PD Catholics seek to water down civil unions bill

(see related) (ANSA) - Rome, January 14 - A group of over 30 Catholic members of Premier Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party (PD) presented amendments on Thursday seeking to water down a bill to regulate civil unions, including same-sex ones. The issue has caused considerable tension within the centre-left party in recent days, even though Renzi has said PD members will be able to vote according to their conscience and not have to toe the party line when it comes to this bill. The amendments include scrapping the controversial norm introducing the possibility for one partner in a same-sex relationship to adopt the other partner's biological child.
    The amendments would see this replaced with a form of 'reinforced' foster care.
    The bill currently before the Senate must be approved "without re-discussing points that are already the fruit of mediation", a group of MPs formerly belonging to the small left-wing party Sinistra Ecologia Libertà (SEL) and now members of the PD said Thursday. "The extension of stepchild adoption, which is already contemplated for married heterosexual couples, would at last regulate a de facto situation that already exists but without any form of protection, by granting a child born of a same-sex couple the right to affectional continuity with the second parent," the MPS wrote.
    They said some form of 'reinforced' foster care would only "make growing up all the more precarious for the child".
    Meanwhile lawyers on Thursday called for parliament to amend the bill so that not only notaries would be able to stipulate and register a civil union. This faculty should be extended to lawyers, the general secretary of the National Forensic Association Luigi Pansini said. "Not only do lawyers have an irreplaceable role in protecting the rights of every citizen, but they also 'guard' the value of equality before the law," Pansini said. "From a professional point of view lawyers unboubtedly have all the skills needed to accompany couples who decide to legalise their co-habitation," he concluded. Discussion of the bill has been delayed by two days and is now due to hit the Senate floor on January 28.