath Authority (Respondent) ex parte
Janaway it was clearly stated that the objection clause exempts people from
participating “in any treatment”. This exclusion means that the exemption is applied
to “actually taking part in treatment administered in a hospital or other approved
place”. Thus, objection would not have applied to Mrs Janaway, a receptionist for a
General Practice that refused to type a letter to a consultant referring a woman
seeking an abortion (Hill, 2010). British doctors do not appear particularly willing to
162
opt to become objectors, probably because of the different attitude manifested by
British hospitals. Savulescu (2006), in his analysis of conscientious objection, appears
to reflect the general hospitals’ attitude saying: “If people are not ready to offer
legally permitted, efficient, and beneficial care to patients because it conflicts with
their values, they should not be doctors”.
This attitude, which appears to be
completely different to the Italian attitude, can help to explain the much lower
percentage of objectors in British hospitals. A study conducted by the groups
responsible for the National Strategy for Sexual Health and HIV in July 2001 showed
that in England only 4% of doctors refuse to refer a woman for abortion on the
grounds of conscientious objection, a percentage which is particularly low, especially
if compared with the Italian 84.2% in certain areas (ISTAT, 2002).
In the US, the attitude toward both types of conscientious objection is different from
that in the other countries described above. This probably depends on the fact that the
US had to face a different reality. Military conscientious objection is regulated by the
Selective Service Act 1948 and the Universal Military Training Act of 1951 (Cain,
1970, p. 299). If for this type of objection the US State shows a tolerance similar to
Britain, the attitude toward objection on abortion is completely different. The
situation in the US is more similar to that in Italy. Meyers and Woods (1996), in their
study regarding access to abortion services in the US, observed that in 1991 “83% of
US counties had no abortion provider” (Meyers and Wood, 1996, p. 115). It is
interesting to notice that in this country, where the famous 1973 Sentence Roe vs.
Wade103 was stated, there is such a high percentage of objectors. Meyers and Woods
(1996) observed that this high percentage probably depended on the fact that
physicians do not believe they had a legal obligation to perform terminations. They
believe that the law gives them an option to perform it or not and, since a new law
states that within doctors duties there is not the obligation to perform abortion, they
are free to choose. “The principle of liberty, this argument holds, should be the
guiding principle, binding unless one justifies its violation” (Meyers and Woods,
1996, p. 117). It is possible that this American perception of the law is similar to the
103
This Sentence of the US Supreme Court, as discussed previously, is considered a landmark in the
abortion struggle, recognizing under the right to privacy that women can freely choose to have an
abortion.
163
Italian perception. The difference between Italy and the US, however, is the
formulation of the law that in the US appears to be quite generic, leaving doctors the
faculty to interpret it; whilst in Italy it is rather specific, in theory, not leaving much
space for interpretation. However, as was observed in Chapter 5, Italians have a
particular tendency to disregard laws and interpret them in the most advantageous
way (Collins, 2008), even if laws are quite specific, and the State appears to be unable
to react to this non-observance (Viroli, 2010, p. 80), giving to Italian doctors the same
freedom as to those in America. Therefore, both American and Italian doctors seem to
feel free to perform an abortion or not and neither group consider that part of their
duty as a gynaecologist, is to perform abortion. This attitude appears to be particularly
different from the British and the French attitude where doctors perform abortions,
not for personal pleasure, but because it is part of their duties (FIGO, 2006; Boltanski,
2004).
From this analysis of conscientious objection in these countries, it seems correct to
say that the reason behind the high percentage of objectors in Italy lies behind the
capability of Italian doctors to interpret the law in the most convenient way. In
France, where the law is formulated in a similarly rigid way, doctors consider
performing abortion part of their duty and only a small proportion refuse to perform
it. The French example helps to support the theory that behind the Italian tendency to
interpret laws there is the weakness of the Italian State. The British example helps to
sustain this theory even further. In Britain, the law has been left intentionally generic,
under the pressure of medical associations (Lovenduski, 1986, p. 58), potentially
allowing doctors to interpret the law in a restrictive way and opt en masse to become
objectors. But in the UK, doctors are bound to follow the law once it has been
approved, thus the percentage of objectors is low and abortion is available. In
America, on the other hand, it is possible to identify a situation similar to that in Italy,
where abortion can potentially be obstructed but here the free interpretation of doctors
depends on the generic law and not on the inability of the state to implement its
regulation as is the case in Italy (Viroli, 2010, p. 80).
4. Debates behind conscientious objection to abortion in Italy
164
In Italy, the debates about the medical type of objection started in the forties when a
few doctors refused to practice therapeutic abortion, asking some colleagues to
substitute them when an abortion needed to be performed. In 1948, these debates
brought about the modification of the deontological medical code of Turin that in
Article 62 authorized a possible substitution of the operating doctor during the
practice of abortion if this was necessary according to the personal beliefs of that
practicing doctor. However, this article disappeared from the deontological code of
1954 due to scientific improvements and the consequent reductions in therapeutic
abortions (Di Pietro et al, 2005, p. 29). Debates about conscientious objection started
again around the sixties and seventies associated with the struggle for the legalization
of abortion. In particular, the Church and anti-abortionist groups started to use
conscientious objection as a flag to defend their cause. Thus, even if a law had been
passed on abortion, people would have always had a legal excuse to refuse to conduct
abortions (Pietro et al, 2005, p. 31). Conscientious objection therefore became the
main strategy in opposing abortions (Scire’, 2008, p. 88). In 1978, the year the
Abortion Act was approved, the Italian deontological code introduced conscientious
objection again in two articles, 28 and 47. This clearly detailed the position assumed
by medical associations in the abortion debate. However, this is the only position
taken by the Italian Medical Association during the process of approval of the
Abortion Act in Italy, strongly differentiating the Italian Medical Association from
the BMA, as discussed in Chapter 4. Finally, when the Abortion Act was approved, it
dedicated an article specifically to conscientious objection. Article 9 of the 194/1978
law, as discussed in the previous Chapter, describes the limits and conditions of
conscientious objection. Mori (1997, p. 75) stated that Article 9 is not just about
conscientious objection per se, but it is in fact a “faculty of choice” for doctors and
hospital staff. This is because the Abortion Act legalized abortion but it did not
liberalize it, although boundaries between these two positions are unclear104. In
reality, if the law liberalized abortion, it would have meant that abortion was
considered “a private matter”, leaving women, on the one hand, absolutely free to
Liberalize means “remove or loosen restriction on something” whilst legalize means “make legal”
(Oxford English Dictionary, 2001).
104
165
decide if and when to have an abortion and on the other, doctors would be completely
free to decide whether to perform abortions or not (Scire’, 2008, p. 288).
Moreover, it would have meant that the government would not have any type of
responsibilities in relation to abortion, neither medical nor economic, with a clear
disadvantage for poorer classes (Dworkin, 1994, p. 52). The fact that abortion has
been legalized means that, it being a “public matter”, the State must regulate abortion;
and therefore it must guarantee the service and cover all costs. Doctors that work in
public hospitals and authorized clinics therefore should balance their moral values
with government exigency to guarantee abortion. What has not been considered
enough by the Parliament, when the Abortion Act was approved, was how to maintain
that balance, and in fact it seems that this equilibrium does not exist in Italian
hospitals (Scire’, 2008, p. 290). However, this balance has been guaranteed in a
similar situation, showing that the real objective of the state in the case of
conscientious objection is probably not to guarantee the balance between state
exigencies and moral values but to limit access to abortion. In fact, as the radical party
(1980) lamented, there is no theoretical difference between the case of a Jehovah
Witness who decides to become a surgeon and refuses to perform a transfusion,
claiming it to be against his personal belief, and the gynaecologist who refuses to
perform an abortion claiming to be a conscientious objector. However, the law does
not allow the Jehovah Witness to refuse to perform a transfusion, but it allows a
gynaecologist to refuse to perform an abortion (Scire’, 2008, p. 289).
Conscientious objection can represent an obstacle to abortion, but not all abortion
supporters consider conscientious objection in a negative way. For example, as Bozzo
(1978) argues, political freedom means that the state should guarantee to all citizens
the freedom to decide certain matters following their conscience. This represents “the
little trace that in a laic state remains of the law of God”. Thus, conscientious
objection must be guaranteed by the State. However, to avoid the possibility that
conscientious objection is chosen only for convenience and not on the basis of real
moral beliefs, the decision to become an objector should be associated with a personal
sacrifice such as a lower salary, or obligatory participation in an anti-abortive
166
campaign. Similar ideas have been expressed by Gennari (1978), a Vatican exponent
that supports genuine conscientious objection, asking objectors to actively work to
eliminate the abortion ‘plague’, support women and help them to have a clearer vision
of their options. Comparable considerations were also expressed during the interviews
with non-objector doctors that demonstrated that often convenience is the real reason
lying behind the high percentage of objectors and that it would be useful if the State,
the regions or hospitals would request those who opt to become an objector to prove
the genuineness of their reasons. In fact, as it will be discussed later in this chapter, it
seems that the dominant reason to become an objector is the fact that being an
objector is financially and professionally convenient. Due to the particular relevance
in Italy of family and the Church, objectors have more opportunities to obtain a career
advancement than non-objectors (Armeni, 2006, p. 65). Cannold (1998, p. 51), in her
analysis concerning the high percentage of objectors in Australia, reaches similar
conclusions arguing that what really concerns doctors and nurses is how to avoid “the
dirty job”.
In one of the interviews with doctors conducted for this study, Dr. Pala, 47 and a nonobjector, complained that in reality being a non-objector was inconvenient and often
uncomfortable, while objectors can enjoy all the advantages of the profession. He
said:
“I am punished by my decision to offer women the option to obtain an abortion….. I
work longer hours and I end up only doing abortions……. Objectors should prove
that they have opted out of abortion because it is against their moral beliefs and not
because it is more convenient to be an objector…… I would not mind working with
true and genuine objectors but unfortunately they are rare and in reality many
objectors in my hospital would not mind performing abortions behind closed doors
for a high payment ”.
Both Bozzo’s article (1978) and this statement from Dr. Pala seem to outline one of
the biggest issues related to conscientious objection, that of the genuineness of the
choice to become an objector. In fact, conscientious objection seems widely accepted
when it is real but it is criticized when it hides different interests. A common element
in the answers given by non-objector interviewees was the scepticism toward the real
167
reason behind their colleagues’ decisions. Of particular interest is the comment made
by the oldest of the interviewees, Dr. Maxia, 66 and a non-objector, near to
retirement. He said:
“In my long career I can in conscience say that I met only one genuine objector. His
wife got pregnant with a seriously disabled child and I offered to perform a
therapeutic abortion. He refused saying that he believed that that the child was a gift
from God and that abortion was not an option……. It is difficult to see someone that
does not change his mind in the face of personal interests…….”
These concerns about the genuineness of the conscience regarding abortion have also
been expressed in Parliament and in 1989 and 2001 two Bills were presented,
requesting some regulation of conscientious objection. Both Bills requested
principally four innovations and did not pass the discussion stage. First of all, the
Bills aim’ was to oblige every hospital to guarantee that at least 50% of personnel
were non-objectors. Secondly, the conscientious objection option was to be available
only to gyneecologists and obstetricians. Thirdly, conscientious objection should be
an individual option, thus the possibility of conscientious objection being applied to a
whole hospital or clinic was to be excluded. Finally, the most extreme request was to
discourage conscientious objection with ad hoc penalizations (Di Pietro et al, 2005, p.
162). Instead of the complete elimination of the conscientious objection option, these
restrictions have been suggested only because, after the failure of the radical party’s
referendum in 1980 regarding the complete liberalization of abortion, it seemed
unrealistic to obtain the abrogation of the Abortion Act or the elimination of the
conscientious objection clause.
5. Conscientious objection – a different reality for public and private
practitioners
Considering the important impact that conscientious objection has regarding
abortion’s practicability it is necessary to understand why so many doctors and
168
hospital staff decide to opt to become conscientious objectors It was decided,
therefore, to conduct interviews with doctors who were either objectors or nonobjectors, principally to find an answer to two important questions: Why is
conscientious objection so common within Italian hospitals, but much less popular
amongst private practitioners? What are the reasons that lie behind this high
percentage of objectors in public hospitals?
The high percentage of objectors within Italian hospitals is already well documented
(Scire’, 2008, p. 290). However, it is not clear why it is so common amongst doctors
working in public hospitals, while the percentage decreases exponentially amongst
private practitioners105. ISTAT official data show that in 2006, in public hospitals,
the percentage of objectors reached a peak of 84.2% in Sicily. The chart below shows
the level of objectors in Italy divided per region, and reveals the difference between
the number of objectors in North and Central/South Italy. Central and South Italy are
considered more “traditional” and conservative regions, whilst the North is more
industrialized and subject to foreign influence and it presents less conservative
characteristics.
105
The average Italian percentage of objectors amongst private practitioners in 2006 was 12% (ISTAT,
2006).
169
Table 1. Percentage of Conscientious Objectors in 2006 in Italy
Region
Gynaecologist
Anaesthetist
Nurses
North Italy
65.2
41.8
26.2
Piedmont
62.9
41.8
23.3
Valle d'Aosta
16.7
44.4
0.0
Lombardy
68.6
46.4
31.2
Bolzano
74.1
43.3
68.8
Trento
64.0
37.7
14.8
Veneto
79.2
49.7
56.8
Venezia Giulia
59.8
40.2
37.1
Liguria
56.3
38.1
6.8
Emilia Romagna
53.5
29.1
14.5
Central Italy
71.0
54.8
57.0
Tuscany
55.9
28.2
32.7
Umbria
70.2
62.6
72.1
Marche
78.4
70.7
52.9
Lazio
77.7
67.6
61.8
South Italy
71.5
59.3
46.4
Abruzzo
45.5
39.9
33.4
Molise
82.8
77.8
82.0
Campania
83.0
73.7
74.0
Puglia
79.9
63.5
76.0
Basilicata
44.0
45.1
33.0
Calabria
73.5
68.9
57.0
Islands
76.3
70.1
69.1
Sicily
84.2
76.4
84.3
Sardinia
57.3
50.4
43.7
Friuli
(Scire’, 2008, p. 290).
170
It seems that the different working conditions of private and public practitioners can
explain the inverted tendency amongst private practitioners compared with the
doctors working in public structures. Dr. Pala tries to describe why conscientious
objection was so common,
“In reality, conscientious objection is a problem only for those of us who work in the
public sphere. It is very rare to find private practitioners who decide to become
objectors. This is because for them that decision can signify less business and definite
disadvantages…… I do not personally know of any of my colleagues working in
private clinics who have decided to become an objector”.
From this comment, demonstrating economic and professional convenience as the
principal reason private practitioners decide to remain non-objectors, it is possible to
hypothesize that the inverted tendency amongst private doctors is in reality justified
by the different working conditions of the two categories. For a private practitioner to
become an objector can lead to the negative result of having fewer clients with an
impact on annual revenue, whilst for public operators, whose annual revenue does not
depend on the number of clients, becoming an objector would have the positive
impact of having to work less hours for the same salary. The salary problem is
outlined also by Armeni (2006) and by Dr. Pusceddu 43, an objector, describing some
issues between objectors and non-objectors. Dr. Pusceddu also talks about “external
pressures” that will be important later in the analysis of the reasons that could
potentially justify the high percentage of objectors in public hospitals. Dr. Pusceddu,
describing his relationship with non-objectors, said that,
“Some non-objectors consider it unfair that we receive the same salary doing only
what could be considered the better part of the job. I even heard that some suggested
that we should get some sort of penalization for choosing to be objectors. Private
practitioners never complain because for them abortion is not an everyday reality and
in the rare event they have to perform an illegal abortion, they get paid much more
than us. Moreover, private practitioners have only their conscience to answer to, not
any other external pressure”.
171
These comments seem to prove that conscientious objection is in reality an issue only
for public doctors and not for private gynaecologists. They also seem to indicate
certain reasons behind the decision to become objectors considering the comment,
“for them that decision can signify less business and definite disadvantages”. This
indicates that professional convenience is one of the factors that influences the
decision as well as the financial pluses, “they get paid much more than us”.
Interestingly, another interview, this time with a private practitioner that was
officially a non-objector, Dr. Amorino, 43, shows another possible reason behind the
lower percentage of objectors amongst private practitioners. Dr. Amorino was aware
of the general belief that his colleagues in the public sphere have, i.e. that private
practitioners are less willing to become objectors principally for economic reasons
and professional convenience. From his point of view, it is the freedom that private
practitioners have which is the real reason why fewer of them decide to become
objectors. A private practitioner, who does not want to authorize or perform an
abortion, can in fact refer his patients to another doctor without having to become an
objector, an option not offered to public doctors. Dr. Amorino sad:
“Except in extreme ethical cases, we hardly ever become conscientious objectors. It is
much easier when a patient requests an abortion to redirect her to another colleague
happy to release an abortion authorization certificate…. Personally, I am not an
objector but I have never performed an abortion or released a certificate. I have, on
the other hand, helped my patients to have a higher place in the hospital waiting
list…… helping patients in that way does not create issues in my business and to my
conscience”.
This doctor believed that private practitioners are hardly given any pressure to
become objectors, but are sometimes given pressure to become non-objectors. One of
the interviewees, Dr. Manca, 33, who is now an objector, talks exactly about these
external pressures, describing her experience at the beginning of her career when she
worked for a few months in an important private clinic. While on-duty, a patient
requested the morning after pill and she did not feel confident giving it to her, more
for clinical than for moral reasons. The patient complained to the director of the clinic
who then ordered the doctor to give a prescription of the morning after pill. Dr.
Manca said,
172
“He told me where did I think I was, ………. (name of the clinic) does not accept
conscientious objectors, our patients pay ‘fior di quattrini’ (a lot of money) to be
assisted in every matter…. He said, “Do you understand? If you are not happy with
that, you can go…… it will take two minutes for me to find another doctor like you.”
This kind of pressure justifies the fact that the percentage of conscientious objectors
amongst private practitioners is less than the percentage of public practitioner
objectors. There are, however, many other factors that justify this difference between
private and public practitioners. First of all, the Abortion Act states that abortion can
be performed only in public hospitals and authorized clinics; this puts less pressure on
private practitioners to become objectors, because for them, as specified above,
objection would apply only to the release of the abortion authorization certificates.
Clearly, releasing a certificate is less time consuming than performing an abortion
from the beginning till the end. On the other hand, as has been outlined above, if
private practitioners are not under any pressure to become objectors, they often
receive pressure to be non-objectors when they work in private clinics instead of on
their own. Thus, it seems fair to consider business and economic reasons determinant
elements for private practitioners to become non-objectors. Moreover, the percentage
of women who go to private practitioners is substantially less, due to the high cost,
than the percentage of women who go to public hospitals where medical assistance is
free. Therefore economic reasons, less pressure from women, and more pressure from
private clinic owners, culminate in a lower percentage of objectors amongst private
practitioners.
6. The real reasons behind conscientious objection: convenience or moral
conscience?
In the previous paragraph, it was suggested that professional and economic
convenience is likely to be one of the biggest reasons influencing the decision of
private practitioners to become non-objectors. However, it is not clear if this is also
true for the public sector. As has already been discussed, they are subjected to a
different type of pressure and they work in a very different reality where requests for
173
abortion are much higher. To better understand the reasons that justify the decisions
to become objectors, it is necessary to take into account the working conditions in
Italian hospitals. As Dr. Pala said, the working conditions for non-objectors are not
optimal,
” I have been a non-objector for several years and my working conditions are not
easy, my objector colleagues are not friendly, patients are not friendly…… I work
many more hours than I am supposed to work and in a week I end up performing
more than 20 abortions…… this makes you think whether it is worth being a nonobjector”.
These suboptimal working conditions were also been described by another
interviewee, who said that a colleague once called him a” killer”, clearly making him
uncomfortable. In her study concerning hospital conditions, Armeni (2006) describes
a similar situation of frustration and unhappiness for non-objectors. Some of her
interviewees described the necessity of some incentives to be a non-objector because
if the government did not take any counter measures soon no practitioner will opt to
be non-objector.
“Even the strongest believer that women need to have access to abortions cannot
offer it in exchange for his personal tranquility”.
Armeni (2006) argues that this phenomenon is so common that it has been called
“burn out”. It consists of a very serious form of stress caused by the non-acceptance
of personal working conditions. Presently, many Italian hospitals organize “burn out”
seminars for all hospital staff that work in departments where abortions are performed
and it has been discovered that often after the seminar some non-objectors decide to
opt to become objectors because during the seminar they have identified the cause of
their discomfort. If the “burn out” phenomenon seems to be one of the reasons to
make non-objectors become objectors, what are the other reasons behind the high
percentage of objectors? Viale (2006), radical and abortionist, describing the situation
in his hospital the Sant’Anna di Torino, said that 50 doctors are objectors in his
hospital and only 10 of them justify their decision through religious reasons.
Surprisingly he says: “who becomes objectors for religious reasons….. is less
fundamentalist, he shows more good sense”. The other 40 justified their decision to
become objectors for convenience and career related objectives since objectors are
174
more likely to become “primario” (head physicians). Viale (2006) continues
differentiating between younger and older doctors saying:
“Many young doctors do not understand. They say that unwanted pregnancies should
not happen thanks to contraception. Nowadays, women have many ways to avoid
unwanted pregnancies”.
During the interviews both with women106 and doctors it was possible to perceive a
different attitude between the older generation that participated in the abortion
struggles in the sixties and seventies and the new generation. Many young people now
seem uninterested in abortion because they believe that it is an avoidable and overspoken about topic, considering the wide availability of contraception. Moreover, it
seems that, as Dr. Loggia, 32 said:
“Although contraception and education are widely accessible, if a woman still gets
pregnant, at least making abortion more complicated to access would make her think
twice the following time….. maybe in this way, at least the issue of recurring
abortions or of abortion used as a form of contraception can be solved”.
It is difficult to understand why such a large proportion of the young generation is so
uninterested in the topic of abortion107. This strong attitude appears similar to that
adopted by the young women that were interviewed, in organizing their family life.
As will be discussed further in Chapter 9, many young women, as been observed by
Muritti (2011), consider family their most important value, as their grandmother did,
but express their feelings in a much more radical way than their grandmothers,
probably in an attempt to protect their ideas that are continuously challenged by
society. The reasons that justify the young doctors’ attitude can be several: one can
be the new tendency to go back to more “traditional” values to protect the family and
women’s status in it, as has been described in Chapters 5 and 6. A further possible
reason, outlined by Armeni (2006) and confirmed by the interviews conducted with
106
See Chapter 9.
107
Not all Italian young women or doctors are against or are uninterested on abortion, there is still a
large part of the radical party and left wing that support abortion, the morning after pill, women’s
emancipation and a wider In vitro fertilization (Armeni, 2006). These positions will be discussed in
detail later in Chapter 9.
175
doctors, is that these young doctors are subject to pressure at the beginning of their
careers. In fact, as Dr. Manca said,
“Attitudes toward abortion can depend on our lectures. For instance, in the first
lesson of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, the lecturer said that he believed that of course
all of us would have to be objectors in the future if we decided to become
gynaecologists”.
Within the possible forms of external pressure, it is possible that the most effective is
the pressure coming from the family of the doctor that decides whether to become an
objector or not, since family is central to Italian society (Muritti, 2011). However,
from the interviews that were conducted with doctors, it does not seem that family is
in fact a source of pressure for doctors. Dr. Pala, a non-objector, commented:
“My mother, 70, is well aware that I perform abortions and she never talks about
that. We often discuss of cheerful events related to my work but we never discuss
abortion. My wife, 42, is less careful than my mother to avoid the abortion topic. She
seems to me more uninterested than against it”.
Similar observations were made by Dr. Maxia, who confirmed that his wife, 65,
treated the abortion topic as taboo. He said:
“We never talk about abortion and we tend to keep my professional life and my
personal life separate. I often discussmy work with my daughter, who is now a doctor
as well, and if in the past she showed some sort of pride toward my job, she now
seems more disinterested in the issue of whether I perform abortions or not”.
Both comments showed that the older generation of women appears to consider
abortion a reality but something that should not be discussed, reflecting the general
Italian attitude pre-abortion Act and pre-feminism (Armeni, 2006, p. 155). On the
other hand, a large proportion of the younger generation seems to be generally
uninterested in the topic, confirming the tendency observed amongst younger doctors
and women that have been interviewed. Dr. Pusceddu appears to confirm this
conclusion. Dr. Pusceddu is an objector and, like for the other two doctors, his family
seems uninterested in his decision to be an objector or non-objector. He said:
176
“My partner, 33, and I never talk about abortion, and I suppose that it is normal
since I do not perform them. However, I believe that my partner would be more
disturbed by me working longer hours to perform abortions than simply by my
performing abortions”.
From this comment again there is clearly some disinterest from some of the young
generation concerning abortion. However, what is particularly interesting from this
comment is that once more, professional convenience is named as the reason to opt to
become an objector.
After all these considerations, it can be said that Italian doctors can opt to be an
objector even if their decision results in the potential invalidation of the Abortion Act.
The prominent reasons that justify the high percentage of objectors amongst Italian
doctors are economic and professional convenience, the attempt to protect family
from external challenges, as discussed before, and, as Viale (2006) observes, for some
doctors, religious reasons, in conformity with the Abortion Act.
To understand how important religious beliefs are amongst the reasons behind the
high percentage of objectors, both objectors and non-objectors were asked if they
differentiate between types of abortions. Both of them agreed on the importance of
therapeutic abortion. In fact, they admitted that it was understandable that in the face
of serious fetal abnormalities, abortion should be an option. However, they were
divided on the options given by the Abortion Act that allows abortion within 12
weeks gestation for economic or even personal reasons. This consideration seems to
prove that the real reason behind the high percentage of objectors is not to do with
religion, because even an abnormal fetus or embryo is still a human being. Richards
(1994) discussed these ideas in her analysis of society and fertile women, and she
arrived at similar conclusions. She analysed three types of abortions: abortion in the
case of rape, abortion for abnormal fetuses and abortion for the mother’s health.
Richards comments that in these three cases the difference compared to abortion “on
request” is not about the fetus or the value of its life and how abortion can be seen as
killing an innocent life. The difference is, in fact, in how the pregnancy started, in the
177
rape case, in any future consequences for the family after the birth of the child in the
case of abnormalities, or in case of death of the mother because of childbirth
complications. Thus, the fetus, which is often considered sacrosanct, is undermined
by the attempt to protect family or to hide unwanted sex.
To sum up, it seems difficult to identify one definite reason to justify the high
percentage of objectors within Italian hospitals. However, it is possible to identify
several. These reasons are principally three: economic and professional convenience,
the will to protect the “traditional” structure of the family and finally, religious
reasons. The first and the second reasons are probably the most common. However,
there are some data108 that seem to confirm that personal and moral values are still
one of the reasons that justify conscientious objection for some, although the general
idea that abortion is widely acceptable in some cases, as in the case of therapeutic
abortion, leads us to think that religious reasons are quite rare. Moreover, there
appears to be a split between older doctors and the newer generation of practitioners.
It is not clear what causes this split between generations. It is possible that the
difference depends on the fact that young doctors did not live through the pro- and
anti-abortion struggle of the sixties and seventies and they are not fully aware of the
condition of women at a time when the only type of abortion available was the illegal
one, often performed in unsanitary and dangerous conditions. Another reason can also
be the pressure that these new doctors receive from universities, lecturers and
hospitals. From the interviews that were conducted, it also seems that the way
abortion is described and discussed has deeply changed in the last few years. Reading
feminist articles such as Lonzi (1974), discussions on abortion were developed around
women’s status and condition. Now it seems that abortion is a separate topic. As
Armeni (2006) discusses, in the seventies, it was difficult to dissociate abortion from
feminism, “autocoscienza” and women’s rights, whilst now it seems that women are
the first to dissociate themselves from abortion, creating a rupture with the literature
and ideas of the past. It is possible that this new attitude is again caused by the new
tendency to protect “traditional” values, which some Italian women seem to follow,
as it has been discussed in Chapter 5.
108
Viale (2006) and interviews conducted for this study.
178
7. The reality in Italian hospitals and the medical attitude toward RU 486
The Italian Abortion Act states that abortion is accessible under certain conditions.
However, as discussed above and despite the law, abortion is difficult to access. For
surgical terminations, although there have been issues created by the high percentage
of conscientious objectors, the procedure now in place is regulated by the 194/1978
law; for chemical termination things appear more complicated. In the last few years,
as was described in Chapter 6, after the first attempt to introduce RU 486 in Italy,
many debates were generated throughout every step of chemical abortion within
Italian hospitals. First of all, the procedure to follow was not clear and its
compatibility with the Abortion Act was contested. It was then difficult to find out
where this type of abortion was available and if there were any long-term effects.
Newspapers and television were the principal source of information for everyday
people and, as was shown in Chapter 6, this source was sometimes unreliable,
incomplete and often made intentionally opaque (Cavoni and Sacchini, 2008). For
that reason, it was decided that the best possible way to obtain information was to
directly collect information from hospitals using an innovative method described in
Chapter 3: participant observation.
The general welcome in each gynaecological department was similar in every hospital
with only one exception (this case will be discussed separately later in this
paragraph). Nurses and doctors were unwelcoming and considered the request for
information as low priority. After a long wait109, most probably part of a strategy to
discourage women with the result that only the most determined get the staff’s
attention, very poor information was given, with a disinterested or brusque tone
explaining that chemical abortion was not available in that hospital. They did not
know anything about the procedure or where RU 486 was available. This lack of
information could have been real or again another step in a strategy to discourage
109
Average waiting time after the registration in the gynaecological department reception was 6 hours.
179
women. It is important to point out that timing in chemical abortions is paramount. In
fact, in Italy it is not possible to perform it after the seventh week of pregnancy. This
means that women need to make up their minds immediately after discovering they
are pregnant. Before being able to perform a chemical termination it is necessary to
do a few tests and a scan and then in accordance with the Abortion Act wait seven
days. Moreover, at the time when the research was conducted the drug needed to be
ordered from abroad, so it was also necessary to factor in this. In other countries, it is
possible to perform a chemical termination up to the eighth or ninth week of
pregnancy, giving women more time to reflect on what they really want. This is better
because
any rushed
decision
could
bring about
unwanted psychological
consequences. However, in Italy, it has been decided that for reasons of efficacy,
chemical termination is only available in the earliest stage of pregnancy and seven
weeks has been indicated as the maximum limit. This time limit has been stated to
avoid having to perform a surgical termination after a failed attempt to achieve a
chemical one. It has been proved in early studies that the efficacy of chemical
terminations is reduced in a later stage of pregnancy (Klein et al, 1991). As
mentioned previously, the quality of information received about the drug in hospitals
was often insufficient to understand how the actual procedure worked; nurses and
doctors were giving incomplete and unclear information. It is however, important to
understand whether this is part of the same strategy mentioned above, i.e. to
discourage women, or if hospital staff was genuinely unaware of how chemical
abortion actually worked. In this case, it is not clear who is the more responsible - the
medical staff who choose to ignore official information, or whether the hospitals and
regions are the ones to be blamed for not investing funds in training and updating
their staff in accordance with the Abortion Act.
In Italy after the revision of Titolo V of the Italian Constitution110, the independent
regions are responsible for all health matters. This is the reason why the percentage of
conscientious objectors is much higher in certain regions (Scire, 2008, p. 290)111 and
110
The Second part of the Italian Constitution was amended in 2001 and in particular the Titolo V
(Title V) was modified that regulated Regioni, Province and Comuni (regions, districts, municipalities)
(Caretti and De Siervo, 2006).
111
See chart in paragraph 5 of this chapter.
180
also why chemical termination was available in some regions and not in others. This
all depends on the political orientation of the giunta regionale (County Council) that
decides whether to invest funds in some areas instead of others. It is not surprising
that in Sardinia, a traditionally closed and Catholic region, chemical abortion is not
available, and even the morning after pill is difficult to obtain. However it is
surprising that in Tuscany, where the giunta regionale shows a favorable inclination
toward chemical termination, that it is still so difficult to obtain information about RU
486112.
The general attitude of hospital’ staff and lack of information is probably very
frustrating for women looking for chemical abortion. This can be confirmed by the
anonymous testimony of a woman from Napoli, who managed to get a chemical
termination in Empoli, the only hospital in Tuscany where RU 486 was available at
the time the research was conducted. She described her experience very negatively
with the exception of her experience at Empoli’s hospital. What she described as
more stressful, however, was the media113 information that did not correspond to the
reality and the fact that having been given incorrect guidance she lost time asking for
information in places where RU 486 should have been available but was not. Also,
the very tight timing and unhelpfulness and unfriendliness of the medical staff only
heightened her stress. She was highly determined and not to be deterred by the first
obstacle. When a private practitioner suggested she try Empoli’s hospital, she had
enough economic resources to travel from Campania to Tuscany, something that is
not always possible for every woman. She finally had a chemical termination at
Empoli’s hospital. However, this raises a financial issue that can potentially deny
accessibility to chemical abortion to many women. Not all women have the financial
means to take time off work, to buy a train ticket to Tuscany, wait for a scan and
analysis and then wait a further seven days before being able to have the abortion
(Renzini, 2005).
112
With the only exception of Empoli’s hospital.
113
She mentioned newspapers and the Internet.
181
As mentioned above, there was only one exception within the hospitals where the
participant observation was conducted with regards to the welcome that was given
and the quality of information offered. This was Empoli’s hospital, which was the
only hospital in Tuscany that was offering chemical terminations at the time the
research was being conducted. This hospital, usually the focus of many complaints
and debates114, was, in fact, very organized, with an office reserved for the
organization of chemical terminations, In addition, the hospital personnel were trained
to offer comprehensive information and to offer to all interested people three sets of
documents (see Appendix 6): the paper to request chemical termination; the official
documentation describing the procedure, possible long term effects and side effects,
description of the nature of RU 486 and how it works, and finally, the last document
was the authorization for a blood transfusion in case of hemorrhaging. The
gynaecological ward was very well-organized and equipped. It is possible that the
hospital received regional funding to support its decision to offer chemical abortion.
What is not clear is: why is only this hospital in Tuscany offering the RU486? This
leads to speculation that possible pressure on hospitals is not coming from the region
itself, but from other sources. It is difficult to say whether the Church is behind the
pressure on all other hospitals in Tuscany, being well known as quite an anti-clerical
and masonic area. The answer seems to be indicated in the information given by a
nurse at Empoli’s hospital, who highlighted again the fact that the availability of
chemical abortion does not depend on regional and State laws or political/religious
pressure; in her opinion, it is possibly dependent upon the personal conscience of
some individual to make access to abortion easy or complicated. The nurse clarified
that the region left all hospitals free to perform chemical terminations and offered
funding to all those willing to perform it. However, hospitals had to write their own
procedure and also had to contact the French producer of the drug themselves. It
would be the senior members of the staff who take the decision as to whether to
introduce chemical abortion or not; it is therefore possible that the pressure comes
from the personal beliefs of the senior management of the hospital, rather than
political or religious doctrine.
114
See La favola dell’aborto facile (Morresi and Roccella, 2006).
182
Another clear outcome from the participant observation in some Italian hospitals,
which lies in contrast to feminist and radical considerations, is that women posed the
biggest opposition to obtaining information concerning RU 486. The attitude of
nurses showed a clear discouraging intent. The long wait, the quality of information
given and the clear dissuasive suggestion revealed that the strategy, described in
Chapter 5, aimed to protect the “traditional” form of family and the role of women
within the society. In this case, in particular, the aim seemed directed at protecting the
reproductive potential of women. Generally, it is normal to expect a person in the
public sector to give information conforming to the law of the State, without showing
any personal beliefs or concern. Civil servants are expected to offer options accepted
by the law and the State and not to try to influence personal choices in accordance
with their personal beliefs. The words chosen by those women showed concern
toward the status and health of the woman, but it seemed that abortion was not
considered something offered in women’s interest. This attitude to protect women
from themselves, as discussed in Chapter 2, has been described and analyzed by
feminists: but they have accused men of having this paternal attitude of considering
women unable to take the best decisions and therefore they feel responsible for
protecting women from themselves (de Beauvoir, 1960; Dalla Costa and James, 1972;
Friedan, 1963). Radical feminists, however (Lonzi, 1974), did not expect this attitude
from other women and especially when the topic was abortion, considered by many a
taboo topic. This attitude shows more of a ‘motherhood’ compared to the ‘sisterhood’
proclaimed by Brownmiller (1985).
As mentioned in Chapter 3, the participant observation was also conducted in the UK
to be able to compare the situation in the two countries. The results in the UK were
significantly different. The information obtained in Britain was more than
satisfactory. The procedure was thoroughly explained and a nurse explained that
“Economic, health or even only the fact that the mother does not want a child, are all
potential reasons that can justify an abortion’s authorisation. It will be easy to obtain
the signature from the doctor”.
If this attitude, especially compared to the Italian procedure, clearly satisfies feminist
standards, it is, however, worrying that the fetus under this procedure does not seem
183
to have any sort of protection. Women appear to be free to obtain an abortion under
any grounds. The Italian system is clearly more restrictive for women and, as seen in
the practical observation conducted in some hospitals in Italy, it is clearly distressing
for women to have to be submitted to continuous judgment and to be forced to prove
their reasons over and over again.
However, the fetus in Italy appears to have some sort of protection that seems to be
missing in the UK. It is true that with the level of social security in the UK being
more satisfactory, women potentially have more opportunities to decide whether to
keep their babies115. However, from the leaflets collected in Britain there were no
references to the type of support offered, probably presuming that women would have
full knowledge of their options. In Italy on the other hand, despite the much less
satisfactory level of assistance offered by the State, the abortion procedure is
organised so that all possible options are communicated to women to allow them to
make an informed decision. The information obtained by the nurse in UK was
confirmed by a doctor that said:
“We do not tend to express an opinion and generally we do not even give options or
suggestions until the woman requests a termination….…. I have to ask the reason why
a woman requests abortion but I need to be impartial, I cannot express any form of
judgment”.
These answers seem to reflect a completely different attitude of British doctors, who,
as was already discussed in Chapter 4, had a strong influence over the formulation of
the British Abortion Act. However, after the approval of the Act they have been
bound to follow it rigidly and do not have an escape from the law as Italian doctors
do.
8. Conclusion
115
This does not mean that in the UK abortion is not requested. The percentage of abortions performed
in the UK in 2007 was 25 per 1000 people compared to the 7.5 per 1000 people in Italy in the same
year (Sarno, 2009).
184
To conclude, conscientious objection is still a critical issue in Italy. Since its first
introduction in the forties, it has been the object of many debates, especially in the
seventies during the struggle for the legalization of abortion, where it became a
central topic. Many studies have been conducted to understand the nature of
conscientious objection and whether it is a form of “obedience to law” or of
“disobedience to law”, in particular to understand if conscientious objection is legal
and if the high percentage of objectors is correlated to the inability of the state to
implement laws. From the comparison of conscientious objection in Italy, France,
Britain and the US, it can be concluded that the weakness of the Italian State and the
high percentage of objectors are related. Despite the Italian Abortion Act, in theory,
not leaving space for interpretation, many Italians feel free to interpret the law and the
State is unable to take any action to implement it (Collins, 2008). The debate about
conscientious objection became even more complicated with the approval of the
Abortion Act and with its official recognition of conscientious objection in Article 9
of the law. Article 9 has been seen by anti-abortionists and Catholics as the only part
of the abortion law in harmony with the rest of the Italian system. The Italian system
normally protects human life and only in the case of the Abortion Act does the system
authorize the termination of human life due to other individual rights being more
important. Therefore, the Abortion Act should be seen as an exceptional law with one
article, Article 9, which allows that law to be in harmony with other Italian laws. On
the other hand, radicals and feminist groups see conscientious objection as the biggest
obstacle to abortion. These groups complain that Article 9 of the Abortion Act is
generic and that it contradicts itself when conscientious objection is given to
gynaecologists who do not want to perform abortion but cannot be extended to
Jehovah Witnesses who do not want to perform a blood transfusion (Scire’, 2008, p.
289). Another issue that radicals and feminist groups report is the anti-abortionist
tendency to extend the application of conscientious objection to new aspects of family
planning such as the morning- after ill or even RU 486, and to new related workers,
such as pharmacists (Armeni, 2006, p. 81). Despite the attempt of radicals and
feminist groups to eliminate conscientious objection, in 2006, the number of objectors
in Italian hospitals reached 84.2% in Sicily (Scire’, 2008, p. 290). This percentage is
growing every year, partly because of the ‘burn out’ phenomenon, for many retired
185
doctors who participated in the abortion struggle in the sixties and seventies (Armeni,
2006, p. 115). These numbers are well documented. However, it is uncertain as to the
exact reasons behind this very high percentage of objectors.
The frequent accusation that, in practice, conscientious objection in abortion is often
not genuine made it necessary to conduct a series of interviews with both objector and
non-objector physicians to identify the real reasons behind the high percentage of
objectors within Italian hospitals. After the interviews were conducted and the results
were analyzed, a few possible causes have been outlined, that alone or combined can
justify the great extent of conscientious objection. The most common reasons that
have been identified as justification for this decision are principally three: economic
and professional convenience, an attempt to protect “traditional” values such as the
family and women’s status within the family, and religious motives. The most
common reason is likely to be economic or professional convenience, but it cannot be
defined for sure t to what extent the attempt to protect traditional values and religion
contributes to the decision to become an objector. From the results of the interviews
that were conducted and an analysis of Armeni (2006) and Viale’s (2006) work and
considerations, it has also been possible to identify a possible split between the older
and younger generation of doctors, in all likelihood due to a combination of factors
such as the young generation’s lack of knowledge of the situation before the Abortion
Act, together with the newly observed general attitude to protect “traditional” values,
which is common amongst young doctors.
These doctors consider abortion as
something that is avoidable and not related to women’s self-determination. Another
probable factor is also the pressure that these new doctors receive from universities,
lecturers and hospitals who try to push them toward becoming objector.
186
8. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF VALUES IN
ITALY
1. Introduction
This chapter analyzes how values are created and manipulated within specific social
structures: in particular, if the presence of the Church in Italy has influenced the
development of Italian values. As has been discussed in Chapter 5, the inability of the
State to implement the laws has left Italian people and institutions free to completely
disregard laws or interpret them in the most convenient way (Collins, 1998). As
discussed in Chapter 7, this attitude could have resulted in a complete liberalization of
abortion, with abortion performed beyond the limits of the laws. Instead this free
interpretation of the law from doctors and hospital staff caused an almost complete
paralysis of the abortion service. In fact, the high percentage of conscientious
objectors amongst hospital staff is potentially able to negate the value the Abortion
Act. In Chapter 7, the possible reasons that lead to the high percentage of objectors
have been discussed and although it seems that the main reasons are financial and
professional convenience and the attempt to protect family from social, scientific and
legal innovations that could represent a challenge, religious beliefs appear to be the
third most important reason justifying the decision of many hospital employees that
opt to be objectors. It is therefore important to understand the role and position of the
Church within Italian society.
The Church is probably the most influential institution within Italian society. The
Italian State was created in 1861 by the unification of several areas, all characterized
by different customs and traditions. The new Italian citizens often spoke different
languages and dialects and were unable to communicate with each other. As Caldwell
(1978, p. 74) states, the State acted to create a political unit but not a cultural or
economic one. Therefore, probably the only communal element that the new Italian
citizens had was religion. The Church had a fundamental role in creating a national
identity because of the new State’s lack of a cultural and linguistic identity. Although
187
religion had an essential role in the creation of Italian society as it appears now,
Catholicism in Italy presents some peculiar characteristics. As Davis and Robinson
(1999) argue, Italy represents a paradox from a political and religious point of view.
Tradition and modernism, and left and right wing coexist in an almost inexplicable
equilibrium that is difficult to find anywhere else in the world. 93% of the Italian
population consider themselves Catholic, although one of the biggest parties in Italy
from the creation of the Republic until the beginning of the nineties was the PCI, the
communist party, in theory, atheist. The PCI conquered the majority of votes in all the
so called “regione rossa116” (red region) composed of all the regions in Central Italy;
regions which are also well known for the quantity of monasteries117 and seminaries.
The Church has an important role in the creation and manipulation of many Italian
values,118 however, the Church is not the only creator or influencer of Italian values.
Some values and traditions have different origins119 and this would help to explain
how the Divorce and the Abortion Acts have been approved, despite the Church
maintaining political and moral relevance. The role of the Church as a sort of guide to
the Italian population has been however debated by the media120, politicians and the
Church itself, that expressed concern about declining religious values within Italian
society after the approval of the Divorce and Abortion Acts (Scire’, 2008, p. 215).
However, the role of the Church regarding perception of women remains strong in
Italy. Radford Ruether (1973) argues that; “Religion…. is undoubtedly the single most
important shaper and enforcer of the image and role of women in culture and
society”.
116
The regions composing of the Regione Rossa are: Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, Umbria and Marche.
117
Famous monasteries in this area include: Camaldoli, The Charterhouse in Florence, The Basilica of
Saint Francis in Assisi, The Shrine of the Holy House in Loreto.
118
Family based on marriage, and honor are still important values in Italy and their origins can be
connected to the Church, see Chapter 6 (Campanini, 2010, p. 39)
119
For instance, in Sardinia on November 2nd each year a special rite is still celebrated to remember the
dead. At night the table is dressed and the best food is left on the table the whole night for the dead.
This rite has ancient origins and is not related to Catholicism (Turchi, 2008).
120
Media here refers to newspapers, television, radio, and the Internet.
188
2. The political and social role of religion
Presently the Church does not have strong political weight but it has a solid influence
over society (Campanini, 2010, p. 39). The situation was quite different prior to the
unification of Italy when the Church was a proper State and the Pope a sovereign with
a strong temporal power. When in 1870, Rome was taken, by the Italian army, as part
of the process of the unification of the Italian State121, a strong fracture between the
Church and the Italian Kingdom was created. The division between civil and
ecclesiastic authorities, known as, “la Questione Romana”, brought about drastic
measures from the new State to sedate the opposing Catholic hierarchy that was
against the inclusion of Rome in the Italian Kingdom (Halperin, 1936, p. 71).
The State was aiming to eliminate all Church’s political, educational and social
power. However if it was possible reduce the Church’s political control, it was
extremely difficult to eliminate the educational and social influence. Due to the
inability of the Italian State to offer social security to the population, as discussed in
Chapter 5, the Church maintained the control over social services and education
(Viroli, 2010) and started working to regain the lost political weight. In 1919, the
Partito Popolare (Popular Party) was founded, that was to become the political party
DC122, and the Church started to officially ask for political power and not only social
and educational power. At the same time, however, the supporters of the idea of the
secularity of the State were seeking the complete elimination of Catholic influence
from schools and the abolition of religious teaching. As Giolitti (1919, cited by
Halperin, 1936, p. 73) said, the Church and the Government should be like “two
parallel lines that never meet each other”.
The situation changed in 1920 with the introduction of a new approach from Pope
Benedict XV, who completely changed his technique in order to face the opposition
121
The Italian Kingdom was proclaimed in 1961. However, Rome, as capital of the Pontifical State,
was included in the new State only in 1870 with the Presa di Roma.
122
The Democrazia Cristiana (DC) as discussed in Chapter 5 was strongly influenced by the Church’s
ideas and values and it was the main Italian party until the “mani pulite” (clean hands) scandal
(McCarthy, 1995, pp. 20-23).
189
of the State. The new Pope abandoned the aggressive attitude of his predecessors and
sought to find a compromise with the Italian State, finding a new space for the Church
in the new society. This more moderate strategy helped the Church to maintain a sort
of indirect control over political and social matters (Cardia, 1996, p. 132). This,
together with the general feeling of disillusionment at the end of the First World War,
helped the Church to survive in Italy. This brought about a new strong exaltation for
tradition and national values that would then help the development of Fascism in Italy
and Nazism in Germany (Halperin, 1936, p. 75). Actually, if the nineteenth century
was the triumph of the liberal State where the old values were substituted by new
illuminating philosophies, the twentieth century was characterised by the victory of a
new totalitarian state, where the values of the ancient regime such as family, religion
and nationalism returned (Cardia, 1996, p. 133). When positivism and modernism
would return a few decades later, they would have a completely different form, which
was more prudent and discrete (Campanini, 1996, p. 346).
It is difficult to explain how religious values became so integrated with Italian values,
making the two almost identical, and especially how religious values became able to
influence and guide women’s aspirations and behaviour. What are the factors that
allowed religion to influence Italian political decisions and moral values? It seems
clear that there are other elements that influence Italian values and this has been
proven by the introduction of acts such as the Divorce Act and the 194/1978 law,
clearly against Church teachings. Cipriani (1984) suggests that to understand how the
Church managed to reach such a dominant position within Italian society we need to
consider two factors that are historical and sociological.
Before the Italian Risorgimento, the Church had full control over political matters and
it was a real state, the Pontifical State123. After the Risorgimento, the Church lost its
political influence but not its social influence, and its important social role in Italy
was recognised in 1946 by the Constitution, which recognised Catholicism as “the
State religion”. In Italy, it can be hypothesized that the majority of the population
123
That included the whole of central Italy.
190
have been influenced in a direct or indirect way by Catholic values such as the
“traditional” Catholic form of family or the religious teaching at school (Cipriani,
1984). These influences with time can disappear but the “ethical memory” works
much longer than church religion. Moreover, there are many other moments in every
person’s life that can, even for a short time, recreate the connection to Catholic
values, for example, funerals, baptisms or even Christmas and Easter. This persisting
“ethical memory” seems the reason behind the concurrence of values and aspirations
of the women that were interviewed. In fact, although some of them did not define
themselves as Catholic but as atheist or agnostic, the type of answers that were
obtained were consistent and concurrent with Catholic values, although this was often
not recognised by the interviewee. This influence is even more evident now that, as
will be discussed in Chapter 9, with the introduction of the new labor law, the
population is experiencing the deepest crisis since the end of the WWII (D’Imperio,
2003).
The Catholic values124, unchanged until now, seem to be one of the main sources of
influence on Italian behaviour. Nowadays, thanks to some changes from the Church’s
attitude and structure, the “ethical memory” and the feeling of disillusionment that is
spreading amongst Italians regarding their working and social conditions, it is
possible to observe a return, at least partially, of the influence of orthodoxy in Italian
values with a revaluation of the role of the family. This type of influence seems
evident, especially looking at some female behaviour and aspirations, which seem
more similar to their grandmothers’ aspirations than to their mothers’ ideals (Muritti,
2011). Many Italian women125 now seem more focused on the family and motherhood
than on their career, which has now become more a duty than a means of satisfaction.
The interviewees’ comments seem to confirm this conclusion and the nurses’ attitude
during the participant observation conducted in Italian hospitals, can be seen as an
expression of this type of aspiration and family reevaluation.
Compassion, generosity, a family based on marriage, respect to life are only some of the Church’s
values (Guerriero, 1996, pp. 6-13).
124
125
The women who were the objects of the focus group as discussed in Chapter 3, represent only a
small proportion of Italian women. Thus, the aim of this research was not to represent the whole Italian
female population. The focus group focused on Sardinian women, around thirty years old, and welleducated.
191
3. Divorce and abortion: the great defeats
It has already been discussed in Chapter 5, that as a consequence of the characteristics
of the Italian State, the “traditional” form of family has been reevaluated, making
family the strongest and the most durable Italian institution. For instance, Cipriani
(1984) identifies, education as another fundamental reason of the reevaluation of
family. As Muritti (2011) outlines, due to this vision of the family as one of the most
important values in Italy, a new tendency seems to be appearing amongst some
women in Italy, supported by the Church, which aims to elevate and protect the
family, as will be seen in Chapter 9. This new tendency demands action, principally
from women, to protect the family and their status within the family. This tendency is
also confirmed by the results of the interviews with the focus group of women, that
shows women as disinterested in abortion and by the results of the participant
observation, that show women as being actively organized to protect “traditional”
values, with a clear return to Catholic values and to the so called “church religion”
(Cipriani, 1984, p. 36).
In the sixties and seventies, feminist groups (the Demau group, Collettivo di Via dei
Cherubini, Rivolta Femminile) and the radical party challenged many Catholic values.
In particular, they debated that the traditional gender division and the prohibition to
use contraceptive methods were incompatible with the new Italian society (Armeni,
2006, p. 12). In 1964, in particular, during the Second Vatican Council some books126
criticizing the “traditional” Catholic vision about birth control started circulating and
thus Pope Paul VI decided to create a Birth Control Commission (Della Torre, 1996,
p. 558). The Commission included bishops, theologians and also some doctors,
demographers and exponents of the Catholic family movement. The Commission
reached the surprising result that birth control should be considered safe if used “in a
marriage committed to having some children” (Della Torre, 1996, p. 560). However,
See, for instance: Pastorino, M. (1964) Controllo all’Italiana. Le interruzioni di maternita’. Milano:
Edizioni Avanti.
126
192
as McClory (1995) reported, the theologians and bishops, considering the official
report unacceptable, presented to the Pope a modified report confirming “traditional”
church views. Thus, four years later, Pope Paul VI, with the encyclical Humanae
Vitae, officially reiterated the “traditional” Catholic idea against any form of birth
control.
It is difficult to imagine that Italian values, celebrated by newspapers and TV, were,
only forty years ago so disparate from the current values, and that women, instead of
acting to protect the family and their status within it, acted to create the Divorce and
Abortion Acts127. In reality, it is also possible to interpret the approval of the Divorce
and Abortion Acts in a different way than the traditionally feminist interpretation seen
in Chapter 2. Cipriani (1984, p. 38) suggests that behind the approval of these laws
we can see a “familistic” orientation. Italy, considering the reality of the sixties and
seventies and the risk of a complete destruction of the family, due to a high
percentage of unemployment, difficult access to contraception, adultery, clandestine
abortion and illegitimate children, decided to move in a different direction with
respect to the Church’s position, and to bring some order to the present condition and
save the “traditional” form of the family. Despite the reasons that justify the approval
of the Divorce and Abortion Acts, the approval of these acts and the referenda’s
results represent the biggest defeats of the Church in the last few decades (Pocar and
Ronfani, 1978, p. 628).
In particular, the approval of the Divorce Bill, in 1970, for the first time after the end
of the WWII, represented a clear split between Catholic teachings and political acts.
In fact, the Church’s teachings on family describe an institution, “divinely instituted
and indissoluble…. Primarily aimed to the procreation and education of the
offspring”. Pope Pius XI, in the encyclical Casti Connubi (1930), reiterates the
importance of a specific division of roles between male and female to guarantee the
127
Radical feminism, directed by Carla Lonzi, in the sixties and seventies, as discussed in Chapter 2,
managed to gain the attention of newspapers, magazines and television’s celebrating female
emancipation, “autocoscienza” and self-determination. All these principles were against the
“traditional” form of family and the central role of women in the family. (La Libreria delle donne di
Milano, 1987).
193
wellbeing of family and home. The Pope condemned female emancipation, describing
it as “undermining the divinely founded obedience of the wife to her husband and a
false deflection from her true and sole role as mother and homemaker”. Caldwell
(1978) however, notes how in the sixties, the Church, due to changes in society,
started to assume a more moderate position, emphasizing more reciprocal love and
shared companionship and stressing less and less the importance of marital hierarchy.
However, elements such as the indissolubility of marriage remain basic to the
Church’s teachings. Therefore, in 1965, when the divorce bill was first introduced; the
Church saw it as an attempt to undermine all Catholic traditional values. The Church,
at the time of the bill’s introduction to Parliament already showed some detachment
from the DC and as a consequence, a few members of the Church’s hierarchy, without
consulting the DC, sent the Government three notes to encourage suspension of
debates concerning the bill and to suggest a revision of the Concordat128 (Clark,
1974). The Concordat does not foresee the possibility of divorce and the Church was
afraid that this could be just the first step toward the complete undermining of the
advantages given to the Church by the Lateran Treaty with the Italian Government
(Cardia, 1996, p. 82). It is possible that the strong aversion of the Church toward the
bill not only had moral reasons underpinning it, but also economic concerns. As per
Caldwell’s (1978, p. 82) considerations, the unavoidable lowering of costs of
requesting an annulment from the Holy Rota129 within the Church court, which until
then was the only tribunal with jurisdiction on annulment of marriage, in the case of
the approval of the Divorce Bill, represented a considerable issue for the Church.
However, Caldwell believed that the Church was only in part concerned about losing
its complete control of marriage matters with the approval of the 898/1970 law. What
really represented a defeat for the Church was not the adoption of the law, that was
seen as the result of political parties’ agreement and compromise, but the
referendum’s results that represented the failure of the strong anti-divorce campaign
that the Church promoted (Pocar and Ronfani, 1978, p. 622). As discussed, the DC,
directed by the National Secretary Fanfani, fought against the law to support the
128
The Concordat is an alternative name to the Lateran Treaty agreed in 1929 between Italy and the
Church. It was a mutual recognition agreement that ended the “Questione Romana” and that
recognized full sovereignty of the Holy See over Vatican City (Cardia,1996, p. 82).
129
The Tribunal Apostolicum Rotae Romanae is the highest tribunal of the Catholic Church (Cardia,
1996, p, 42).
194
Church’s position and lost the sympathy of the majority of Italian voters, who
preferred to support more moderate and widely shared values. As the Church feared,
the approval of the Divorce law and the referendum’s results opened discussions and
debates not only on divorce itself but also on other topics such as abortion, family,
women’s rights, gender role, birth control, and the involvement of the Church in
political matters (Scire’, 2008, p. 4).
In 1975, following the approval of the Divorce Act, and feminist and radical protests,
the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith130 published the Dichiarazione circa
alcune questioni di etica sessuale (Declaration over certain matters concerning sexual
ethics), confirming the Church’s traditional position on sex, reiterating the prohibition
of premarital sex and condemning homosexuality and masturbation (Della Torre,
1996, p. 550). In 1976, an Ecclesiastical Convention was organized aiming to
understand and solve the issues of Italian society. Despite an apparent change of
attitude with the encyclical Pacem in Terris (1963) that endorses feminist ideas
saying:
“Women are gaining an increasing awareness of their natural dignity, far from being
content with a purely passive role or allowing themselves to be regarded as a kind of
instrument, they are demanding both in domestic and in public life the rights and
duties which belong to them as a human person”,
the Church was not ready to change attitudes toward certain fundamental points such
as abortion, divorce and gender role. The general gender division supported by the
Church remains unaltered especially after feminist unions started to widen their
requests demanding some forms of birth control, sexual education and the legalization
of abortion131.
130
This congregation is part of the Roman Curia. It was previously known as the Supreme Sacred
Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition. It oversees the Catholic doctrine (Della Torre,
1996, p. 541).
131
See Manifesto del Demau and Collettivo di Via dei Cherubini activities in Bertilotti and Scattignano
(2005).
195
Following the principle of the sacredness of life (Mori, 2008, p. 77) it is possible to
justify both condemnations for abortion and divorce. This principle states that
reproduction is part of a divine plan and that natural and biological processes are not
enough for the creation of a new life. It is divine intervention that permits
reproduction. The spouses’ acts are finalized in the completion of the divine plan.
Marriage is thus indissoluble and directed to the creation of family. This conclusion
seems coherent with all the Catholic’s prohibitions: divorce, contraception and
abortion (Mori, 2008, p. 80). This is confirmed by the encyclical Humane Vitae
(1968) when it states that:
”The spouses in the process of transmission of life, are not free to act following their
will….. but they must conform their actions to the creative divine plan, that is
expressed in the marriage nature and acts”.
This principle expressed in 1968 was later reiterated by Pope John Paul II in Donum
Vitae (1983), who said: “Every human person comes from God’s creative act; nobody
is born by chance, behind every birth there is always the creative love of God….
Human sexuality is a form of cooperation with the creative power of God”. Thus, the
prohibition of abortion is absolute with no exception for therapeutic abortion and for
abortion due to rape. From this absolute prohibition, Galeotti (2003, pp. 97-98)
explains how the Church believes that human beings cannot decide about life, and the
Church does not favor the fetus over the mother. The Church suggests acting to
protect both lives but when this is not possible “God’s will must be respected” (Pius
XII, 1951).
After the results of the referendum on divorce (1974), the DC was concerned with
losing its political hegemony. For this reason, the DC started a new coalition with the
PCI and as Andal (1994, p. 242) reported, it started to obstruct further attempts by the
Church to influence political decisions. Illegal terminations were common practice
and they were generally accepted by society. A Unione donne Italiane (Udi) study
showed that around 1 million illegal terminations were carried out in Italy and even if
the legislation was particularly hard on this crime, prosecutors, courts and judges
were used to ignore the majority of these illegal terminations, with only a small
percentage of them officially being discovered as a cause of death for the woman.
196
Moreover, when abortion was brought to court, it only concerned women who were of
lower class. Upper class women not only had access to private clinics and therefore
more secure forms of illegal abortion, but they were also protected by the judiciary
class, because of connections, or with the aim of avoiding scandals (Andal, 1994, p.
244). However, for the Church, the fact that a law was not observed was not a
sufficient reason to abolish it. The law needed to survive, even with some tolerance
for the common interest of society (Scire’, 2008, p. 143). Although this is an
interesting evaluation, the situation in Italy was changing so fast that there was no
more room for a law that considered abortion a crime. The problem was now how to
regulate abortion and how to balance the various interests involved in this issue. In
particular, the Church was concerned about how to limit abortion, in case a new law
on abortion was proposed. The Church showed its hostility, confirming its rigid
position toward every bill that was presented in Parliament, even the most restrictive
(Scire’, 2008, p. 5).
The first abortion bill presented in Parliament was very restrictive, but still strongly
criticised by the Church. It required three doctors’ approval and the approval could be
given only in three circumstances: in the case of a risk to the woman’s life, a risk to
the mental or physical health of the mother or a risk of physical or mental
malformations of the unborn (Scire’, 2008, p. 8). The bill introduced for the first time
the conscientious objection of the doctor (Scire’, 2008, p. 42) and it did not provide
the possibility of placing abortion within the health insurance scheme, not making the
necessary changes in the health system to allow at least a minimum percentage of
legal abortions to be conducted. The bill passed the discussion stage but its path was
ended due to the following events. Firstly, the Church collected enough signatures for
a referendum that in the case of the passing of the law could potentially bring about
its abrogation and secondly, the Constitutional Court’s decision to abrogate Article
546 of the penal code, making therapeutic termination technically legal, completely
changed the legal situation in Italy. The result of this was a deep confusion as to
which was the best path to follow, a situation that could be solved with just an ad hoc
law on abortion (Scire’, 2008, p. 10).
197
In 1975, the trial against Gigliola Pierobon132, stimulated the Constitutional Court to
state the Sentence 27 on 18th February 1975 about abortion, that declares that
“abortion is legal, not in absolute but in the case authorised by law”, making any
penal discipline on abortion unconstitutional (Scire’, 2008, p. 48). After this
Constitutional Sentence, all political parties presented their own bill. The DC
presented a very restrictive bill that was following a completely different path to that
of all other parties. This bill was suggesting an imprisonment of between 7 and 12
years in the case of procured abortion against a woman’s will and between 2 and 5
years in the case of abortion with the mother’s consent. It considered a few
extenuating circumstances: if pregnancy was caused by rape, if there were special
economic or social reason, or in the case of abnormalities in the unborn. Even though
this bill focused on the illegality of termination, the Church criticised this DC change
of attitude toward abortion (Scire’, 2008, pp. 84-87).
Finally in 1977, a bill (that was to become the 194/1978 law) was approved by
Parliament, despite the abstention of DC from the final vote and the presentation of 23
amendments to the law (Scire’, 2008, p. 125). The law was a compromise and was
generally considered unsatisfactory. For this reason, two years later two referenda
were presented in opposition (Armeni, 2006, p. 15). Mpv133 started to collect
signatures for a referendum to abrogate the law and when these signatures were
submitted to the Corte di Cassazione, a series of official criticisms started to appear in
many newspapers134. In particular, socialist groups, guided by Fortuna, were
concerned about the Pope’s influence over the population and Menapace135 requested
that the Church respect the Concordat and the secularity of the State. However, there
Gigliola Pierobon got pregnant at the age of 17 and, scared for her parents’ reactions, managed to
obtain a termination due to the help of a friend Roberto Cogo and to the support of the nurse Italia
Salviato, both incriminated with Pierobon. The decision of the court was a judicial pardon for Pierobon
and 1 and 2 years of imprisonment for Cogo and Salviato. During the trial, Pierobon declared that she
obtained an abortion for 30,000 lire instead of the “normally charged” 500,000 lire (Scire, 2008, p. 47).
132
133
Movimento per la vita.
See, for instance, Fronte laico difende la legge per l’aborto (La Nazione 6th October 1980), Il Papa
riapre il discorso sull’aborto (Il Giorno 21st September 1980), Wojtyla: ripudiare la legge sull’aborto
(Paese Sera 14th October 1980).
134
135
Lidia Menapace is one of the most important exponents of Italian feminism.
198
were also such as Della Loggia, an atheist and pro-abortionist who recognised the
right and the duty of the Pope to express his opinion and to attempt to appeal to the
Catholic conscience (Scire’ 2008, p. 206). The Civilta’ Cattolica’s group (1980) also
assumed the defence of the Pope, declaring that the Pope must be free to express his
concern on moral issues, even if the Concordat specifies that the Pope cannot express
opinion in contrast to the Italian Government. In addition, there were also those
who136 believed that even if the Pope exceeded the limit of the Concordat, as the
Italian Republic was a democratic government that guarantees freedom of thought to
its citizens, it should not make an exception toward Italian bishops and the Pope.
By the end of 1980, the Mpv presented two referenda proposals; the first referendum,
as discussed above, known as “massimale”, aimed for the complete abolition of the
law and the permission for termination only in the case of a serious risk to a woman’s
life. They requested a restoration of the situation pre the law 194/1978. However, the
Mpv knew that this referendum asking for the complete abolition of the Abortion Act
would be unable to reach the required number of votes. Therefore, they presented a
second more moderate referendum, known as “minimale”, that sought only to remove
some articles of the Abortion Act: Article 4 that disciplined termination before 90
days, limiting in this way the options for the request of termination and maintaining
available only therapeutic abortion regulated by Articles 6 and 7 of the Law
194/1978. They requested the elimination of Articles 8 and 12, authorising abortion
for those girls under age and of Article 13, regulating termination for mentally ill
women. Finally, they requested the elimination of Article 15, requesting continuous
training for doctors and hospital staff regarding contraceptive and abortive methods
(Scire’, 2008, p. 212).
Not all the Catholic world was in favour of these referenda, and there were also those
who, as Bonicelli (1981, p. 106)137 stated, feared that, confronted with a failure of the
136
See La Civilta’ Cattolica Editoriale n. 3086, 1979, pp. 105-115.
See also Bambini di troppo. Il problema dell’aborto in Italia. Comunione e Liberazione, Milano
1976.
137
199
referenda, the law would have been untouchable and it could have only been
subjected to changes aiming at expanding abortion’s options (Scire’ 2008, pp. 211213). The Catholic world, which did not intervene during the debates concerning the
approval of the law, decided to abandon its silence and to express its concern during
the occasion of the presentation of the referenda (Armeni, 2006, p. 26). The Jesuits
and the synod of bishops (1980) expressed concern about the number of legal
abortions conducted since the approval of the Abortion Act138. Moreover, they
reiterated the idea that people are not creators of life; they can be seen at best as “cocreators of it” thus they do not have the right to decide about the termination of any
lives. Against the referenda was also the theologian Giuseppe Mattai (1981) who,
recognising the fragility of the Italian State and its inability to implement laws,
considered laws not particularly relevant in influencing people’s lives. In his opinion,
the real strategy in decreasing the number of abortions was to change Italian customs.
Italians were concerned about unemployment, and lack of social security. To decrease
the number of abortions, it was necessary to radically change a mentality, which still
considered the pregnancy of unmarried women as unacceptable. The struggle against
termination could have been won only with social and cultural changes, and not
through a more restrictive law or with referenda that could only complicate the mores’
transformation process. He believed that the first step toward this change had to start
from the Church, that with its ability to influence the society could have supported
fundamental changes in family life.
Despite all these theoretical and theological interventions, in February 1981 the
Constitutional Court decided to exclude the first referendum presented by the Mpv
leaving the Church very disappointed (Armeni, 2006, p. 26). This referendum was, in
fact, in contrast with the Sentence 27/1975 of the Italian Constitutional Court that
states that the denial of therapeutic abortion is unconstitutional (D’Elia, 2008, p. 61).
This decision left only two referenda. The one presented by the radical party,
requesting the complete liberalisation of abortion and the second referenda presented
by the Mpv (Scire’, 2008, p. 213). All Catholic groups then decided to unite to
138
In the first quarter of 1979 the number of legal abortions performed in Italy was 93,917, a number
that rose to 113,345 in the first quarter of the following year. The percentage of increase was different
from region to region and in Lombardy reached 80% (Iervolino, 1981).
200
support the second referendum’ request. The Church and the Catholic groups
organised the campaign in support of the second referendum in a very polemic
climate. However, the general climate was due to change before the votes. A few days
before the vote that was expected on 17th and 18th May 1981, the Pope was a victim of
an attack by Turkish citizen Ali Agca. He was brought to the hospital Gemelli in
Rome and after a few days, he publicly gave his forgiveness to the attacker (Scire’
2008, p. 214). This event distracted the attention from the referenda and when, four
days after the attack on the Pope, Italian people went to vote, the climate was different
and less polemic (Scire’ 2008, p. 215). It is interesting to note that the number of
people who voted was less than the number that participated in the referendum for
divorce. This time only 79.6% of Italians voted. The result was that both referenda
failed, with 88.5% of votes against the request proposed by the radical party and
67.9% votes against the request of the Mpv. Only 32.1% expressed a vote in favour of
this last referendum (Scire’ 2008, p. 253).
The approval of the Divorce and Abortion Acts represented a big defeat for the
Church, but it represented also a new beginning (Piano, 1996, p. 7848). In fact, the
position assumed by the Italian State with the approval of the laws and by the
population with the referenda, forced the Church to rethink its approach to avoid a
new public break up with the Government similar to that which happened at the time
of the unification of Italy. The Church realised that it was necessary to opt for a less
political action and invest energy principally in supporting the population with moral
and social assistance. It forced the youth movement, Comunione e Liberazione139
(Communion and Liberation), which since its creation in 1969 was closely connected
to the Catholic Church, to detach itself and to create the Popular Movement. It then
created a new Italian Association of Christian Workers less politically involved than
the previous civic committees (Piana, 1996, p. 749). Even the structure of the Church
went through significant changes. It changed from a solid centralised leadership to a
fragmentary structure, with fundamental changes in political strategies. Therefore, the
Church focus changed from a strong anti-communist approach to a policy aimed at
139
The movement Comunione and Liberazione was founded by Luigi Giussani. The Movement
published some of the most important articles and books supporting the Church’s ideas and principles
such as Reinhold Niebuhr and Teologia Protestante Americana. Profilo Storico (Piana, 1996, p. 749).
201
disarming the big organised clans of South Italy such as the Mafia, Camorra and
Ndrangheta and to support peace in the territories affected by this form of crime. This
new approach marked a change in the relationship between the Church and the State
from a “culture of presence” of the Church to a “culture of mediation”, where
exponents of the Church were finally open to discuss with members of the communist
party (Piana, 1996, p. 751). As consequence of this new approach the Italian
communist party never assumed an openly anti-clerical attitude and it had for a long
time a “particular” relationship with the Church (Cipriani, 1984, p. 37). These
considerations seem to confirm that even if the results of the two referenda conducted
in the seventies represented a religious defeat, they did not represent a total
abandonment of catholically orientated “traditions” and values (Armeni, 2006, p. 30).
4. The new Catholic Church’s struggles and strategies in particular on in vitro
fertilization and RU 486
In the 1990s, with the DC’s dissolution following Tangentopoli140, the Church found
itself free from a single political party and able to play a new role within Italian
politics (McCarthy, 1995, p. 22). The new Italian political structure saw the rise of
many new political parties and many new versions of traditional parties such as
socialist, fascist, communist and Christian democratic parties (Viroli, 2010, p. 3). All
these groups clearly followed different ideologies but they had in common the aim to
compromise with the Church (McCarthy, 1995, p. 23). This new political situation
allowed the Church to change its approach toward old issues such as abortion, divorce
and contraception and especially toward new challenges. Modern science and
discoveries in medicine have, in fact, made possible things that were unthinkable even
a few years ago, opening the door to new ethical and moral issues. The State tends to
use bioethics to justify almost every form of medical innovation that can represent an
economic advantage for the State (Salter and Salter, 2007, p. 562). The RU 486 for
instance could be an effective, safe and more economic alternative to surgical
abortion but for the Church it is only a new easier way to commit a crime (Morresi
140
Tangentopoli is another name for the “mani pulite” (clean hands) scandal.
202
and Roccella, 2006, p. 18). In vitro fertilisation is, for instance, another open issue;
for the Church it not only represents a problem because it is seen as a way of forcing a
pregnancy against nature, but it creates a whole series of issues concerning embryos
and when life begins (Aramini, 2004). There are many other examples but what is
important to underline is how the Church, after the moderate approach assumed after
the approval of the Divorce and Abortion acts, started to assume again a more proactive attitude. Pope John Paul II started to involve the population, principally young
people and women, in the discussion concerning social issues. The aim was to solve
social issues such as poverty, abortion and unemployment following Catholic values
such as charity and respect for life. The Pope also started to make public speeches
diffusing the Church’s ideas (Piana, 1996, p. 749). This new strategy assumed in the
nineties was called the re-Catholicization of Italy and its main aims were: Family,
Education, Life and Work (Hanafin, 2009, p. 236).
The first important result of this new strategy was probably the failure of the
referenda on the 40/2004 law141, which did not reach the needed quorum142. After
this, the Church and the newly reconstituted Life Movement, with its regained
confidence, started various initiatives to attack several aspects of the 194/1978 law.
The Church started its struggle against RU 486 in particular and the Abortion Act in
general, involving the media143 to disseminate its ideas en masse, offering its support
only to parties ready to oppose scientific innovation and research directed toward
interfering with Catholic values. This support was clearly used during the National
Election, in 2005, when the right wing used abortion as a flag in their electoral
campaigns to obtain Catholic consensus (Armeni, 2006, pp. 56-58).
141
Law concerning the regulation of the in vitro fertilization.
142
The quorum is the minimum number of participants necessary for a referendum to be valid. The
quorum for the validity of referendum in Italy is 50% plus 1 of people entitled to vote. Thus, if less
people vote for the referendum the results are ignored making the referendum null (Caretti and De
Siervo, 2006, p. 89).
See, for instance, the newspapers L’Avvenire, Medicina e Morale, L’Espresso, Il Messaggero, Il
Giornale
143
203
Regarding in vitro fertilisation, the Church expressed its concerns about both
homologous and heterologous fertilisation and principally about two points: the
eventual suppression of embryos, and the rupture of the necessary conjugal
correlation with reproduction (Armeni, 2006, p. 126). Concerning the first point, the
Church, as outlined by Aramini (2004), is concerned principally with the inducted
hyper-ovulation of women that can sometimes request the congeal or elimination of
several embryos considered “over-numbered”. This destruction or utilisation for
purposes different than uterus implantation is one of the biggest issues of the law.
However, even if all embryos produced were implanted in the maternal uterus, the
Church’s position would have still been against in vitro fertilisation, due to another
important consideration: sexual reproduction is considered by the Church as the main
purpose of marriage. The spouses have a duty only to reproduce together (Aramini,
2004, p. 128). This consideration completely excludes the possibility of accepting
heterologous fertilisation that presupposes a third person’s sperm donation or a
surrogate. If the Church is united against heterologous fertilisation, it is, however,
divided on homologous fertilisation. The most open Catholics accept homologous
fertilisation not involving donors or surrogates. However, Aramini contests that
Church teachings unavoidably connect the sexual act with the reproductive act, thus
from a strictly moral point of view, homologous fertilisation, should also be
considered unacceptable. Pope John Paul II confirmed these conclusions in the
encyclical Donus vitae, which has been seen as a direct appeal to the legislator to
regulate in vitro fertilisation according to the Church’s values. Italian legislators seem
to have acknowledged the encyclical message in the formulation of the Italian law on
in vitro fertilisation. The result of this acknowledgment was the 40/2004 law that has
been much criticised and accused of being incongruent and discriminative, especially
by feminists and radicals (Armeni, 2006, p. 127).
The most criticised points of the 40/2004 law are: the fact that the law does not allow
heterologous fertilisation, officially forbidding it in Article 4; the fact that the law in
Article 5, forbids access to medically assisted reproductive methods for homosexual
couples and the fact that in Article 14, the law seems in contrast to the Abortion Act.
In fact, Article 14 forbids both the elimination and the congeal of embryos that must
all be implanted in a woman’s uterus, but which leaves open the option for the woman
204
to obtain an abortion after the implant. Moreover, the article forbids pre-implantation
diagnosis, forcing women to have the embryo implanted and then to turn to abortion
in the case of serious malformations (Armeni, 2006, p. 66). Radicals and feminists,
such as Alessandra Di Pietro and Paola Tavella (2005), see this solution as an attempt
to weaken the Abortion Act. Armeni protests (2006) that this solution seems directed
toward attacking women by forcing them to go through the physical and
psychological consequences of an unnecessary abortion. On the other hand, antiabortionists, such as Roccella (2005), Scaraffa (2005) and Bravo (2004) argue that the
40/2004 law is formulated to make women clearly aware that once the procedure has
started it needs to be completed, thus implantation cannot be avoided even if the
embryos present some defects. They agree, however, that the two laws show
incongruence and that a modification to the Abortion Act would be preferable to
exclude termination in the case of in vitro fertilisation (Aramini, 2004, p. 69). Due to
all these protests and debates, four referenda have been proposed but this time the
necessary quorum was not reached leaving the law untouched. Armeni (2006, p. 19)
saw the missing quorum as a victory for the Church and as proof of the reversal from
the modern approach begun in Italy in the sixties and seventies that allowed the
approval of the Divorce and Abortion acts, to a more traditionalist approach that
probably permitted the approval of the restrictive 40/2004 law.
This change of tendency has also been reiterated by the rigid political and social
reaction to the introduction of RU 486. As discussed, the introduction of chemical
terminations in Italy has been widely opposed, firstly, indirectly by the Government
and regional councils and then by the media and society (Casini, 2001, p. 19). A
restrictive interpretation of the Abortion Act by the Government caused confusion
regarding the compatibility of chemical terminations with the 194/1978 law (Armeni,
2006, p. 121). Moreover, even when these technical issues were officially resolved
through media intervention that diffused often imprecise information in some
newspapers and television’s news (Cavoni and Saccini, 2008), a level of confusion
was maintained amongst the population and hospital staff, as has been discussed in
Chapter 6. The introduction of RU 486 to Italian hospitals has also been seen as an
excuse to attempt to again return to the debates regarding the Abortion Act, probably
in the hope that the new, more traditional, tendency could bring different results than
205
in the past. Thus, the Church and Mpv again propose a restrictive change to the
Abortion Act (Armeni, 2006, p. 124). The proposed change is justified by a series of
factors as Armeni (2006, p. 148) outlines. First of all, as a few of the interviewees
both of the focus group of women and doctors suggested, scientific discoveries have
improved contraception and sexual education, changing reproductive conditions, and
this should justify a modification of the Abortion Act since abortion is no longer seen
as necessary or the only alternative to unwanted pregnancy. Second, due to the
reduced influence of feminist theories toward society, the idea of the right to selfdetermination and of autocoscienza that have partly inspired the 194/1978 law now,
for some (Muritti, 2011; Campanini, 2010), seem old and overtaken by new ideas
which conform more to the traditional and patriarchal gender role separation. This
new situation seems to justify the reopening of the discussion about the beginning of
life, and if a fetus can be considered only as a human being or also as a person.
Cardinal Ruini (2006, cited by Campanini, 2010, p. 88) suggests that abortion should
be considered more a social problem than a female problem, thus everybody should
be actively working to eliminate abortions, reinforcing the dissuasive aim of the
Abortion Act. Cardinal Ruini also argues that women should be protected from
themselves, especially because often at the moment of the requests for abortion they
are under huge pressure and they are not able to think properly. This suggestion seems
officially to support the attitude that was seen during the participant observation in a
few Italian hospitals, where nurses often had a very paternalistic attitude toward
women requesting abortion, clearly suggesting that women should look “for different
options….. because chemical abortion was the worst possible option available”. This
attitude can also be seen as an expression of another important element of the new
Catholic strategy, as outlined by Hanafin (2009). It appears that this time, the Church
has decided to assign a new role to women and young people, making them
messengers of Catholic values. Hanafin’s suggestion seems to be sustained also by the
quantity of books and articles written by women confirming Catholic values and
Catholic attitudes toward abortion, in vitro fertilisation and the female role inside the
family (Morresi and Roccella, 2006; Aramini, 2004; Bravo, 2004; Scaraffa, 2005;
Roccella, 2005).
5. Conclusion
206
The aim of this chapter has been to understand how values are created and
manipulated within specific social structures. The Church is one of the most
influential institutions in Italian society and its influence has helped to create Italian
society as it appears now. During the last two centuries, the Church has had to face
big challenges, in particular modernism that spread through Europe at the end the
nineteenth century forcing the Catholic Church to revisit its structure and its attitude
toward political issues. This change of attitude was the reason for the Church’s
survival in Italy in the last century (Cardia, 1996, p. 132).
However, if the Church has changed its approach toward political issues and its
structure it has never changed its vision toward some fundamental points such as
contraception, abortion, gender role division and the family. In an attempt to protect
these principles, the Church’s aim has been to maintain influence over values within
society. For that reason, the Church has changed its approach several times toward
social and political issues. If, after the approval of the Divorce and Abortion acts, it
started a more moderate strategy, in the nineties the Pope introduced a pro-active
strategy, involving the population, in particular young people and women, in an
attempt to reintroduce traditional values within the society and solve social issues
with methods inspired by Catholic values. The fact that the Church was able to
assume this new strategy can be partly explained by the feelings of disillusionment
that are now diffused amongst the population and especially young people similar to
what happened after the Great War (D’Imperio, 2003). At the beginning of the last
century, this disillusionment was caused by the failure of modernity and it caused the
birth of fascism, whereas today the disillusionment is due to the high percentage of
unemployment, corruption, mistrust toward the State unable to support citizens’ needs
and the dissolution of the family.
The ability of the Church to change strategy depending on social and political
situations allowed the Church, assuming a moderate strategy, to survive the last
century’s creation of laic states around Europe and in the sixties and seventies to
207
survive the crisis following the Divorce and Abortion Acts approval (Piana, 1996, p.
749). This helped the Church to regain some political weight. The results of this can
be seen in the approval of the new restrictive in vitro fertilization law and the failure
of the subsequent referenda and the political and social reaction to the introduction in
Italy of chemical terminations (Aramini, 2004). Many Italian women seem to start to
reevaluate not only the family and their role in it, but also, as will be shown in the
next chapter, other “traditional” values like motherhood, children’s education and
femininity that, from the results of the interview with the women’s focus group’
results, seem to have become a priority for women (Campanini, 2010; Muritti, 2011).
Thus all scientific innovations or political decisions that appear to go against the
restoration of “tradition” and in particular, against the family, are seen negatively and
society, in particular women and young people, seems to react against them. This
concurrence of priorities between women and the Church has created a sort of
mobilization amongst women and recently several books and articles have been
written by women in politics or in academic fields to support their new reevaluated
values (Morresi and Roccella, 2006; Aramini, 2004; Bravo, 2004; Scaraffa, 2005;
Roccella, 2005).
208
9. WOMEN’S POSITION WITHIN ITALIAN SOCIETY
1. Introduction
This chapter aims to understand how Italian women define their status within Italian
society. It will also seek to identify if there is a correlation between this self-definition
and the obstacles to the implementation to RU 486. It has been observed in Chapters
5 and 8 that as Reichlin, (2007, p. 171) points out, for some the status of Italian
women is strictly connected to the family structure and it has been argued that their
real power is hidden behind their reproductive potential and their role inside the
“traditional” family. However, if nowadays the majority of Italian women (Muritti,
2011; Campanini, 2010) seem to agree with this view, there are still those who
(Remiddi, 1985; Longo, 1985) believe that women’s emancipation is fundamental for
women’s self-determination.
Until the end of WWII, nobody contested the fundamental role of women as the
centre of the family and therefore of Italian society. The Church, the State and women
themselves supported this role (Reichlin, 2007, p. 171). However, during the
economic boom of the sixties, principally in the biggest cities of North and Central
Italy, like Rome or Milan, feminist unions such as the Demau group, or the Collettivo
di Via dei Cherubini started to rise up their objective being to change women’s
conditions and their role within society and arguing that the whole idea of woman had
been constructed through the male perspective. These groups did not demand an
adaptation of old laws to new woman’s rights, they demanded brand-new laws written
from women’s points of view (Lonzi, 1974).
These arguments were not generally shared by the majority of the population but
feminist slogans and manifestos quickly spread across Italy, principally thanks to the
media (Guerra, 2005). Feminist ideas, in particular Lonzi’s ideas, propagated fast and
they acquired an important meaning during the struggle over the legalization of
209
divorce and abortion, giving the impression that Italian society was assuming a
modern inclination and abandoning Catholic and orthodox values. The number of
women deciding to work outside the home rose and the percentage of marriages
decreased after feminist ideas started to spread across the country (as confirmed by
ISTAT, 2007). Despite this impression and the approval of the two debated acts, the
situation in Italy did not radically change. After a peak following the approval of the
two acts, the number of divorces and abortions started to decrease (ISTAT, 2007) and
also the media lost interest in feminist arguments. Moreover, certain ideas suggested
by feminism such as the critique of the family and of maternity or the suggestion of a
more liberal expression of sexual behavior were never completely accepted by the
masses (Armeni, 2006, p. 155).
If, following the economic boom of the sixties, it seemed that Italian society was
evolving toward a more modern and innovative path, since the beginning of the new
millennium, in particularly since the first election of Berlusconi as PM, Italy appears
to have gone back to more orthodox and “traditional” values, as discussed in Chapter
5 (Viroli, 2010). Catholic ideals are being reevaluated and as per Viroli’s (2010)
observations, they were used during recent election campaigns to gain consensus
amongst the population. The State has started to take a more “traditional” position, as
in the case of the approval of the particularly restrictive in vitro fertilization law, as
discussed in Chapter 8. Many women started to publicly admit that their real
aspirations and their priorities were family, maternity and femininity (Muritti, 2011;
Campanini, 2010).
In addition, a large percentage of women have started to see career more as a
necessity than as a source of satisfaction, with it often becoming a source of stress and
frustration (Coward, 1993; Hakim, 1996). Moreover, through the approval of the new
labor law, a career has begun to be associated with instability, whilst the family
continues to be connected to stability and moral support (Campanini, 2010, p. 124;
D’Imperio, 2003). Italian women are forced to assume a multi-tasking position as
working women/mothers/wives. Despite this complex role, it does not seem that all
women are asking for equality between the sexes or to share domestic tasks (Armeni,
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2006). Many young Italian women take legal gender parity for granted, but they seem
to support the differentiation of roles between sexes inside society and the family
(Muritti, 2011). Many Italian women appear to recognize that both their reproductive
role and their position inside the family represent their real power and they do not
seem willing to share this with men (Reichlin, 2007, p. 171). The Church, as analyzed
in the previous chapter, supports this attitude (Morresi and Roccella, 2006; Aramini,
2004; Bravo, 2004; Scaraffa, 2005; Roccella, 2005). Abortion for instance, as seen in
the focus group interview, seems to have changed its meaning and it no longer seems
to be associated with women’s self-determination or with their right to choose. As
Muritti suggests, (2011) abortion now seems to be considered as something that can
be avoided and therefore not something that deserves particular attention. Nowadays
some, as Muritti (2011), Campanini (2010), Leccardi (2005) note, arrive to invoke the
right to choose more to justify decisions, which can still appear odd from a feminist
point of view, such as the abandoning of a career after having a child, than to request
female emancipation like in the sixties and seventies. With a job being necessary for
economic reasons, women are forced to combine their domestic and career needs.
Thus, as the emancipation groups which were so criticized by feminists, did in the
sixties, (Libreria delle donne di Milano, 1987, p. 26) they asked the State for better
service and better assistance. Despite this request, the Italian State has been unable to
create a satisfactory social service or legislation that can really assist women in their
objective of combining family and career and this is particularly true for women
working in the medium to small private sector (D’Imperio, 2003).
From the interview with the focus group144 and from the studies of several authors
(Muritti, 2011; Campanini, 2010) it seems that family has assumed a fundamental role
in women’s satisfaction and personal gratification and a career is now important
principally for economic reasons. However there are some authors, such as Remiddi,
(1985), Longo (1985) and Bonino (2012), who disagree with this view and who still
believe that women’ s personal satisfaction depends on the ability to have a satisfying
career, economic independence, and equity with men. The number of abortions still
144
As discussed in Chapter 3, the women chosen to be part of the focus group were not representative
of the whole Italian female population. They were Sardinian women, in their thirties and educated at
the university level.
211
performed in Italy145, the negative reactions to the new in vitro fertilization and
critiques of the opposition to the implementation of RU 486 (Viale, 2002; Armeni,
2006) show that there are still women in Italy that support abortion and see it as a
“fundamental right for women”. Especially after the approval of the new labor law
(D’Imperio, 2003), these women, organized manifestations and debates, following the
feminist tradition, arguing that women must have the same right as men, and that
women should not be relegated inside the home, clearly criticizing the “traditional”
form of family (Armeni, 2006).
2. A woman’s right to choose
Due to the economic situation in Italy, it is a privilege for many women to be able to
choose not to work outside their homes, despite any real aspirations they may have
(Armeni, 2006, p. 25). For that reason, quite often, women appear to be forced to
perform a “double role”, working outside the home but also performing domestic
tasks (Coward, 1993, p. 27). However, the fact that the average woman is forced to
have a job does not mean that they cannot have other aspirations. An analysis of the
real aspirations and desires of women cannot be done without addressing the right to
choose, a fundamental principle that has been essential in the struggle for the approval
of the Abortion Act and in the proclamation of woman’s right of self-determination.
However, this crucial right within feminist theories, as discussed in Chapter 2, is now
for some taking on (Campanini, 2010; Muritti, 2011), a different meaning and more
than being used to proclaim equality between the sexes it appears to be used to defend
the differences between men and women and to support a woman’s desire to choose
the family, maternity and femininity over career and emancipation. During the
interview with the focus group of women, part of the interview was focused exactly
on understanding what Italian women really want nowadays. The aim was to try to
discover what type of influence and pressures they face in their day-to-day life, and a
145
In 2010, the percentage of abortions in Italy was 17.1%, a reduction of almost 2 % compared with
2004 (Johnston, 2012).
212
common subject that kept coming back to the discussion was the idea of free will and
the right to choose, regardless of the decisions taken.
The concept of the right to choose comes from liberal political theory. It is the right of
the individual to make any decision concerning himself/herself (Cook et al, 2003, p.
8), which does not undermine the similar right of other people in society. Only a few
exceptions can be given to this right, for instance, when society is better served by a
collective decision. In this case, the state enforces a law to protect a specific situation
(Himmelweit, 1988, p. 47). In fact, as Parry (cited by Hanafin, 2009 p. 227) argues:
“Whatever one thinks about the right to choose, the exercise of this right certainly
does not free a woman from the regulatory state. Rather it further enmeshes her”.
A woman’s right to choose, which falls under the general concept of the right to
choose as seen above, is probably one of the most important passwords among
feminists worldwide without differentiation between liberal, radical and social
feminism. Its recognition represents the result of infinite struggles. It has been
historically analysed in comparison, in confrontation and in association with the fetus
and the embryo’s right to life, and its path is strictly connected with the history of
reproductive health (Cook et al, 2003, p. 9).
Originally, reproductive rights were seen only from a non-reproductive perspective.
They were associated with the right of a woman to not reproduce and they included
abortion, contraception and sterilisation. It was only later that women’s right to
choose also began to be seen from a reproductive perspective (Cook et al, 2003, pp.
11-12). Therefore, a new struggle emerged concerning, for instance, in vitro
fertilisation, or access to the most innovative forms of insemination (Himmelweit,
1988, p. 38). This new, what can be seen as a positive interpretation of the right to
choose now seems to be the most dominant view (Cook et al, 2003, p. 12).
For a long time, as described above, the right to choose has been associated with
reproductive rights and principally with abortion. The biggest concern has been
213
regarding which rights should prevail between a woman’s right to choose and the
fetus’s right to life (Cook et al, 2003, p.14). However, this debate is quite recent.
Christianity has always rejected abortion, as discussed in Chapter 8, but before it was
not considered as murder. For example, in the Middle Ages, scholars did not consider
the fetus to be a person until the fourth month, following the Aristotelian theory that
the soul could not enter the body until it reached a certain level of development, an
idea still followed in Islam. Clearly at this point, it was not possible to even imagine
the introduction of rights for the fetus. During the nineteenth century, the Church
introduced the idea that the embryo is a human being from the very first moment,
following the acceptance of the Immaculate Conception of Mary (Radford Ruether,
2008, p. 187).
This has opened the door to new theories and discussions on how to protect human
life from the outset and to what extent other rights should be sacrificed to protect it. It
is difficult to fully understand the meaning of the right to choose and, in particular the
complicated relationship between a woman’s and a fetus’s rights (Cook et al, 2003,
p.14). The possibility of exercising a woman’s right does not necessarily coincide
with freedom, as to exercise a right sometimes limits other choices. For instance, the
fact that State-legalised termination can be an excuse not to invest more money in
social structures supporting women with unwanted pregnancies, such as maternity
leave, and income support for families for childcare, or in the economic difficulties
which arise, The fact that women are given access to fetal scans to detect any
abnormalities can be seen as an excuse not to invest more in supporting physically
and mentally dependent children, although it has been argued (Armeni, 2006, p. 133)
that this access is just giving more options to women and does not force anybody to
decide one way or another. Especially in countries like Italy, where it is still
complicated for a woman to combine pregnancy and work or where society itself does
not yet completely accept single mothers, the right to choose has been used as an
excuse not to improve the support offered to women (Himmelweit, 1988, p. 41).
Moreover, the idea of free choice does not incorporate every possible option. For
instance, allowing a prisoner to choose between capital punishment and imprisonment
for life is his/her exercise of free choice, but it does not include all options such as to
walk out free. The same can be said for a woman if, for example, she needs to decide
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whether she wants to terminate her pregnancy or not and therefore must consider
certain economic, physical or mental circumstances that could lead to a different
decision altogether if altered. For instance, if the State was offering free child care or
better post pregnancy assistance, a women could decide to choose differently than if
the State did not offer any form of support at all. These observations can lead to the
belief that the right to choose is only an “illusion” because the choice is not absolute
but depends on the circumstances and on the options that a woman has access to
(Himmelweit, 1988, p. 42).
There are also other issues concerning women’s right to choose in addition to its
fundamental meaning. In particular it is not clear the nature of it and if this right is a
social or individual right. It is possible that choices made by single people can affect
the whole society. All choices are made within a social, economic and political
context and any decision would, in turn, also have an effect on these factors. For
instance, sex selection in some countries such as India or China can has deep
consequences within that society (Himmelweit, 1988, p. 44). For this reason, a
woman’s right to choose oscillates between being both a social and an individual
matter and for some, as Porter (1994) states, it is both, because it “operates at the core
of social life as well as within and upon a woman’s individual body”. Everybody is at
the same time individual and social, however, this dual characteristic creates a bigger
issue because it is difficult to find a balance between the different realities involved.
To analyse it, it is necessary to come back to the general definition of the right to
choose as the right to make decisions concerning oneself without undermining the
similar right of another individual. It has been argued that the right to choose over
reproductive rights can create this incompatibility. In fact, when a woman decides to
terminate her pregnancy, she inevitably undermines the right of the fetus to live, with
these two being competing rights in the sense that they are “seen to be in conflict…
the sense that one cannot be granted without withholding the other” (Smith, 1984, p.
265).
The right to choose has had a fundamental role in the struggle over legalisation of
abortion since in 1973 the US Supreme Court proclaimed with the sentence Roe vs.
215
Wade, that abortion was a private matter and that women had the right to decide
freely whether to have a termination or not. Despite the importance of this
recognition, which has been supported by feminists all around the world, there are
those such as Dworkin (1993, pp. 52-53) who do not appear so supportive in the
dichotomy of public and private, as discussed in Chapter 2. In fact, this dichotomy has
been the foundation of the discrimination of women in history, concerning family
matters. Therefore, the reproductive topic as a private one conveniently excludes them
from the state’s sphere, limiting the state’s capability to interfere in private family
matters.
Once proclaimed in the US, the right to choose quickly spread around the Western
World and it also arrived in Italy and as already discussed in Chapter 2, Italian
feminism was an important current despite being quite fragmented (Melandri, 2005;
Fraire 2002). Italian feminism used as password a few important principles such as
the self-determination and the right to choose. Italy in the post war, despite the
economic boom and the development of feminism, was still organised following the
pre-capitalistic structure of the family (Dalla Costa and James, 1972, pp. 23-24).
Greer (1971) describes the Italian family as a “stem family”, where women have a
central role. Women and men have had specific roles inside the family and, despite
male dominance, women were considered to have had a wider power inside the home.
This type of family, more numerous than the modern nuclear form of family, gave to
women a specifically leading role, different from the mere delegation of the husband
in the modern type of family (de Beauvoir, 1949, p. 585; Greer, 1970); it allowed
women to ease the frustration related to the new post-capitalistic family. However,
especially in the urban environment, the situation quickly changed and the changes in
the family structure can probably be seen as a reason behind the birth of Italian
feminism. Partly because of economic reasons (in the city a single salary was not
enough to support a family), partly because of the nature of the new industrial jobs
that did not require physical strength and partly because of the wider availability of
education and technology, women realised that they had many more options than they
used to believe they had and in fact did have (McCarthy, 1995, p. 5). Connected to
this feeling of frustration caused by the limits offered by society despite women’s
potential, was the desire to start to openly discuss topics that, until that moment, were
216
considered taboo but that had strongly touched the life of so many women, such as
abortion or adultery (Lonzi, 1974). For this reason, many groups started to emerge in
Italy’s biggest cities, aiming to analyse and discuss female needs and to spread female
ideas. As has already been discussed, these ideas were probably not the exact
reflection of all Italian women’s ideas (Campanini, 2010, Muritti, 2011). This noncompatibility of values between feminists and the majority of Italian women, seems to
be confirmed by the general disinterest of women in politics. In fact, only now in the
XVI legislation, has the presence of women in Parliament reached 20% (ISTAT,
2006). While some feminists complain that the scarce participation of women in
politics depends on male discrimination (Lonzi, 1974, p. 15), in reality the reasoning
of Duverger (1955) is more likely. He argues that:
“The small influence of women in State leadership is in large measure due to
women’s own inertia… not only do women show little desire to win a place in
political leadership, but the great majority of them accept the system of justification
invented by men to rationalise their standing aside from it. Curiously, they sometimes
seem to be more uncompromising than men in this regard, and more anti-feminist”.
Thus, it seems that feminists and the general masses did not share the same values in
the sixties and seventies. Feminism back then had a few important victories such as
the ratification of the Divorce and Abortion laws that appeared to confirm that at least
politically, Italy was moving toward modernisation (Armeni, 2006).
3. The new status of Italian women
During the sixties, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, the status and condition of
Italian women started to change within Italian society, especially in the big cities of
the North and Central Italy. As a consequence of the economic boom women in the
cities were forced to leave home and work to cover the constant increase in family
expenses (McCarthy, 1995, p. 5). Following this, they also started to develop new
interests apart from the family and their “traditional” role (Lonzi, 1974). The
situation was different in rural areas, where the population always maintained strong
217
links with the Church and the “traditional” way of life, thus being more reticent
regarding every type of change in women’s condition (Bono and Kemp, 1991, p. 3).
The evolution of women’s role in big cities such Rome, Milan and Florence is directly
connected to the birth of the feminist movement, as has been discussed in Chapter 2.
The first feminist groups started to operate in Milan and Rome at the end of the
sixties, aiming to change society and especially women’s condition. The Demau
group (1966) of Milan, one of the first feminist groups, in its Manifesto
Programmatico del gruppo Demau, describes an emancipated and independent
woman actively involved to “subvert the traditional order” and to create a new
society built around women and not as a reflection of paternalistic values (Leccardi,
2005, p. 101). Despite becoming quickly popular, however, these groups, especially
due to the media’s contribution146, never gained the complete trust of the female
population (Campanini, 2010; Muritti, 2011). The lack of popularity of feminist
groups was probably caused by their attempt to detach women from the family and
marriage to allow them to sever every connection with male domination (Armeni,
2006, p. 155).
In 1970, in Milan and Rome the Manifesto of Rivolta Femminile was published, in
which the group expresses its concern about female status and about the relationship
between female subordination and the “traditional” form of family (Lonzi, 1974, p.
6). From that moment, family became the object of constant critiques from feminist
groups. In particular, these groups started to confront family and career, exalting the
benefit that career and economic independence could have for female gratification
(Lonzi, 1974). However, these ideas were not shared by the whole female population.
In fact, as suggested by Campanini (2010), some Italian women seem to prioritize
family and motherhood over career, and it appears to be more comfortable for them
assuming a “double role” or multi-tasking, thus being able to combine domestic and
career/economic needs more than when investing only in a career. Campanini (2010)
observes that in reality the female status in Italy did not radically change as feminist
146
See considerations in Chapter 2.
218
manifestos have reported, and the majority of modern women now appear to be very
similar to the pre-feminist generations. Muritti (2011) seems to arrive at the same
conclusion, adding, however, that if women now value the same ideals as pre-feminist
generations they appear more aware of what they want and they are ready to act to
protect their status. However, not everybody agrees that Italian women prioritize
family and motherhood over career. The Osservatore Romano147 criticized the
decrease in weddings celebrated between 1995 and 2008148 and the increase in the
percentage of couples without offspring149, accusing women of being too focused on
their career. Emma Bonino150 in her articles and public discussions still defends
female emancipation, saying that Italian women will still have to fight before being
able to obtain real equality with men. Bonino disagrees with the idea that the real
power of women is their reproductive potential (Reichlin, 2007, p. 171) and that
women choose family over career (Coward, 1993). In particular, Bonino (2012)
talking about civil rights and female emancipation in the television program Correva
l’anno describes unsatisfied women that struggle to find a proper occupation151 and
suffer for it. She continues explaining that women end up relying on family, not
because it is the real source of satisfaction, as Muritti, (2011) and Campanini (2010)
argue, but because they do not have any choice, it being extremely difficult to find a
job in Italy, especially after the introduction of the new labor law.
To understand Italian women’s ideals, aspirations and values an interview with a
focus group of women was conducted, as described in detail in Chapter 3. The
conclusions of Campanini (2010) and Muritti (2011) were partly confirmed from the
answers and the spontaneous comments given by these women. From this interview,
it appeared that many Italian women seem interested in career principally for
147
Official newspaper of the Vatican City.
148
From 290.000 in 1995 to 247.000 in 2008 (ISTAT, 2008).
149
From 17.8% in 1995 to 20.2% in 2008 (Romano and Romano, 2012, p. 215).
150
Emma Bonino is one of the leaders of the Italian Radical Party. She actively participated in the
struggle over divorce and abortion in the seventies and recently she was one of the main opponents of
the new in vitro fertilization law.
151
In 2010, ISTAT reported that 50.5% of Italian women were unemployed, reaching a peak of 72.9%
in the south of Italy.
219
economic reasons rather than for personal gratification, as suggested by Lonzi (1974).
It seems that these women’s biggest aspiration is to have a family following the
“traditional” standards introduced and reevaluated by Fascism. However, these
women are not attacking the principle of equality between men and women as Muritti
(2011) suggests. Rather, they seem to take for granted equality, female emancipation,
and freedom to work. They are not planning to leave their career to dedicate their life
to their family, even if they use their career as a means to obtain a better style of life
for them and their family. It is true that from their words it was understood that
family, “beautiful houses” and children are one of their main sources of satisfaction,
but, with only one exception, it was not clear that these women consider work as a
burden as Muritti (2011) and Campanini (2010) imply. Before analyzing the answers
given by these women, it is important to outline Ortner and Whitehead’s (1981, p. 1)
opinion, which could show some limitations to the relevance of the answers received.
The authors argue that it is almost impossible to discover what women want from
what they say. This is because:
“What gender is, what men and women are, what sort of relations do or should obtain
between them – all of these notions do not simply reflect or elaborate upon biological
“givens”, but are largely products of social and cultural processes.”
Referring to this argument, Cannold (1998, p. 95) comments that “women are not
born but made”. Thus, the difficulty in in this research will be understanding how
much the answers given reflect real desires and aspirations of these women and how
they reflect social constructions and consumerism (Campanini, 2010, p. 95).
Elisabetta, 29, a doctor and single, confirms Muritti (2011) and Campanini’s (2010)
idea that the family is a priority, saying that she must work to be able to guarantee the
“best things in life” for herself and her children and she clarifies that family is her
priority. In her description of family, talking about the “nice big wedding”, she
appears to clearly refer to the “traditional” form of Italian family. She said:
“I have to work because I want a nice life and I want to offer my children all the best
things in life, but my family will always be my first priority. I am a woman and I want
220
a nice big wedding in Church, I want a nice big house and I want many children, only
like will I be really happy”.
Thus, career seems associated with economic factors whilst happiness seems
associated with family, motherhood and “a nice big house”. In addition to family,
other important elements of women’s satisfaction are femininity, beauty and
possessions. The word “beautiful” was a recurring word used by the interviewees
describing their house, their family and their future life. Even describing marriage
love was never mentioned but the desire to have a “beautiful wedding” or a “nice big
wedding” was mentioned. Campanini (2011, p. 96) observes this attitude connects it
to the strong Italian consumerist culture and argues that if it is true that the modern
woman shares ideals and values with the previous generations it is also possible that
this sharing is in reality more than a genuine reevaluation of “tradition” but rather a
political and media construction to recreate the “ideal” Italian woman. This study
therefore sought to investigate where this interest toward beauty originated. The
television in particular had a strategic role in this construction, helping to create only
two types of Italian women, the “good” one that prioritizes family, femininity, and
tradition and the “bad” one that sells her body to obtain economic and professional
advantages (Zanardo, 2010).
De Beauvoir (1949, pp. 585-586) describes this interest toward beauty and femininity
as “feminine narcissism”, saying “who suffers from not doing anything thinks she is
expressing her being through her dress”. She is, however, talking about housewives,
whose principal aim in life is to represent their husbands through their and their
house’s appearance, and not about women that, for choice or for economic reason,
have a career, as with the women in the focus group. These women have potentially
other ways to express their being but they still rank beauty and femininity as a priority
for their self- fulfillment. During the interview with the focus group these women
discussed what they wanted from their lives and where they took their “models” from.
They generally admitted to being inspired by television’s programs, magazines and in
general by fashion. Cosmopolitan was one of the most common magazines they
referred to, but also other magazines such as Vogue, Donna Moderna, La Cucina
221
Italiana, Marie Claire were named. An interesting comment came from Paola, 29, a
doctor and single, who said:
“I buy monthly house magazines and when I see something that captures my attention
I try to copy it. My kitchen comes directly from Décor Living…. It is very important
for me what my friends think about my house….. I like the idea that they can envy my
style”.
From this comment, it seems that Paola’s satisfaction and personal gratification
comes from possessing something that her friends can “envy”. This consumerism is
probably one of the main reasons why career is still important for some women even
if not a priority, because these women need to work to be able to afford “beautiful
things”. Thus, despite some women’s emphasis on prioritizing the family over career,
the majority of them still need to work.
Career, as Coward (1993) outlines, is also associated with competitiveness, stress and
frustration whilst family is associated with support and protection. Angela, 28, a
doctor and married helps to strengthen this hypothesis, commenting that
“This life is exhausting, From the moment you were at school you need to prove that
you are the best. At university it gets even worse due to the fact that you hope to be
noticed and to be offered a job and when you finally start to work, it is a constant
struggle especially with other women. During the weekend when I am at home, I can
finally forget everything”.
Despite the necessity to work outside their homes, many women do not seem
interested in sharing domestic activities with men, as Muritti (2011) argues. This is
partly due the belief that men are unable to perform domestic work well enough and
partly to the belief that the home is the place where women express their real self and
ultimately the place where women have absolute control over everything (Muritti,
2011). It is therefore understandable that nowadays many women want laws to allow
them to combine career and family rather than laws like those they wanted in the
seventies which guarantee equality between the sexes but force them to work like men
with longer hours with less support.
222
Even in the seventies, the equality evoked by some feminist groups as the Demau was
not idealized by all feminist groups, confirming the idea that probably the majority of
Italian women never really believed in gender equity. La Libreria delle donne di
Milano (1987), in observing the legal demands of the Italian women and of the groups
supporting female emancipation, commented that often in an attempt to solve social
conflicts women damage their own sex or contradict themselves. Italian laws use men
as reference points, when women want to become equal to men they lose their
identity, which could be safeguarded if new laws were created for women. Moreover
equal laws were probably not an aspiration of all Italian women, but only of an
educated minority that did not want women to be associated with a housewife’s role
anymore152 (Dalla Costa and James, 1972), but wanted them to be considered proper
workers as were men, forgetting the biological differences between sexes. This
minority assumed the direction of many feminist groups, diffusing their ideas as
group ideas, as Carla Lonzi did for the Demau group and for Rivolta Femminile.
4. The State’s social security for women in Italy
Before the unification of Italy, the Church, as discussed in Chapter 8, provided social
security in the name of charity. After the country’s unification, social security became
a responsibility of the State and in 1890 a law was stated that regulated social security
and changed the name from charity to “public security” (Viroli, 2010). This type of
“public security” was limited and was only offered to working people living in
industrialized areas and the majority of the population, especially women, did not
have the right to access this form of support (Cardia, 1996, p. 131). During the fascist
period with the Concordat, responsibilities over social security changed again. The
State decided to share this responsibility between the Church and the State, with the
objective of protecting “traditional” values (Cardia, 1996, p. 133). In particular, in an
attempt to support families, family allowances and fertility bonuses were introduced.
152
See Chapter 2 for more feminist discussions concerning women’s role in Italy.
223
The “Opera Nazionale Maternita’ e Infanzia” (ONMI) was also created, which had
an important role in promoting motherhood and in the struggle against contraception
and termination153 (Cardia, 1996, p. 134). In reality, regulation of social security was
fragmented and insufficient and the situation did not change with the new Civil Code
in 1942 or recently with a few laws concerning social care: the DPR 616/1977, the
142/1990 law and the regional law, 39/1994, all state that social care will be managed
at a local level by municipalities and provinces (Caretti and De Siervo, 2006, p. 12).
The real limit of laws on this matter is that the State, instead of finally creating a law
ad hoc that regulates the subject, keeps adding new exceptions or new standards to
existing laws, creating confusion and difficulties in interpretation (Ferrazzi, 2004, pp.
32-36). This attitude is another expression of the inability of the Italian State to
implement its laws, as analysed in Chapter 5. It is in possible that the State, which is
aware of the general attitude of the population and institutions of disregarding the
laws, did not put particular effort into writing laws ad hoc, with only a few
exceptions, as in the case of the Abortion Act (McCarthy, 1995, p. 20).
There are several types of social security specifically applicable to women, and
maternity leave is one of the most important, geared toward allowing women to
combine their domestic and careerist needs. Women that are employed, unemployed
and housewives, can request maternity leave provided that they have paid
contributions to the INPS154. However, self-employed women have no access to this.
Maternity leave is mandatory, therefore, women do not have the right to choose
whether to go on maternity leave or not. During maternity leave, the pay corresponds
to 80% of the normal salary. After maternity leave a further six months of leave,
called Parental Leave, can be taken. Parental Leave can be taken by both of the
parents alternately, or at the same time up to the third year of the child for biological
153
One of the ONMI responsibilities was the interesting task of identifying fathers and convincing
them to marry the mother of their children with the promise of economic support from the State
(Cardia, 1996, p. 134).
154
The Istituto Nazionale Previdenza Sociale is responsible for payment of pensions, maternity leave
pay, and for salary in the case of absence from work due to illnesses.
224
parents or up to six years for foster carers. During parental leave the parent who takes
it, receives 30% of his/her normal salary (Italian Parliament, 2000). Two points need
to be better analysed, the mandatory character of maternity leave and the limited
salary of parental leave.
The mandatory character of maternity leave seems, from a certain point of view, to be
a guarantee for women not to be put under pressure by employers to come back to
work before their time, but it can also represent a limit to women’s freedom and their
right to choose. In fact, as discussed above, not all women prioritize family over
career and a prolonged absence from work can have consequences, which is why not
all women appreciate the mandatory five months maternity leave155 (Muraro, 2006, p.
28). Moreover, it can make employing women a disadvantage for an employer, since
that employer is obliged to guarantee maternity leave, and other possible time off
(D’Imperio, 2003, p. 75). However, this guarantee and limit applies only to employed
women and not to self-employed women such as lawyers, for instance, who have the
right and sometimes the obligation to work until the due date and to go back to work
before the end of the statutory maternity leave, with their salary being in direct
correlation to the work done (Ferrazzi, 2008, p. 33). The second point that needs
further consideration is that whilst maternity leave pays 80% of normal salary, which
can be a real support for women, parental leave is a relatively useless right for the
majority of the population. Being paid only 30% of normal salary is surely an option
only for middle class married women, or women who have other means of support.
This completely cuts out single women or women who do not have any other form of
economic support (Ferrazzi, 2008, p. 35).
The social security offered during pregnancy and after the birth of the child in the UK
reflects feminist influence and it is principally aimed at helping women to protect
their career. If the mandatory Italian maternity leave, as already discussed, is
principally directed at helping women to combine their domestic and economic needs,
155
In the UK, only 2 weeks are mandatory maternity leave, allowing women to come back to work
sooner if they wish (NHS, 2007, pp. 136-141).
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it can also result in a disadvantage for women who want to go back to work
immediately after their pregnancy (Muraro, 2006, p. 28). This is clearly in contrast to
feminist teachings. The UK Statutory Maternity Leave (SML) for those with a low
level of earning can, on the other hand, force women to go back to work after only six
weeks even if they would prefer to spend more time with their newborn, when these
women do not have enough savings or a partner that supports them after the first six
weeks. The UK, like Italy, offers two different measures to help women to take some
time off work to spend with their new child in the first weeks of life: Maternity
Allowance (MA) and SML. The first one is directed toward women who have
changed employer during pregnancy, those who are self-employed or those who have
been unemployed or on low earnings during pregnancy. MA can be paid for 39 weeks
and in 2007 was £ 112.75 per week or 90% of average earnings if less and it can start
11 weeks before the baby is due. The second is reserved for women who have worked
for the same employer during pregnancy. It lasts 26 weeks but from 1st April 2007 it
has been possible to add a further 26 weeks as Additional Maternity Leave (AML).
For SML, the payments are 90% of the average week’s earnings for the first six
weeks, and from 2007, this became £ 112.75 per week even if the woman decides that
she will not go back to work after the 26 weeks. The SML gives the mother the right
to go back to the same job as before. The AML is paid only for the first 13 weeks, and
then it is not paid. It gives women the right to return to the same job or, if this is not
practicable, to a job with similar terms and conditions (NHS, 2007, pp. 136-141). As
can be observed from these types of means of social support, the social welfare is
very different in the UK and Italy, and this difference can be “summarised as
interventionism vs. subsidiarity” (Ferrazzi, 2004, p. 48).
With a view to this historical analysis, the study sought to explore the real situation of
working women. Two series of interviews were conducted, the first with lawyers and
engineers working in medium/small private companies and the second with workers
working in bigger organisations representing the large/medium private companies.
The results of these two interviews are kept separate because they represent two
different realities. Whether the worker is a professionally skilled person or not, with
the smaller set up, there is a tendency for more short term, and/or more casual
contracts, or maybe even no contracts at all, due to the relationship established
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between the employee and employer (D’Imperio, 2003, p. 12). In the case of
companies with 50 or more people, there is a strict distinction between the employer
and employee. In this type of reality, there are traditional contracts that are regulated
by law as in the public sector (D’Imperio, 2003, p. 14). The interviews that have been
conducted aimed to understand whether pregnancy or the need to care for a child
could have been an obstacle to either beginning or continuing the career as a lawyer
or engineer or in a job in the large/medium private companies.
During the interview with lawyers and engineers, the principal problem outlined was
that the salary was directly connected to the amount of work produced, thus a
pregnancy or the need to care for a child could be an issue and the woman would need
to organise her life around her job. Alessio, 32, a lawyer and married said,
“One of my colleagues was in court the day before she gave birth. Whoever works in
this industry knows the rules of the game; too much time off can ruin your career
making you lose your contacts, something fundamental to being a lawyer. Both
women and men realise that to be a lawyer means to sacrifice the family and they
accept that”.
The case is different if someone is planning to become a lawyer and does not have
any training, given that the training is generally not remunerated. It was necessary to
understand whether during hiring interviews, personal details such as marital status,
children or the intention to have children were considered. Giovanni, 36, a lawyer and
single admitted that he generally asks personal questions to women but he said that
this is “only to know the interviewee better”. He admitted however that he does not
ask the same type of questions to men. He continued saying that,
“I do not mind if someone gets pregnant during the training but if she takes time off I
will have to substitute her….. the difference would be if a trained lawyer gets
pregnant. I am sure she would take only the minimum possible time off knowing that
the firm’s interest is her interest too”.
Thus, it seems that any sort of time off caused by pregnancy, by an illness or by
holiday can impede the career of a lawyer. It seems that women are well aware of this
situation and if they decide to become a lawyer they know that they will be forced to
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organise their time to combine domestic and working exigencies. Giulia, 28, a lawyer
and single commented:
“It is not easy during pregnancy because whether you like it or not you have to work
and go to court, you have to meet your clients and keep maintaining contacts with
other colleagues. However, there are also some advantages. I can quite often work
from home, so I can be with my child more than a public employee. I am not paid per
hour but per job so it all depends on my organisational skills”.
Thus, despite not much social security being offered to lawyers, it seems that the
nature of the job allows women to combine career and family if women have good
organisational skills. However, with these organisational skills not necessarily a
characteristic of every woman, it seems that this type of job could potentially
represent an obstacle to female exigencies to combine domestic and career needs.
Similar answers have been obtained from the engineers that have been interviewed
even if the reality in law firms and engineer offices is quite different. In engineer
offices, the presence of women is less making all female issues less relevant there.
Alessandro, 42 and separated, observed,
“Considering the percentage of women working in our offices, we are nine men and
only one woman; we are not really concerned if she, the only woman working here,
gets pregnant. The office activity would not be hit particularly, one of us will cover
her work and she will be able anyway to work from home if needed”.
Again, organisational skills are fundamental to maintaining a job in this field.
Women’s status in these two types of fields and in general, in every type of small
private company seems to be, if not fully disadvantaged, at least not supported. This
lack of support appears to be in line with the feminist teachings that wanted complete
parity of treatment for men and women and that rejected any different treatment that
women received simply on the ground of their biological differences. In fact, the
Demau group (1966) argued that special treatment for women is directed not to help
women, but to help men to maintain the gender role separation that men created.
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However, it is absurd to continue seeking to prove that pregnancy, from a biological
point of view, is solely a male creation. Women are genuinely more subject to the
effects of pregnancy than men, and for the whole 40 weeks of pregnancy it is hard to
hypothesise that the female discomfort is in reality a male’s social construction. Being
fairly widely accepted that women need more support during pregnancy, it would
probably have been a more realistic solution to suggest pregnancy as an equivalent
form of illness in order to allow women to have support and time off (Armeni, 2006).
The lack of support or regulation from the private sector can be seen as a result of the
feminists move to eliminate any different treatment that was in direct connection to
their status as women. Also, the new labor law does not benefit women with
temporary contracts, which can be suspended in the case of illness or pregnancy
(D’Imperio, 2003). However, it seems more credible as Viroli (2010) states, that the
disinterest of the State in socially supporting its citizens is due to a state which is both
indifferent and unable to look after the interests of the masses because it concentrates
its interest on industrialists and entrepreneurs. In fact, the new labor law 276/2003
was written principally in favour of entrepreneurs, weakening the position of the
general population. For Viroli, it is quite unrealistic that the State considers feminist
demands in ratifying this law. However, despite the reason that led to the approval of
the new labor law, it has been associated with the spread of strong feelings of
instability amongst the younger generation (D’Imperio, 2003).
This instability caused by the inability to foresee any possible future work
developments but also the lack of economic support, makes it particularly
complicated for women to plan a family or a pregnancy. The new labor law must be
applied to both the public and private sector but it has more serious consequences in
the private sector, giving a lot of freedom to private owners. To understand the reality
of the private sector in the medium to large industries two people who had been
working in the private sector throughout the last ten years and who had experienced
these new types of contracts several times, were interviewed. One of the interviewees
was a man and one was a woman. The interviews were focused on understanding
whether these new contracts introduced some benefits for one of the sexes and if
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under the new contracts women were disadvantaged in the case of pregnancy or need
for childcare. They both said that the discrimination was not just toward women but
toward everybody, because these contracts are unstable and nobody can plan their
future. This further highlights the general idea that the new labor legislation can be
considered one of the reasons for the present crisis amongst Italy’s younger
generation (D’Imperio, 2003). There does not seem to be any gender differentiation
over the percentage of contracts that have been renewed (ISTAT, 2010). That appears
to depend more on the employer’s interests. Francesco, 44, a project manager and
married said:
“In the ten years that I have been working in this sector I have seen a contract
confirmed only once”.
In that case, it was a man, but Francesco confirmed again that in the renewal of the
contract, as in taking on new employees, there were no differences between men and
women. Anna, 45, a programmer and single commented that she does not consider
herself disadvantaged as “a woman but as a citizen”, confirming the general idea that
the new government policy on social security is maybe not directly discriminatory
toward women with the new short form of contract but certainly it is not structured to
help women combine their domestic and career needs.
5. What women really want: family versus career
Continuing the analysis of how Italian women define their status within Italian
society, it is useful to compare the feminist point of view with the “other” women’s
position. Lonzi (1974), ignoring the possible criticism of many Italian women, in her
Sputiamo su Hegel described what she believed were Italian women’s aspirations and
desires at the time. She described an angry and frustrated woman that was tired of
living in a society where men were used as points of reference for all social
expression. She denied any difference between men and women and negated the very
nature of being female. Even the reproductive capacity of women, instead of being
considered the real power of women, was considered an inconvenience and something
that only reflected patriarchal values. She argued that all typical aspirations and
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desires of women were in reality false ambitions and only a reflection of what society
and its men had designed for women. Femininity itself, confirming the arguments of
Brownmiller (1984) and de Beauvoir (1949), was described as only an expression of
male taste and it was considered a social imposition that had to be eradicated. Lonzi
continued to criticise the “traditional” form of family based on patriarchal values and
the role of women within it, comparing “a woman who refused the family to a young
man refusing war”. However, this position toward family seems to be the weakest
point of Lonzi’s arguments. The fact that the number of “traditional” type of families
in Italy, despite this feminist attack, did not decrease, seems to confirm that the
majority of Italian women did not share the feminist ideal (Armeni, 2006). Another
proof of this can be seen in the low number of divorces in the seventies and eighties
and the high percentage of marriages. Despite the approval of the Divorce Act in 1970
and an initial peak in divorces, only 3% of couples requested divorce in 1975 and this
figure rose to 5% in 1985 (Ferro and Salvini, 2004). Regarding the number of
marriages in 1970, it was possible to see a rise since the end of WWII, reaching
4,000,000. This number only started to decrease in the eighties, apparently more for
economic reasons than due to any mistrust toward the institution of marriage and the
family (ISTAT, 2007; D’Imperio, 2003).
Some authors, such as Campanini (2010) and Muritti (2011), now describe a different
reality. They present a woman that prioritizes family and the “traditional” role of
women within it more than a career. During the interview with the focus group of
women this attitude was quite evident. These women admitted that career was
important to guaranteeing economic wellbeing, but that family was their priority. This
aspiration to be able to build a family in the near future was common to all my
interviewees disregarding their religious beliefs or their political position. The
interviewees specified that by the family they mean:
“the extended family composed of the nuclear family, married parents and children,
plus grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins”.
Even the idea of maternity and the value assigned to it now seems to have changed. If
in the sixties and seventies, maternity was seen by some as a burden (Lonzi, 1974), it
is now seen, by many, as the real power of women partly reflecting fascist and
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Catholic values (Campanini, 2010, p. 124). Clearly, as previously discussed, not all
Italian women in the seventies used to consider maternity as a burden as now not all
consider it the real power of women. For instance, Muraro (2006) still considers
career the main instrument to guaranteeing parity between the sexes and to allow
women to be fully independent. She sees maternity and the Italian compulsory
maternity leave an obstacle to female independence. She argues that Italian statutory
maternity leave is in reality directed to protect the “traditional” form of family more
than women. Zanardo (2010), in her Il corpo delle donne, discusses how the
television and the media are trying to create “a woman” that can be only a wife and a
mother or a prostitute that uses her body to obtain advantages. Zanardo argues that the
real way women can escape from this definition is through work, demonstrating that
they can have a valuable position in society apart being wives and mothers.
This new “traditional” value assigned, by some, to maternity was confirmed during
the interview with the focus group. Claudia, 29, and an engineer, said:
“I want to have several children. I remember the face of my mother coming back
home from work. There were four of us and it was hard work, but she was happy, as
she was never away from home. I want to be as happy as that too”.
It is interesting to notice how Claudia kept referring principally to her mother’s hard
work and happiness as if the mother’s presence was the only fundamental presence in
the family. A similar perception of the female role within the family could be deduced
from the comment of Giulia, 28, a lawyer and single. Giulia said that:
“My mother was too busy with her career and to prove that she was as capable as my
father that she hardly ever had time for me, leaving me with my grandparents almost
all my childhood. I decided that I would build a much bigger family and I would be
there for my children so as not to expose them to the suffering I had to face”.
From this comment, similar to Walker’s (2007) position expressed in her book Baby
Love, it is possible to deduce a criticism toward feminist ideals of her mother’s
generation that saw the family and pregnancy in a different light. Giulia in particular
denounces her mother’s disinterest towards her, due to her career’s aspirations, as
something negative, since, because of it she virtually abandoned her child leaving all
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educational and emotional responsibilities to the grandparents. It is possible that the
lack of interest of some mothers from the sixties and seventies was the catalyst that
stimulated the new generation of women to reevaluate their role within the family and
to appreciate large and more “traditional” types of family. From both Claudia and
Giulia’s comments, it is possible to perceive the idea that women are considered
completely responsible for their family. Giulia, in fact, saw her mother as guilty and
responsible for the family’s failure, whilst Claudia saw her mother’s “hard work” as
the reason why she had a “real family”. It seems like the father’s disinterest was
irrelevant, and in fact fathers are hardly ever named, since the mother was considered
the only one responsible for her children. Giulia also specifies that “she will be there
for her children” being the maternal presence, “the main job and purpose of women”
confirming Campanini’s (2010) observations. Motherhood, as the women of the focus
group refer to it, is a construction of Western society (Cannold, 1998, p. 87). It seems
to coincide with the description of motherhood given by Wearing (1984, p. 48):
“A “good” mother is one who is always available to her children; she gives time and
attention to them, listens to their problems and questions and guides them where
necessary. She cares for them physically… and emotionally by showing them love.
She is calm and patient, does not scream or yell or… smack…. She must at all times
be in complete control of her own emotions”.
It is true that none of the women in the focus group were mothers, so it is possible that
they idealised the idea of maternity and that this will change. However, it is not
possible to foresee whether they will maintain the same attitude toward maternity
when and if they have children of their own.
Not all the interviewees, however complained, like Giulia, that their parents were
absent and disinterested; Claudia showed appreciation of her mother’s sacrifices for
her family. Answering the previous comment, Paola, 30, a teacher and engaged, said
that she wants a large family and she believes that this is the case because her mother
has taught her the value of the family and, since she had a very happy childhood, she
wants to offer the same to her children. This reevaluation of the “traditional” family
seems in this case to depend on different factors - partly from not wanting to repeat
the so-called weakness of the modern type of family that, especially abroad, has been
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devastated by divorce and by economic insecurity and partly from the strength of the
“traditional” type of family which, on the other hand, is considered an example to
follow for the benefits offered to all members. From the interviews a connection
between family, heterosexual marriage and children seems clear. Thus, the
“traditional” form of family that these women aspire to create is the family inspired
by Catholic values and based on marriage. In fact, talking about their future families,
these women often referred to their “future husband”. Once it was identified that it
was this model of the family these women wanted to follow, the interview focused on
understanding if they believed in parity between the sexes or whether they considered
the “traditional” sex gender division more suitable.
Interestingly, it appeared that “tradition” dominated these women’s answers. Despite
all of them believing that men and women are legally and morally equal, they also
said that for their personal gratification women must be in control of domestic
matters. In particular, Paola, 29, a doctor and single said:
“I want to create my house and I want to look after it. I would not share domestic
tasks with my husband because I do not want to share the satisfaction of having
created a beautiful space to live. My house will be my masterpiece and only mine”.
There is clearly an underlying connection in not wanting to share a personal
satisfaction through the house being a “masterpiece”. Domestic tasks seem now to be
perceived more as source of satisfaction than as a source of frustration as described by
feminist teachings, which demand a sort of salary for the “unpleasant” work
performed at home (Dalla Costa and James, 1972, p. 33). This view has been
confirmed also by Giulia that, after connecting maternity to female personal
satisfaction, also connects home care to female purposes. Giulia in fact said:
“Part of the female purpose of being present for children and guaranteeing them the
best possible options is to build a comfortable, beautiful and functional house where
children can grow up safe and happy”.
It is interesting that she connected this task to the “female purpose” and not to the
parents or couple’s purpose. This seems to allow the conclusion that Giulia, as with
Paola, would not share domestic tasks with her partner, considering them her own
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task. It seems that after two decades of the fight for freedom from the family,
children, and the home, sand then being seen as a prison where women could not
develop their potential, has changed to now many women perceiving career as the
prison forcing women to be equal to men and undermining their real power given by
their reproductive role and by their maternal instinct (Coward, 1993).
From the interview with the focus group it seems that the strongest external influence
that had an impact on the construction of the female is consumerism, as has been
suggested by Campanini (2010), and television’s definition, as discussed by Zanardo
(2010). It is not clear if the women in the focus group have been subjected to other
types of external influences such as the Church or other institutions. As was
previously discussed, none of the interviewees, disregarding their religious beliefs,
showed an awareness of any Church pressure or influence and in fact, not only the
Catholic women aspired to have a family in the “traditional” sense, but also the two
women defining themselves as atheist and agnostic. However, despite it seeming
unrealistic that the Church did not have any role in the reevaluation of the
“traditional” form of the family, it is also possible that the “traditional” model of the
family never disappeared in the first place, especially in rural areas, and Sardinia can
be considered a rural area, where women simply continued to believe in the same
values as their grandmothers (Muritti, 2011). The fact that feminism struggled against
the “traditional” type of family without being able to weaken it, emphasised even
more the strengths of the family making it even more desirable (ibid). Thus, this new
reevaluation of the family possibly depends on the fact that these women saw with
their own eyes the results of detaching themselves from “tradition”, and these results
not being good enough, they decided to act to protect the family and to avoid any
other threat to it.
6. Italian women and abortion
In the sixties and seventies abortion was associated, by feminists, with selfdetermination and to the women’s right to choose, as discussed in Chapter 2. From
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feminist theories, in particular from the Collettivo di Via dei Cherubini of Rome
(1973) and the Manifesti of the Collettivo Femminista Santa Croce di Firenze (1975)
it seems that the legalization of abortion would have led to a complete change in
women’s status and condition in the Western world. However, not only did the
Abortion Act not realize feminist aspirations of legitimate abortion making it
available for all women (Armeni, 2006), but self-determination and right to choose
lost their original value and they are now used by many as a justification when
women decide to sacrifice values proclaimed by feminism, such as career or
economic independence, for motherhood and the family (Coward, 1993).
Abortion has been revaluated and from a basic right (Petcheski, 1984; Lonzi, 1974) it
is now seen, by some, as Muritti (2011) and Campanini (2010) suggest, as something
completely avoidable. Moreover, the media associated abortion with the “bad”
woman that prioritizes her image and her body over family and tradition (Zanardo,
2010, p. 53). The Church with the Evangelium Vitae, (John Paul II, 1995) condemns
abortion as a crime and a threat to the “traditional” model of the family, which is
geared toward procreation. From the interviews with younger doctors, described in
Chapter 7, and the focus group of women, confirmation of this view was not obtained,
but it does appear that some now consider abortion as something that can be
prevented. Both young doctors and women share the idea that nowadays
contraception, education and science innovation are making abortion something that
every woman “could easily avoid”. With abortion being considered preventable, it
does not seem to warrant the attention that it used to have in the past. The women in
the focus group did not seem particularly interested in the topic and they were
generally unaware of the existence of RU 486. For instance Claudia said: “To be
honest I am not sure what RU 486 is”. It is even more interesting that even the few
doctors that participated in the focus group were not sure about the nature of RU 486.
For instance, Angela was not able to describe the procedure and she said: “I think it is
a drug that can potentially procure immediate abortion if taken within a certain time”
and she seemed not to be aware that the drug need to be combined with the
administration of PG two days after the administration of Mifepristone. Elisabetta was
also unable to explain the RU 486 procedure, only saying: “I am not sure”. In
particular, they confused RU 486 with the morning-after pill and only when the
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technical difference between the two drugs was clarified did they admit that they had
not been aware of RU 486. In fact Paola 30, a teacher and engaged defining RU 486
said: “I think it is a sort of morning-after pill but you can take it even after 72 hours”.
Giulia, even more dubious, said: “The RU 486 is the medical name of the morningafter pill”. These comments raise two important questions: why are Italian women not
only unaware of RU 486 but also seemingly uninterested in it? And why, even though
they were able to identify that RU 486 was an abortive, were Italian female doctors,
unable to describe the procedure and the effects of the drug, despite the existence of
Article 15 of the Abortion Act? Armeni (2006) raised similar questions observing and
analyzing the contemporary female disinterest in abortion. She observed that the
decrease in interest regarding abortion was inversely proportional to increasing
interest in contraception.
Thus, it seems that these women are more interested in how to prevent abortion than
how to obtain it. This conclusion seems confirmed also by the official data published
by ISTAT. If abortion seems to be ranked low within female priorities and is no
longer considered as a form of birth control, contraception on the other hand seems to
have become the most important instrument of birth control, and the women that were
interviewed seemed well aware of their contraceptive options. Because of scientific
progress, contraceptive methods are now almost 99% secure (Ministero della Salute,
2010), making abortion appear less relevant. This lessening of interest in abortion also
seems highlighted by the decreasing number of abortions performed for Italian
women and in particular for women with the characteristics of these interviewees
(from Sardinia, in their thirties and in possession of a degree). In 2010, the Italian
Health Minister reported the decreasing percentage of abortions performed in Italy.
He reported that in 2009 only 8.3% of women requested an abortion, a reduction of
3.9% of the abortions performed in 2008 and a reduction of 51.7% of abortions
performed in 1982. Within this percentage only 8.5% of the whole percentage was
performed on women with a degree, making the number of graduate women
requesting abortion very limited. The little interest manifested by women that belong
to this category seems to be in line with the limited need that these women have for
abortion.
237
Interestingly these women did not show interest in the topic of abortion from the
moral point of view. They did not seem even to question its morality or immorality. It
is also possible that this apparent lack of interest can depend on the fact that abortion
is now available to women and therefore they do not focus much attention on the
problem. In this case, abortion could still be considered important in terms of the right
to choose point of view, but its perception has changed due to its availability.
However, if the women interviewed seemed disinterested in the topic, considering
abortion as an avoidable act or a given right, which was no longer contestable,
political groups156, the media157 and some of the nurses of the hospitals that were
visited, did manifest an interest in the topic of abortion. Their interest however,
appeared very different than the interest manifested in the sixties and seventies during
the feminist struggles over abortion’s legalization. The 2004 political campaigns used
the struggle against abortion as an instrument to gain public consensus. The right
wing asserted its intention to change the political strategy making society more open
to orthodoxy and “tradition”. As Viroli (2010) argued, the last election campaigns
were characterized by the proclamation of Catholic values, making abortion an issue
that the new government is proposing to resolve. This new conservative attitude was
confirmed, not only by the introduction of the very restrictive new in vitro
fertilization law, but also by the Parliamentarian debates about RU 486 that seemed
more directed at delaying the introduction of chemical abortion in Italy than at solving
genuine legal doubts (Viale, 2003). This new different interest toward abortion also
seemed supported by some media, in particular, the right-wing media158. It seems
clear that some media did not lose interest over abortion, using it to provoke debates
and raise public attention (Cavoni and Sacchini, 2008, p. 48) and associating it with
the “bad” women that prioritize the body’s appearance and sell their body to obtain
156
In the last decade, abortion has been one of the main topics used by parties, especially the right
wing, to obtain the support of the Church and therefore more electoral votes (Casini, 2001, p. 19).
157
Media here refers to television (with exception of La 7 channel, and RAI 3), right-wing newspapers,
right-wing radio and the Internet.
Left-wing news papers as L’ Unita’, Il Manifesto, La Repubblica, L’Avanti and television’s channels
as La 7 and RAI 3 reduced the number of articles regarding abortion that was no longer a current topic.
However, they did not take a strong position against it, supporting the Church ideas (Casini, 2001, p.
19).
158
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professional or economic advantage (Zanardo, 2010). Another possible proof of this
change of vision concerning abortion can be the attitude of some nurses, with the
exception of the nurses in Empoli’s hospital, during the participant observation
conducted in some Italian hospitals. Among the majority of nurses it was possible to
perceive an open hostility toward chemical abortion. They not only referred to some
media’s incorrect information (Cavoni and Sacchini, 2008, p. 48) when they were
asked if they knew where chemical abortion was performed in the area, but they also
openly expressed their opinions about chemical abortion describing it as an
instrument that leaves women “lonely… abandoned by doctors and society in a
difficult moment”. The nurses who did show interest in the topic seemed to be
transmitting a hidden moral judgment. As was already described in Chapter 7, the
nurses’ attitude seemed a protective and “maternal” attitude directed toward
dissuading women requesting abortion and making them understand that chemical
abortion was not the best possible option. However, not all nurses, as mentioned
above, appeared to be judgmental and against the diffusion of RU 486. The nurses in
Empoli’s hospital were professional and offered detailed information. This attitude
can be interpreted in different ways. It is possible that the nurses’ attitude is
influenced by the hospital policy, thus in a hospital open to RU 486, nurses receive
information regarding RU 486 and are instructed to diffuse them in detail. It is also
possible that only pro-abortion nurses would accept to work in hospitals like Empoli
where abortion is widely performed.
Another possible reason for the change of attitude toward abortion can be that the
boundaries between public and private that were torn down during the feminist
struggles by the feminist unions and in particular by Lonzi’s (1974) practice of
“autocoscienza” before and the practice of “incoscio” after, have now been rebuilt.
Feminist theory used the transformation of the body into a public matter (Duden,
1993) as a starting point, and made public not only the female body but also other
topics which had previously been taboo or difficult topics for discussion, such as
sexuality, contraception, maternity and abortion. From this exposé of the body, soon
the whole condition of women started to become a public matter. However, this
public discussion of certain “uncomfortable” topics was not taken on board by the
majority of Italian women during the sixties and seventies (Libreria delle donne di
239
Milano, 1987, p. 26). As Muritti (2011) states, if in the sixties and seventies it was
publically criticized to refuse to share their personal experience, nowadays it seems
that the situation has been inverted and whoever over-exposes their personal
experience is criticized. In particular, abortion and sexuality seem to be topic that
women are not particularly comfortable sharing. However, it is probably better to
differentiate between women on one side and politics and the media on the other. The
majority of women now, as in the sixties and seventies, has chosen silence or
anonymity in discussing their experience with abortion (Armeni, 2006, p. 77) whilst
politicians and the media in the hope of gaining a consensus and the attention of the
masses have opted to discuss and morally judge these “uncomfortable” topics (Viroli,
2010). This general attitude of Italian women who prefer to keep “uncomfortable”
topics in private was well known to the exponents of Italian feminism. In fact, despite
the feminist proclamation of the “autocoscienza” and the practice of “inconscio” as
the only way forward in getting official recognition of female rights (Lonzi, 1974), it
seems that feminists admitted that the majority of Italian women remained silent and
did not feel comfortable to publicly discuss or request an abortion. During the
discussion prior to the approval of the Abortion Act, one of the major critiques
presented by radicals and feminists was that the law only legalized abortions
performed in public hospitals and authorized clinics, forcing women to make their
condition and their request public (Scire’, 2008, p. 86). However, if in the sixties and
seventies this silence was seen as a form of passivity and thus criticized, it is now
seen as positive and in line with the new revaluated femininity (Muritti, 2011).
7. Conclusion
To sum up many Italian women still strongly support the “traditional” form of the
family. Despite the feminist theory that made career and economic independence a
female priority, and family, maternity and femininity only a reflection of male
dominance (Lonzi, 1974), many Italian women, in the sixties and seventies as now,
tend to consider family as their priority, associating it with personal gratification
(Muritti, 2011; Campanini, 2010). Career is still important, but more for economic
reasons than for fulfilling personal female aspirations (Muritti, 2011). Moreover,
240
career now seems associated with frustration and with dissatisfaction (Coward, 1993).
The necessity to combine both domestic control and career needs forces women to
organize themselves and their family life in detail and to demand Government laws
and regulations that can guarantee support to women especially in the case of
pregnancy or need for child care (Ferrazzi, 2008). This type of social help appears
similar to the pre-feminism demands presented by groups supporting female
emancipation in the sixties (Udi), who have been strongly criticized by radical
feminist groups such as the Demau (Libreria delle Donne di Milano. 1987, p. 26).
Despite these demands, the Italian State has failed to offer appropriate social security,
partly due to a lack of regulation and partly because the existing laws are extremely
and intentionally generic, causing confusion over who can have access to the social
services and who should provide them (Ferrazzi, 2004, pp. 32-36). Moreover, the new
labor law, that was supposed to improve the young generation’s working conditions,
now seems to have drastically worsened the situation of the Italian population,
making the possibility of planning the creation of a family or a pregnancy much more
difficult (D’Imperio, 2003). As a consequence of these disadvantageous conditions,
the family appears to be a priority for most Italian people and in particular women.
However if the lack of social security and jobs in Italy are the cause of the
reevaluation of the “traditional” form of family for lower classes, it does not
completely explain the reevaluation in the middle and upper middle classes. It seems
that for the women in this study, that were all educated at university level and all had
a job, the more plausible reason that can justify their reevaluation of maternity,
femininity and family is consumerism and media construction. The women of the
focus group admitted to being strongly influenced by magazines, television and
newspapers over decisions such as decorating their house and how to conduct their
lives. The perception of abortion also seems to be influenced by consumerism and
media construction. In the eyes of many women, abortion seems to have lost its
revolutionary meaning connected to a woman’s right to choose and self-determination
and it appears to be considered now as something avoidable and therefore not
deserving the attention that it had in the past. Moreover, if the feminist teachings
suggested discussing female issues openly and publicly, many Italian women never
seem to appreciate this suggestion and now this lack of appreciation seems even more
241
evident, making topics like abortion even more taboo (Muritti, 2011). Not only do
many Italian women not like to talk about abortion, but they appear disinterested in
new abortion options as in the case of RU 486 that is still often confused with the
morning-after pill. Another possible reason for this change of relevance of abortion in
women’s lives is that with abortion now being legal, it is no longer, in theory,
perceived as something difficult to obtain. This is probably due to the decreasing
percentage of women resorting to abortion, which is now only 8.3% (Italian Ministry
of Health, 2010). Thus, the official availability, the decreasing needs and the media
connection of abortion with the “bad” woman (Zanardo, 2010) are probably the most
plausible reasons that justify this reduced interest of women in the topic. There is
however, also another possible explanation for this new attitude toward abortion. It
has been argued that the new generation appears to have values closer to their
grandparents than to their parents. In particular, the female attitude toward the family,
to contrast with feminist teachings, seems to be even more rigid than in the previous
generations. Therefore, women appear to have assumed a sort of defensive role in
justifying their priorities and decisions (Muritti, 2011). It seems plausible to say that
many Italian women’s beliefs and aspirations have remained unchanged in the last
few decades. What did change, however, is their way of expressing their priorities and
aspirations.
242
10. CONCLUSION
The aim of this study has been to prove the hypothesis that the opposition to the
implementation of chemical abortion in Italy can be used to understand the definition
of Italian women within Italian society. The results of this study show that in Italy and
particularly in rural areas, the majority of women have reevaluated the “traditional”
form of family, maternity and femininity, in line with Muritti (2011) and Campanini’s
(2010) arguments and reflect the changes in the US (Walker, 2007) and the UK
(Coward, 1993) with their third wave of feminism. Clearly, not all Italian women
prioritize family over career and disregard equality between the sexes (Bonino, 2012),
but the majority of Italian women seem to value tradition more than female
emancipation. This reevaluation of tradition has had significant impacts on the
construction of female status in Italy. For instance, Zanardo (2010), in her analysis of
the media construction of women, argues that reflecting Catholic values, television
shows only two types of women: the faithful wife and mother who prioritizes family
over everything else and the woman that sells or shows her body for financial gain.
The result of this construction is therefore a woman that ranks maternity and
motherhood highly and who does not use abortion.
Abortion, especially in the sixties and seventies, has been associated with female selfdetermination and therefore opposing abortion not only means preventing women
eliminating the product of conception. Behind this opposition there is much more;
opposition here means to deny feminist achievements that aimed to offer women
equality with men, to offer women the possibility to decide over their own body and
not to be dictated to by governments, men or patriarchy. From the considerations
above, it seems that abortion has partly lost the meaning that feminists gave to it and
it is no longer associated with self-determination and women’s right to choose.
However, limiting access to abortion has not only reopen debates but could also be
seen as an attempt to limit women’s capacity to live freely. In Italy today this
opposition is evident and it is carried on not only by some pro-life groups and by the
Catholic Church, but also by the whole of society including women. Does this mean
that Italian women do not need abortion or that Italian women still prefer the situation
243
pre the Abortion Act, when abortion was illegally available and it was treated as a
taboo, something that everybody knew about but nobody was willing to talk about?
During this study a reevaluation of family, maternity, femininity and a reduction of
the “power” of abortion was noted, a change due principally to contraception; but the
women of the focus group or the women interviewed by authors such as Armeni
(2006), Campanini (2010) and Muritti (2011) did not say that they did not need
abortion anymore, they generally did not refer to it at all, almost as if abortion was
something not related to them, something that they did not want to talk about. There
was also no interest shown toward the RU 486, which could represent an easier, less
traumatic and cheaper method to obtain an abortion. This new attitude toward
abortion shows us a new attitude toward female construction and this thesis has
sought to understand the reasons that lie behind this new construction of female
status. It has sought to shed light on the reasons behind the reevaluation of the
“traditional” form of family and of values such as maternity, femininity, and
motherhood. To clarify this issue, an empirical study has been conducted in the
following ways: several secondary data has been collected, a series of interviews have
been conducted with doctors who are both objectors and non- objectors, with a focus
group of women, and with several lawyers, engineers and private workers. A
comparative analysis of the British and Italian states, Abortion Acts and social
security has been conducted to help outline the differences in order to understand the
Italian social situation. Moreover, a participant observation was conducted in a few
Italian hospitals in Tuscany and Sardinia. During this, a few possible causes have
been identified as justification of the reevaluation of these “traditional” values.
One of the possible reasons, as per the comments of one of the interviewees of the
women’s focus group– Giulia- and from the argument of Walker (2007), could be the
rigidity toward certain topics such as abortion, female superiority, and rejection of
motherhood, diffused in Italy during the sixties and seventies and inspired by the
second wave of feminism. The reaction it brought about was an opposite
interpretation of the same values with a devaluation of abortion and women’s
superiority and a reevaluation of maternity, motherhood and femininity.
244
However, it is possible that the reason that justifies this return to tradition is less
theoretical and much more practical. Thus, the research has asked, what has helped to
create the present social definition of Italian women? Is it true, as, feminists such as
de Beauvoir (1949) and Greer (1970), suggest, that patriarchy is the reason why
women prioritize family, femininity and maternity? However, whilst the women that
de Beauvoir and Greer described were housewives, who did not have any economic
independence and depended on their husbands, the women who were the object of
this study are well-educated and working women that have options that the women
described by the two feminist authors did not have. Thus, justifying the return to
tradition as due to patriarchy seems, at least, in part incorrect. The hypothesis to be
proved was that due to the fragility of the Italian State, it has been unable to offer
economic and social support to the population and to implement its laws, and
therefore the “traditional” form of family has been reevaluated. Moreover, the current
Italian economic crisis has worsened the situation. Unemployment is high, the
percentage of women out of work is increasing, especially in the south and rural
areas, forcing women to prioritize family over career because it is extremely difficult
to find a job (D’imperio, 2003)159. However, the women in this research had jobs so
the economic crisis cannot be considered one of the main factors that directly
influenced their choices. Furthermore, during the focus group interview, women did
not refer to the scarcity of work as one reason to justify their prioritizing family,
femininity and maternity. It is therefore more probable that what influences the
decisions of the women in this study, is Italian consumerism (Campanini, 2010,
pp.95-97) and the media construction of Italian woman (Zanardo, 2010). During the
focus group interview, one woman, Paola, admitted to being strongly influenced by
magazines, newspapers and television over her decisions regarding how to decorate
her home or conduct her life. She commented that other people’s opinions and “envy”
was important, showing that she wanted to fit within the present social definition of
women whose priority is femininity, beauty and family.
159
These women, as those described by de Beauvoir (1949) and Greer (1970), prioritize family over
career The only difference is that in this case the economic crisis that, limiting access to jobs, has
forced women to dedicate their lives to family, whilst for the feminist authors above, it was the
patriarchal society that, excluding women from the work force, left them only family as a place to find
personal satisfaction.
245
After identifying the possible reasons behind the reevaluation of the “traditional”
form of family, it was important to connect this with the opposition to abortion. The
question is whether the opposition to the introduction to RU 486 is related to the
strategy to protect family and female status within it, or if it is due to other reasons.
RU 486 offers access to a form of abortion less traumatic for women, and cheaper and
easier to arrange for hospitals but which could have potentially resulted in a use of the
drug well beyond the limit of the Abortion Act, as normally happens in Italy with
other legislation160. However, not only has the implementation of this new type of
abortion been opposed but, even later when RU 486 became officially available in
Italy, only a small percentage of abortions were performed using this method. It is
interesting to understand why in this case there is a restrictive interpretation of the law
in Italy instead of an extensive interpretation. Why did the Italian regions161 not invest
funds to diffuse the drugs in Italian hospitals? Why did the majority of Italian
hospitals and hospitals’ staff not participate in training to learn what RU 486 was,
how it worked and what the side effects are? Why did so many Italian doctors decide
to become conscientious objectors (Scire’, 2008)? Moreover, why do so many Italian
women appear, if not against abortion, at least disinterested in the abortion issue? And
finally, why in the challenge against RU 486 have women had such an important role?
From the interviews with doctors who were both objectors and non-objectors, it was
found that there are three main reasons to justify the disinterest of Italian institutions
and the high percentage of objectors and they are: economic and professional
convenience, external pressures, and religious beliefs. Thus, it does not seem that the
female condition influences doctors over the choice of whether to become an objector
or not. However, it is possible to hypothesize that if women had a stronger power in
Italy and they really needed abortion, they could put doctors and regions under
pressure and obtain abortion more easily. The fact that women do not do this, leads to
the conclusion that or they do not have the power necessary to pressurize doctors,
hospitals and regions or they do not want to have an abortion. Since from the
160
See Collins (2008) and its analysis and comparison of Italian and American traffic.
161
Responsible for health care since the change in the Title V of the Italian Constitution (Caretti and
Siervo, 2006).
246
research, it is clear that women have power in Italy, at least inside the home, it is
plausible to think that in reality women do not want to use their power regarding
abortion. This has been confirmed by the comments of the doctors who have been
interviewed, regarding possible pressure that they can receive at home related to their
being objectors or not. From their comments, it is evident that women did not apply
any pressure to influence doctors concerning abortion. Therefore, it seems that
women do not want to apply any influence over the availability of abortion. On the
contrary, it seems that they want to apply pressure to restrict the availability of
abortion, as was noticed during the participant observation in Italian hospitals and it is
interesting to understand why. Is it once again consumerism that influences women’s
attitude or is it something else?
This research started in support of a radical feminist position with a frustration
towards the condition of Italian women, who still seem at a disadvantage compared
with their western European counterparts. However, during the interviews and
investigations it was realized that the interviewees and the majority of nurses met
during the participant observation in some Italian hospitals did not share this
dissatisfaction. Moreover, they were unaware of the reason for this annoyance and
were the first to reinforce the idea of motherhood as a fundamental right for women
irrespective of religious affiliation. The research has sought to understand what has
happened to female fellowship and sisterhood. Why did the women that were
interviewed decide to ignore or take for granted some of the achievements of
feminism to go back to a socially disadvantaged position where they are required to
work at home as well as outside? In reality, it seems that both the women in this study
and the women interviewed by Campanini (2010) and Muritti (2011), did not consider
themselves disadvantaged nor frustrated in bearing sole responsibility for domestic
duties. Career, in opposition to feminist ideas, has not been a source of female
satisfaction itself but a means of being able to create the “beautiful house” or the
“beautiful wedding”. Career therefore seems more an instrument than an objective,
whilst family seems now the objective and not the burden described by Lonzi (1974)
and Brownmiller (1984) and other feminists. Consumerism and media construction
have been identified as the main reasons justifying this attitude and it is plausible that
they also have a role in the emergence of the anti-abortion attitude developed in Italy
247
in the last few years. The media, as per Zanardo (2010), tend to represent two types of
Italian women: the “good” and the “bad”. Magazines and television ignore abortion as
an issue and when they do discuss it, they connect it to the “bad” woman, who
focuses on her body to obtain economic and professional advantages. The “good”
woman is either disinterested in abortion or she pretends to be162. Thus, consumerism
and media construction are likely to be the reasons behind the disinterest of women
toward abortion and RU 486. However, it seems difficult that these are the sole
reasons behind the attitude of women that have actively opposed the introduction of
RU 486 such as the nurses of the many hospitals that have been visited. It is possible
that behind their active opposition to RU 486 observed, religious values play an
important role.
Religious beliefs have been identified as one of the reasons behind the high level of
conscientious objection in Italy, but only a minority refers to it, in reality. Moreover,
it is true that as a consequence of the inability of the State to implement its laws and
to offer satisfactory security to the population, the Church’s position has also been
reinforced due to the wide level of support and social security that it offers to the
population. This reevaluation has allowed the Church to regain the ability to directly
or indirectly influence society and the results of this have included the approval of a
restrictive in vitro fertilization law. Pope John Paul II particularly attempted to
involve young people and women in solving social issues using Catholic values. The
Pope called for “actions” and not only for ideas. The results of this call can be seen in
the many books and articles published in Italy in the last few years, clearly inspired
by Catholic values of respect for life (Morresi and Roccella, 2006; Aramini, 2004;
Bravo, 2004; Scaraffa, 2005; Roccella, 2005). Thus, it is plausible to think that the
opposition of women to the introduction of RU 486 is a result of consumerism, media
construction and religious values.
162
It is not possible for the author of this study, without further research, to be able to say which one of
the two possibilities is correct.
248
This study has presented a sociological approach toward the situation of women
within Italian society. The empirical research which focused on the availability of
chemical abortion and the opposition to its introduction in Italy has been connected to
the social construction of female status in Italy. Several Italian institutions and
subjects have been analyzed in correlation with the introduction of RU 486 within
some Italian hospitals and in relation to the female access to social security. The
results of this research suggest a reevaluation of “traditional” values such as
maternity, motherhood, and femininity in contrast with the second wave of feminism.
This study suggests that in Italy the media, and particularly television has played a
fundamental role in the construction of the female status and a new empirical study
regarding the effects of television within Italian society and in particular its role in
influencing values and in the creation of the social definition of female status could be
conducted. This new study could help to complete the sociological studies concerning
the analysis of female status in Italy.
249
APPENDIX 1
GUIDE INFORMATION/CONSENT FORM FOR INTERVIEWS
Title of Research Project
‘Chemical abortion in Italy
Details of Project
The research is looking to understand the position of ordinary Italian women as well
as female doctors regarding the use of RU 486 and chemical abortion. This project is
not about actual experiences with abortion but about attitudes and opinons. The
results will contribute to a better understanding of how women see their position in
Italian society today.
Contact Details
For further information about the research or your interview data, please contact:
Paola Innocenti, Department of Sociology, University of Exeter, Devon UK.
Tel 00 44 (0)7846785165, pi203@ex.ac.uk
If you have concerns/questions about the research you would like to discuss with someone else
at the University, please contact:
Professor Anthony King, Department of Sociology, University of Exeter, Devon UK
Tel 00 44 (0) 1392 263259, a.c.king@exeter.ac.uk
Confidentiality
250
Interview tapes and transcripts will be held in confidence. Whatever is discussed, they will not be
used other than for the purposes described above and third parties will not be allowed access to
them (except in the case of legal subpoena). However, if you request it, you will be supplied with
a copy of your interview transcript so that you can comment on and edit it as you see fit (please
give your contact details below). Your data will be held in accordance with the Data Protection
Act .for 10 years after the PhD conclusion and then destroyed.
Anonymity
Interview data will be held and used on an anonymous basis, with no mention of your name, but
we will refer to the group of which you are a member. I will use pseudonyms within my research.
If you would like to choose your own pseudonym, please write it below (this will be kept in line
with the confidentially information above). As this pseudonym is written on this sheet with your
details, the consent form will be held in accordance with the confidentiality clause above.
Consent
I voluntarily agree to participate and to the use of my data for the purposes specified above. I can
withdraw consent at any time by contacting the interviewers. A copy of your transcript can be
obtained and any part of the data can be modified at any time.
TICK HERE: 
DATE………………………….....
Note: Your contact details are kept separately from your interview data
Name of interviewee: .......................................................................
Chosen pseudonym: .......................................................................
Signature: .........................................................................................
Email/phone: .....................................................................................
Member of which group: ..................................................................
Signature of researcher: .......................................................................
2 copies to be signed by both interviewee and researcher, one kept by each
251
APPENDIX 2
Letter of explanation to participants (women)
Dear ……………..
I am writing to ask you whether it would be possible to interview you as part of my
PhD research.
I will start to tell you a little bit about my background. I am from Sardinia in Italy See
medical letter – cut and paste the first three paragraphs here- where I studied law with
a dissertation about women health in international law, after that I moved to
Portsmouth UK where I did a MSc in International criminal justice with a dissertation
where I evaluated the relation between women rights and traditional beliefs in Sudan.
My interest were already focused on women health and society, thus I decided to
continue my study analysing termination and Italian society.
In January 2007 I started a PhD research at Exeter University under the supervision of
Prof Anthony King under a scholarship of the Regione Sardegna. The research,
provisionally intituled “Chemical abortion in Italy” is looking to understand the
position of women in Italian society using RU 486 and chemical abortion as a sort of
window to look at women status. I have chosen to collect data in Sardinia and
Tuscany because they are the two regions I come from (my mother is from Sardinia
and my father form Tuscany) and I always notice that these two regions even if very
different always had some common substrat.
There are different approaches to my study. Firslty I will examine women’s point of
view, secondly I will analyse the Italian legislation comparing it with the real
situation in Italy. I will then talk doctors to gain an understanding of conscience
objection, and I will seek to understand the relationship between objectors and non –
objectors physician inside hospitals.
The interview will cover the following topic areas:
252
-
General concept of abortion
-
General knowledge about RU 486
-
Knowledge about procedure of chemical termination and the role of media in
influencing this knowledge
-
What women want from their future, which model do they follow, which
magazine do they read?
-
Position of Government and institution to help women in case of pregnancy
-
Role of the Church on determine women’s status – their faith, their family
faith.
-
Role of the science in reproductive health
-
Relation between ethics and science
-
General ideas about the women’s right of choice.
The interview will be recorded and stored digitally before being transcribed.
I
enclose a copy of the necessary consent form, which describes the conditions placed
on the use of this data by the Ethics Committee at the University of Exeter. Insert
additional sentence from medical letter. Data from the interview may be included in
my final thesis, which will be held by the University of Exeter Library for 10 years
after the completion of the PhD thesis and may also be used in any subsequent
publications. If you would like to review a copy of the transcript and make any
changes prior to the writing of the final report, and/or you would like to receive a
short final summary of the research then please indicate this on the consent form.
If you are willing to be interviewed I wonder whether you would be free on any of
these dates etc ……..
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely
Paola Innocenti
253
APPENDIX 3
Letter of explanation to participants (physicians)
Dear ……………..
I am writing to ask you whether it would be possible to interview you as part of my
PhD research.
Originally from Sardinia in Italy where I studied law, I moved to Portsmouth UK in
2003 where I did an MSc in International criminal justice. My interest focused on
women’s health and society, thus I decided to continue my studies at doctoral level
analyzing the important but controversial topic of termination and Italian society.
In January 2007 I started a PhD research at Exeter University under the supervision of
Prof Anthony King under a scholarship of the Regione Sardegna. The research,
provisionally entitled “Chemical abortion in Italy” is looking to understand the
position of women in Italian society using RU 486; chemical abortion is a useful
phenemenon by which to assess women’s status. I have chosen to collect data in
Sardinia and Tuscany because they are the two regions I have connections to the
regions and the two areas demonstrate interesting parallels and differences.
There are a number of strands to my study. Firstly I will examine women’s pespective
on RU 486, secondly I will analyse the Italian legislation comparing it with the real
situation in Italy. Thirdly I will examine the perspective of the medical professional in
order to gain and understanding of ‘ethical objection’. I want to understand the
relationship between objectors and non – objectors physician inside hospitals.
The interview will cover the following topic areas:
-
What is ethical objection to abortion
-
What made him/her become an objector (in case of an objector physician)
-
The relation between objectors and non-objectors
254
-
Position of hospitals and private clinics on reproductive health’s in general
and termination in particular
-
Is pressure exerted by medical associations on doctors to take a position on
abortion?
-
Practical examples on how a woman can access to termination in a hospital
and general treatments and support
-
Relation between women and doctors/nurses in hospital
-
Medical perspective on abortion
The interview will be recorded and stored digitally before being transcribed.
I
enclose a copy of the necessary consent form that describes the conditions placed on
the use of this data by the Ethics Committee at the University of Exeter. Data from
the interview may be included in my final thesis that will be held by the University of
Exeter Library for 10 years after the completion of the PhD thesis and may also be
used in any subsequent publications. However, in every case the confidentiality of the
participant will be assured. All interviews will be anonymous and used only with the
consent of the interviewee. If you would like to review a copy of the transcript and
make any changes prior to the writing of the final report, and/or you would like to
receive a short final summary of the research then please indicate this on the consent
form.
If you are willing to be interviewed I wonder whether you would be free on any of
these dates etc ……..
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely
Paola Innocenti
255
APPENDIX 4
Letter of explanation to participants (hospitals)
I will start to tell you a little bit about my background. I am from Sardinia in Italy
where I studied law with a dissertation about women health in international law, after
that I moved to Portsmouth UK where I did a MSc in International criminal justice
with a dissertation where I evaluated the relation between women rights and
traditional beliefs in Sudan. My interest were already focused on women health and
society, thus I decided to continue my study analyzing termination and Italian society.
In January 2007 I started a PhD research at Exeter University under the supervision of
Prof Antony King under a scholarship of the Regione Sardegna. The research,
provisionally entitled “Chemical abortion in Italy” is looking to understand the
position of women in Italian society using RU 486 and chemical abortion as a sort of
window to look at women status. I have chosen to collect data in Sardinia and
Tuscany because they are the two regions I come from (my mother is from Sardinia
and my father form Tuscany) and I always notice that these two regions even if very
different always had some common substrat.
There are different approaches to my study. Firslty I will examine women point of
view, secondly I will analyse the Italian legislation comparing it with the real
situation in Italy. I will then talk with few doctors to deeply understand conscience
objection, what makes it so common in Italy and I will seek to understand the
relationship between objectors and non – objectors physician inside hospitals.
I went into your hospital to seek to understand the real situation of women in Italy. I
asked information about Chemcial termination without introducing myself as PhD
student with the intent to discover the reality. I collected these information…….. and
as answer to my questions…….. I got these answers……..
I would like to know if you would like to comment about my results?
256
Data collected in this way will be held by the University of Exeter Library for 10
years after the completion of my PhD thesis and may also be used in any subsequent
publications. Anonymity of nurses/doctors and hospitals will be guaranteed during all
the process of my thesis and after.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely
Paola Innocenti
257
APPENDIX 5
Consent Form
……………… I give my consent to Paola Innocenti to collect data from me doing an
interview. I understood that the information collected would be used for her PhD
dissertation “Chemical abortion in Italy”.
I understood that she will record digitally my interview and that the data collected
will held by the Exeter University for 10 after the completation of her PhD thesis. No
confidential informations will be disclosed in her dissertation.
I would like to read the script before it is completed the final report.
Your Sincerely
……………………
258
APPENDIX 6
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
APPENDIX 7
Events concerning RU 486 in Italy following the data collection
Between the time of concluding the interviews and the participant observation
regarding chemical termination and women’s status in Italy (January – October 2009)
and the time of writing this thesis, a few changes were implemented in Italy
concerning RU 486. It was decided to report these changes in brief here in the
appendix without altering the results of the study. Some of these changes go back to
December 2009 but happened after the end of the participant observation, therefore it
was decided to describe them here because these facts could have possibly changed the
results that were obtained from doctors and women.
It will be now necessary to wait a couple of years to conduct the research and the
interviews again in order to understand whether these changes had any effect or if the
general attitude toward chemical abortion has remained unchanged. Each one of these
changes has been followed by political and media debates on one side and by
disinterest from females and the younger generation on the other. In fact, the word RU
486 has almost disappeared from the front page of newspapers and it has often been
substituted with the more generic term of ‘abortion’. This is probably because the
media hopes that by keeping the topic generic, it will attract more attention than by
using technical terms such as RU 486, which by this time had been over used and no
longer offered guarantees of attracting the public’s attention.
In December 2009, after 700 days of discussions in the Government and Parliament,
the Gazzetta Ufficiale published the decision of the Italian Agency of Drugs to legalise
RU 486. Therefore, this drug has been made available to every hospital in Italy on
request, but it will not be sold directly by pharmacies over the counter. There are still
266
debates about the procedure because the Gazzetta Ufficiale does not clearly state that
chemical abortion needs to literally follow the 194/1978 law. However, for many, this
declaration is unnecessary because chemical abortion must follow the same rules as
surgical abortion. To deal with the criticism, it is possible that soon, a firm regulation
for chemical termination will be clearly stated.
In February 2010, the drug was officially ordered for the first time by Italian hospitals.
It took two months for Exelgyn to amend the instructions inside the box which in Italy
must state that the drug cannot be used beyond the seventh week (In France, where the
drug is produced, the limit is nine weeks) (Reggio, 2009). In March 2010, the
Consiglio Superiore della Sanita’ (National Health Commission) expressed its opinion
regarding the modality of authorising the use of the drug. They decided that chemical
abortion would require three days hospitalization to allow doctors to support women at
this potentially difficult time. However, in July 2010, the Consiglio Sanitario
Regionale (Regional Health Commission) of Tuscany and the Commissione Regionale
di Bioetica (Regional Bioethical Commission) expressed their opinion that the best
option would be hospitalization only for the day necessary for the expulsion of the
embryo to avoid excessive costs and schedule complications (Pepe, 2010). Again,
Tuscany proves to be the most innovative region in Italy regarding chemical
termination. In March 2011, a report on the use of the drug was published by
Adnkronos stating that in one year 6000 boxes of RU 486 were sold to Italian
hospitals. The majority of these boxes were sold in the northern part of the country
with the highest concentration in Piedmont, 1574 boxes, at the St. ‘Anna hospital of
Turin, where Dr. Viale is managing director of the gynaecology department and where
23% of the total abortions performed in the hospital have been chemical abortions, and
Tuscany, 773 boxes. The centre and south of Italy used the drug very rarely, with only
57 boxes ordered in Sardinia and 17 in Umbria. Thus, it is possible to reasonably
conclude that chemical abortion, with the only exception of the St’ Anna hospital of
Turin, has not been particularly successful. This meagre interest in the drug, defined
by Pepe (2011) as a “rogna” (hassle) for Italy, appears to be in line with the restrictive
attitude manifested since the beginning of the debates on chemical abortion.
267
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