Thirty years after the legalisation of abortion in Italy, women’s associations are back on the streets to fight for their vested right. From Milan to Naples, to Rome or Bologne, they mobilise to defend the 194 law on voluntary termination of pregnancy (V.T.O.P). Because less than two weeks before the Italian legislative elections (13-14 April), the reconsideration of the V.T.O.P is at the heart of the political debate.

Over the course of these recent months, at the instigation of Pope Benedicte XVI, the Catholic Church has increased the pressure against abortion, legalised in 1978 in the Peninsula.

In the campaign for Italian elections this month, abortion has emerged unexpectedly as a major issue. In the lead of the debate is Giuliano Ferrara -a conservative newspaper editor and former government minister- who is even running for parliament on a single point: ending abortion.

Promoter with the other right-wing parties and some figures from the Centre Catholic of the “Family Day” a few months ago, Silvio Berlusconi has declared himself favor to the abortion ban. However, the former Prime Minister is aware that the issue provokes serious divisions amongst the political parties and hesitates as a consequence to patently support Giuliano Ferrara. It is all the more a fussy position for Berlusconi since some elected representatives from his coalition are refusing “to use the issue of the abortion to their own advantage”.

But in a country where the influence of the Church remains important, the temptation of using for political purposes some ideas dear to the Vatican is still strong.