Italy’s resurgent right takes on a woman’s right to choose

NAPLES/ROME – If it was hard enough for Beatrice to get an abortion when she had the law on her side, imagine how other women will cope should Italy’s rising right get its way on reproductive rights.

“What I have been through is very painful, but it is even worse knowing that there are other women out there who are going to go through the same thing,” she said. The 24-year-old law student was in a new relationship when she took a pregnancy test in the summer of 2021 after her suspicions were raised by unusual bouts of nausea.

It turned out she was already two months into an unplanned pregnancy that she did not want — so the race was on to beat Italy’s 90-day cutoff for an abortion.