Giorgia Meloni’s government has been accused of scrapping a reference guaranteeing access to “safe and legal” abortions in the text of the G7 summit’s final declaration.
Citing sources from G7 member delegations, the Italian media reported on Thursday that a sidebar clause on abortion rights had been left out of a last draft of the final declaration circulated on Wednesday.
The clause, pushed especially by France and Canada, had been intended to reinforce an agreement by the G7 members in Japan last year that they would guarantee “effective and safe access to abortion”.
It also committed to sexual and reproductive health rights for all, “including by addressing access to safe and legal abortion and post-abortion care”.
Sources in Meloni’s office denied that the reference had been removed, telling Ansa news agency that the declaration was still being negotiated and that “everything that will be included in the final document will be final points resulting from the negotiations”.
Antonio Tajani, Italy’s deputy prime minister, told Sky TG24: “The various delegations are in talks and it is premature to make an analysis and useless to make predictions. We will see what the agreement will be.” He emphasised that while abortion would be discussed at the G7, Ukraine and the Middle East were priorities.
A source close to the negotiations told AFP that since 2021 there had “been a mention of ‘safe access’” but “Meloni doesn’t want it”.
“She’s the only one, she’s isolated on the issue. But since it’s the host country, the others have decided not to make it a casus belli,” the source said, using the Latin term for an act that provokes a war. “So it won’t come back in the text.”
A high-ranking European diplomat told the Spanish newspaper El País: “We are facing a clear clash of values between G7 members. It very unfortunate that the language on abortion has been weakened. It is the duty of the G7 to show leadership in promoting those values, not to backtrack on them.”
The final declaration will not be published until late on Friday.
It is not the first time Italy has clashed with others on abortion. In April, a Guardian report on a measure by Meloni’s government to allow anti-abortion activists to enter abortion consultation clinics prompted a spat between Italy and Spain.
The clash came weeks after Spain’s Socialist-led government brought in legislation to criminalise the harassment or intimidation of women going for an abortion, with penalties of up to a year in prison.
Posting a translation of the Guardian article on social media, Spain’s minister of equality criticised Meloni’s government for moving in the opposite direction. “Allowing organised harassment against women who want to terminate their pregnancies undermines a right that is recognised by law,” Ana Redondo wrote on X. “It’s the strategy of the far right; to intimidate so as overturn rights and put the brakes on equality between men and women.”
Meloni was swift to hit back. “Several times I’ve listened to foreign ministers talk about internal Italian matters without knowing the full facts,” she told reporters in Brussels. “Usually when people are ignorant about a certain topic they should at least have the good sense not to impart lessons on others.”
Traditionally Catholic Italy legalised abortion in 1978 under Law 194. Although Meloni has promised not to change the legislation, accessing a safe abortion in Italy is difficult for women owing to the high number of gynaecologists who refuse to terminate pregnancies for moral or religious reasons.
According to health ministry data from 2021, about 63% of gynaecologists refuse to perform the procedure.
