6,000 amendments filed to civil unions

(ANSA) - Rome, January 22 - A total of 6,000 amendments have been filed to the government's civil unions bill which goes to the Senate floor on January 28, sources said Friday. The rightwing opposition Northern League (LN) announced yesterday it had filed over 5,000 amendments. Silvio Berlusconi's center-right opposition Forza Italia (FI) party filed 300 amendments.
    Senators from the ruling Democratic Party (PD) filed some 60 amendments, with nine of them coming from the Catholic wing of the PD.
    Most of the opposition as well as Catholics within the ruling majority object to the so-called stepchild adoption measure in the bill, which would allow gays to adopt their partners' biological children. On Wednesday, a group of Catholic members of Premier Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party (PD) filed an amendment extending the punishment against surrogate parenthood to Italians who engage in this procedure abroad.
    It states that "anyone who, in order to become mother or father, uses the practice of surrogate maternity is punished with a prison term of from three months to two years and with a fine of from 600,000 euros to one million euros".
    The amendment adds that Italians who have children overseas are obliged to swear that the birth came about without the used of surrogate maternity.
    It also states that "whoever organises, aids or publicises surrogate maternity should be punished a prison term of from six to 12 years and with a fine of from 600,000 euros to one million euros". Renzi and the PD leadership have been calling for speedy passage of the bill, as it would bring Italy in line with the rest of Europe.