No plan for Italy abortion campaign, cleric says
A leading cleric has dampened speculation that the Vatican could campaign to change Italy’s abortion law after its victory in defence of the country’s highly restrictive fertility legislation.
Low voter turnout on Sunday and Monday sank a hard-fought referendum aimed at dismantling the fertility law as Italians heeded the Roman Catholic Church’s call for a boycott.
“We are certainly opposed to abortion, but we don’t want to change the law,” said Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the Italian bishops’ conference who spearheaded the boycott campaign.
"We only hope that favouring life will be taken into consideration as much as possible in its application,” Ruini said in a television interview.
The failure of the fertility referendum was hailed as a triumph for the Church and the new Pope Benedict, and fuelled speculation that an apparent resurgence in religious values could encourage opponents to target the 1978 law legalising abortion.
The Vatican failed to overturn the law with a referendum in 1981 that was firmly rejected by Italians.
Bishops openly urged a boycott of this week’s fertility referendum, rallying the faithful and politicians behind the slogan: “Life cannot be put to a vote: Don’t vote”.
The 2004 law is the most restrictive in Europe. It bans egg and sperm donations as well as embryo research and freezing, and allows only three eggs per test tube fertilisation.
It gives embryos full legal rights for the first time, in apparent contradiction with the abortion law.
Just under 26 percent of eligible voters participated in the referendum - far short of the quorum of 50 percent plus one needed to make it valid.
The complicated nature of the poll and voter apathy have been blamed for its failure and, in fact, no referendum has succeeded in reaching a quorum in a decade.
However, both critics and supporters of the law said the Church’s role was fundamental.
“It’s clear that the unusually direct intervention of the Church, even in electoral tactics, was politically decisive,” Corriere della Sera newspaper said in a front-page editorial.
Ruini was more modest.
“The result is perhaps better than forecast, but above all shows the wisdom of the Italian people and their moral conscience,” he said, even conceding that the fertility law “could be improved”.
The comments have done little to silence critics.
“The failure of this referendum has claimed three victims: the secularism of the state, political autonomy and the institution of the referendum,” said Emma Bonino, a former EU commissioner and one of the main proponents of the referendum.
“And now it risks claiming new victims. I’m referring to the risk of attacks on the abortion law,” she told reporters.
Several government leaders, including Health Minister Francesco Storace, have said it might be possible to review the law, but most analysts say it would be political suicide ahead of a general election next year.
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