Italy has made it illegal for couples to travel abroad to have a child via surrogacy.
The move expands the ban on the practice within the country to also include those who seek it out in places where it is legal, such as the United States or Canada. Those who break the law could face up to two years in prison and fines of up to €1 million (£835,710).
Critics say the law, proposed by Italy’s far-right ruling party, targets same-sex couples – who are not allowed to adopt or use artificial insemination in the country.
Surrogacy is when a woman becomes pregnant for another couple or individual, usually because of fertility problems or because they are men in a same-sex relationship.
The law was approved by 84 votes to 58 in the Italian Senate on Wednesday.
In a protest before the vote, opponents of the law said it makes it harder for people to become parents, despite the country’s low birth rate.
“If someone has a child, they should get a medal,” Franco Grillini, an LGBT activist, told Reuters news agency during the demonstration.
“Here instead you are sent to prison… if you don’t have children in the traditional way.
“This is a brutal law. No country in the world has anything like this.”
The move is part of the socially conservative agenda of Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s first female prime minister and leader of the Brothers of Italy party.
She described herself as a Christian mother and believes that children should be raised only by a man and a woman.
Meloni has previously spoken against surrogacy involving same-sex couples, and anti-gay rhetoric has been a major feature of her election campaign.
“Yes to the natural family, no to the gay lobby,” she said in a 2022 speech.
In 2023, her government instructed Milan City Council to stop registering children of same-sex parents.
Meloni described surrogacy as “a symbol of a hateful society that confuses desire with rights and replaces God with money.”
Her deputy, Matteo Salvini, also described the practice as a “perversion” that treats women like “ATM machines.”
The lawmaker who drafted Wednesday’s ban previously denied it was intended to harm LGBT people: “Most people who use surrogacy are heterosexual.”
Carolina Farchi said this would “protect women and their dignity.”
Experts told the BBC that 90% of couples who use surrogacy in Italy are straight, and many hide the fact that they have traveled abroad to have a child.
But gay families returning to Italy with a child cannot hide in the same way.
Same-sex couples have previously told the BBC about their concerns surrounding the law.
