BMJ  2008;336:408-409 (23 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.39495.585683.C2

News

Abortion becomes hot political issue in run up to Italian election

Fabio Turone

1 Milan

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Men and women took to the streets of Italy last week to protest about police behaviour towards a woman who had had a late abortion for fetal abnormality.

A police patrol of seven rushed into the Naples University Hospital, Federico II, after they received an anonymous phone call saying that an illegal abortion had taken place in the hospital’s gynaecology department.

Press reports say that the police interrogated the 39 year old woman as she got back to her room immediately after the procedure and seized the aborted fetus, even though the head of the department rapidly proved that the procedure was legal, as an amniocentesis at week 21 had shown that the fetus was affected by Klinefelter’s syndrome.

The police raid was seen by many people as intimidation and caused demonstrations all over Italy. Livia Turco, health minister in Romano Prodi’s outgoing centre left government, took part in a . . . [Full text of this article]


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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Some notes on the Italian Abortion law
Andrea Dovio
bmj.com, 22 Feb 2008 [Full text]
Guidelines are missing
Luca Puccetti, et al.
bmj.com, 24 Feb 2008 [Full text]
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