The Vatican is backing an Italian opposition proposal to make it harder to end pregnancies, threatening to open new divisions in Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s coalition. The proposal by Sandro Bondi, a lawmaker in Forza Italia, the party of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, was welcomed this week by the current and previous heads of the Italian bishops’ conference. Mr. Bondi has called for a law to ban abortion after the 90th day of pregnancy.
The call has also gained support among conservative Catholics across party lines, threatening to undermine Mr. Prodi’s efforts to unite his nine-way coalition. His government includes the Radicals, who back same-sex marriage and are pushing for the RU-486 early-stage abortion pill, and Communists, one of whose members is the first transsexual in Italy’s Parliament.
Abortion was legalized in Italy, a predominantly Catholic country, in 1978. After the 90th day, an abortion is allowed only if a mother’s life is seriously endangered. Mr. Bondi, a former Communist, wants to review the parts of the law that deal with advanced pregnancies.
Cardinal Camillo Ruini said on Tuesday that it would be a “very logical step” to reopen the debate on abortion in view of the recent vote by United Nations governments in support of a global moratorium on the death penalty.
Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco told the Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera that he “hoped” the law would be revised. His comments were published in Friday’s issue. Cardinal Bagnasco took over from Cardinal Ruini last year as head of the bishops’ conference, which represents the 226 bishops of Italy.
“Bondi’s motion is a great step toward justice,” Senator Paola Binetti, a member of the largest party in the ruling coalition, said Friday. “I do not support party discipline on such matters.”
Ms. Binetti is a celibate member of Opus Dei, a conservative Catholic organization, and wears a cilice, a spiked belt worn around the thigh to cause discomfort.
She almost caused the government to fall last month when she opposed Prime Minister Prodi in a confidence vote over a clause added to a bill providing that discrimination based on “sexual preferences” could carry a prison sentence. Mr. Prodi won by 160 votes to 158.
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