Gian Luigi Gigli[1] comments in court on the consequences of proposing offence to obstruct abortion legislation. According to the MP, the introduction of this draft bill into an Italian scenario “sheds light on the extent of this freedom-destroying law, which rocks the very foundations of the Free State and freedom of expression in particular”.
He explained: “If a similar law were passed in Italy, we would have to close ‘SOS Life’, the organisation which is open around the clock, 365 days a year to listen to women with problems via a free-phone number and the Internet”. He went on to add that, “the 12,000 babies born thanks to the options proposed by ‘Movement for Life’ would never have been born otherwise. Furthermore, “We would also have to close the other 350 ‘Life Help Centres’ working at national level since encouraging women to keep their babies could be viewed as psychological and moral pressure,” he explained.
The Italian MP noted, as in France that, “the voice of someone” “who takes a different view from that of the State” is “reduced to silence” as is “someone who proposes an alternative to abortion for women who find themselves in difficulty”. He confirms that this draft bill creates “a dangerous precedent for freedom of the Internet as well as freedom of conscience”: “It’s obvious that democratic principles are reduced to the single thought of a totalitarian State” (see Délit d’entrave numérique à l’IVG : vers une entrée “dans la police des idées et dans la dictature d’une vision totalitaire” ? – numerical offence to obstruct an abortion: are we heading towards the policy and ideals of a totalitarian vision?).
Finally, Gian Luigi Gigli denounced the “humiliation” shown to women: “In addition to democratic freedom, the very freedom of women who want to have an abortion is compromised since access to information forms the basis of a free, informed choice. In fact, the new draft law seeks to prevent women, who want to find out more about abortion, from accessing any information other than what is consistent with the moral relativism of the secular state, thereby mimicking the misinformation of the Soviet era” (see Délit d’entrave numérique à l’IVG – numerical offence to obstruct: “A lack of clarity adds to women’s unhappiness” and numerical offence to obstruct abortion: “We are not helping women by denigrating abortion”). And to conclude: “If we don’t want this to catch on sooner or later in Italy, it’s high time for those in favour of freedom to stand up and be counted”.
[1] Italian MP. President of Movement for Life and Professor of Neurology.
L’Avvenire (Gian Luigi Gigli), 10/12/2016.
Photo : Pixabay, DR.