>>>ANSA/Italy's abortion move not linked to NRRP says EC

(ANSA) - ROME, APR 19 - There is no link between an Italian government amendment allowing pro-life activists access to abortion clinics and a decree enacting the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) it is contained in, the European Commission said Friday, appearing to knock the measure.
    The move to let anti-abortion campaigners into the clinics has been contested by pro-choice groups and has raised an outcry among liberal parties.
    The amendment, filed by Premier Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, follows a previous FdI proposal, not enacted, to make women awaiting abortions listen to fetus's heartbeats.
    Premier Giorgia Meloni has said the new move does not breach the 1978 Law 194 legalising abortion in traditionally Catholic Italy, because that law also envisaged encouraging women to find alternatives to terminating their pregnancies.
    On Friday, when asked about the abortion debate in Italy, an EC spokeswoman said "the NRRP decree contains measures that concern the governance structure of the NRRP, but there are other aspects that are not covered and have no connection with the NRRP, such as the law on abortion".
    Meloni said after an EU summit in Brussels Thursday that it was the Left that wanted to change Italy's abortion law, not the government.
    "Those who want to change Law 194 are the Left, not us. We only want to guarantee free choices", she said, saying women should be offered alternatives as Law 194 also laid down.
    Meloni has also hit back hard after a Spanish minister criticised the Italian government measure that would allow 'pro-maternity' associations access to abortion clinics.
    "When you are ignorant on a subject you must at least have the good sense not to give lessons," Meloni said in response to comments by Spanish Equality Minister Ana Recondo.
    Recondo had said that: "allowing organised pressure against women who want to interrupt a pregnancy means undermining a right recognised by the law.
    "It is the strategy of the far right: to threaten to strip rights, to rein in parity between women and men," she said on X.
    Italy's Pro Vita & Famiglia pro-life and family group said Tuesday it would not enter the abortion consultancies, where women receive certificates to have an abortion, despite the government's plans.
    Abortion has been legal in Italy since 1978 but it is hard to get in practice with around half the country's doctors conscientious objectors on moral or religious grounds, rising to almost 90% in some regions.
    Provision of abortion pills is also difficult.
    Meloni suggested that the Left wanted to make abortion easier to access.
    On Friday opposition parties attacked the government after the European Commission's spokeswoman's statement.
    "The EU, too, raps the government's knuckles over abortion," said the leftwing populist 5-Star Movement.
    Centre-left Democratic Party (PD) MP Beatrice Lorenzin said "Brothers of Italy wants to make the experience of abortion even more painful".
    "Even the EU says abortion has nothing to do with the NRRP", said Luana Zanella of the Green-Left Alliance (AVS).
    Meanwhile another row erupted after the flagship Porta a Porta current affairs show on public broadcaster Rai only had male pundits commenting on the abortion issue Thursday night.
    Rai responded by saying that the female commentators contacted were unavailable.
    Rai Chairman Marinella Soldi chided veteran talk show host Bruno Vespa over the case.
    Soldi wrote to Vespa, one of the network's stars, and "recalled the fundamental role of the public service in particular on such a sensitive issue and one which directly bears on women's bodies," Rai sources said.
    Vespa replied to Soldi: "Someone (like me) who entrusted the anchor of the 13:30 news show to three women can'0t be insensitive to female presences.
    "Above and beyond the specific circumstance that I think I have amply clarified, I recalled that Porta a Porta's reputation (depends on) hosting very representative politicians.
    "Well, there are only five women (PD and M5S) out of 18 presidents, vice presidents and caucus leaders of the top five parties.
    "In any case we'll do everything possible to ensure for women the roles that they deserve". (ANSA).