tensions after Giorgia Meloni’s objections around a declaration on abortion

G7 – While Italy is playing at home during this G7, Giorgia Meloni tenses up the debates from the first day with her position on the subject of abortion. The United States thus balked this Thursday, June 13 in the face of Italian attempts to attenuate a G7 declaration supporting the right to abortion.

The objections of the far-right Italian Prime Minister have particularly irritated her partners (United States, Canada, France, Germany, United Kingdom and Japan), according to diplomatic sources.

Joe Biden “was really keen that we at least have words referring to what we had in Hiroshima on women’s health and reproductive rights” during the 2023 G7 under Japanese presidency, underlined a senior American official on condition of anonymity. “The (final G7) communiqué will reaffirm the commitment made in Hiroshima”scathed the manager, in reference to the support expressed in Japan for voluntary terminations of pregnancy (IVG) “safe and legal”.

The services of Giorgia Meloni, known for her ultraconservative positions in favor of the traditional family, denied any censorship on Wednesday, affirming that negotiations were still ongoing. The head of Italian diplomacy Antonio Tajani affirmed this Thursday that he was “premature” to comment on this information while “the different delegations are negotiating”.

Last year, in their final communiqué following their summit in Japan, the leaders expressed their “great concern” on the decline of women’s rights. They were also committed to “access to safe and legal abortion and post-abortion care”. A source close to the negotiations told AFP that since 2021, “there is a mention of “safe access”” but that “Meloni doesn’t want it”.

“She is isolated on this subject. But since it is the host country, the others have decided not to make it a casus belli”according to this source. “So it won’t come up in the text” of the final press release, the publication of which is not scheduled before Friday evening. It seems that the Americans did not want to stop there.

Giorgia Meloni likes to present herself as a “Christian mother”

“There were debates in particular on questions of sexual and reproductive health or on questions of vaccines which could not be taken into account as much as we would have liked by the Italian presidency”for his part, an official from the French presidency told the press on Wednesday.

France, which introduced the right to abortion in its Constitution, and Canada, were particularly upset, according to the Italian daily Domani. Abortion is also a hot topic in the United States, where President Joe Biden has denounced restrictions on this fundamental right imposed in the most conservative states.

A source from the Italian Presidency of the Council denied that the reference to“safe access” has already been deleted. “No state has asked to eliminate the reference to subjects related to abortion from the draft conclusions of the G7 summit (…) at a stage where negotiations are still ongoing”she assured and “everything that will be included in the final document” will be the fruit of the negotiations.

“If the presidents of major nations (…) chose not to include it (access to abortion) in the document, they will have good reasons not to do so. I don’t know if it was appropriate at a G7 meeting where the Pope is also present, but if they chose not to include it, there will be a reason and a more than acceptable reason.”commented for his part the Italian Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida, as reported Ansa.it.

Coming to power in October 2022, Giorgia Meloni, who likes to present herself as a “Christian mother”, is accused by women’s rights defenders of trying to hinder access to abortion in Italy, a country where the Catholic Church retains significant weight. Although abortion has been authorized since 1978, access is severely limited by the very high percentage of gynecologists who invoke conscientious objection to refuse to perform them.

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