Italy bans overseas surrogacy for all citizens amid declining birthrate: 'A child is always a gift'

Italy has tightened its surrogacy ban to include citizens who choose to travel to countries like Canada or the United States for surrogate mothers.

The Italian Senate passed a bill on Wednesday criminalizing citizens who go abroad to countries where it is legal to purchase children through surrogacy. The bill passed 84-58 and floor debate lasted around seven hours.

The bill extends an original ban put in place in 2004 which criminalized commercial surrogacy within Italy. The bill was promoted by right-wing parties, the Brothers of Italy and the League. Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni leads the Brothers of Italy party.

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Meloni, the first woman and mother Premier in Italian history, has called surrogacy "a symbol of an abominable society that confuses desire with rights and replaces God with money."

Supporters of the bill claim that extending the surrogacy ban abroad protects women's dignity, while opponents have called it discriminatory toward same-sex couples.

Under the bill, Italian citizens seeking surrogate mothers in countries where the practice is legal will face up to $1.1 million in fines and two years' jail time.

Pope Francis has called for the end of commercial surrogacy worldwide as recently as January of this year, a practice which the pontiff calls "deplorable." 

"I deem deplorable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother's material needs," said the Pope.

While the Vatican condemns commercial surrogacy, it does not deny children born through surrogate mothers sacraments like baptism.

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Pope Francis asserted, a "child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract."

Opponents of the Italian surrogacy ban claim that the bill hurts same-sex couples who want families. Italy is currently facing a record-low birthrate at 1.2 children per woman recorded in 2023.

Italy, Spain, France and Germany all ban surrogacy outright. The UK, however, allows for surrogates to be compensated within a reasonable amount of their regular expenses. In the United States, commercial surrogacy is not regulated by the federal government.

Children born via surrogate mothers in the United States may have the client couple's name on birth certificates, and often take the child away from his or her birth mother immediately.

The surrogacy ban applies equally to all couples, but only those in heterosexual marriages are legally able to adopt children in Italy. Same-sex marriage is banned in Italy.

Activists with the LGBTQ movement protested before the Italian Senate in opposition to the new law, with some banners reading, "Parents, not criminals."

 "Commercial surrogacy, as currently practised in some countries, usually amounts to the sale of children," wrote a Special Rapporteur for the United Nations in a 2018 report.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.