Italian Abortion Referendum

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It is seldom safe to predict the survival of Italy's tottering "leftcentre" coalition government for more than a few days ahead.

It would be a bold person who predicted today (May 14) that it will last beyond Sunday May 17.

Because that is the day when Italians vote in two national referenda on At present the abortion law in Italy (introduced in 1978) permits abortion for a variety of reasons up to 90 days pregnancy but must be approved by a panel of doctors.

Needless to say, bureaucratic delays and sabotage by Catholic doctors reduces abortion rights even more severely.

The explosive issue has been brought to a head once again by the successful demand for next Sunday's two referenda. • One, launched by the small Radical Party calls for the replacement of the 1978 law by the unrestricted right to abortion on demand.

The second, sponsored by the ultra-reactionary Movement for Life (the Italian equivalent of SPUC calls for abortion to be legal only in cases of severe danger to the physical health of the mother.

Italian politics being what it is, the issue is not only one about the rights of women but also involves the relations of church and state.

Pope John Paul I has taken it upon himself to lead a campaign against all abortion rights. He is making almost daily speeches on the issue.

Blatant

This, of course, breaks the spirit of the agreement under which the Vatican is not supposed to interfere in the politics of the Italian state.

In this case the violation is so blatant that the non-religious parties have all felt obliged to pacify their angry supporters by protesting.

The most • important protest-though couched in extremely compromising terms-has come from the leaders of the huge Italian Communist Party.

Writing in the party newspaper 'L'Unita' = Communist Party secretary general, Enrico Berlinguer, said the following:

"We have already publicly recognised the complete legitimacy of the Church's pronouncement against abortion as such. But it is one thing to call on the faithful to carry out the duties which arise from their religious faith, on the other hand it is something else altogether for the Pope to put himself at the headwith daily appeals to mass meetings-of a movement which is trying to alter the laws of our Republic."

Such mealy mouthed opposition reilecis ine profound embarrassment of the CP in the face of the progressive initiative of the Radicals and the appearance of the Church in its true ultra-reactionary colours.

The CP wants to appease this reaction though its rank and file forces it to condemn it.

The result is that the CP . is recommending shabby compromise in the referendum by calling for a NO vote to both the referenda, thus leaving the restrictive and reactionary law of 1978 intact.

Embarrassed

The main party, the Catholic-capitalist Christian Democrats, are as embarrassed as the CP by the abortion referenda.

They have been forced to condemn statements like that of Berlinguer as a "Teturn to anti-clerical intolerance" but they want to depoliticise the issue and on the whole probably wish the Pope would shut up and not rock the boat of Italy's latent "historic compromise"

The Christian Democrats, therefore, are taking no official position on the votes but are saying it is an issue for personal conscience.

essence this is the same as the CP's position since they accept the 1978 Act as the price to be paid for political peace and compromise.

But the conditions of this compromise are now so complex and involve so much suppression of the real needs and conflicts of Italian society that even if the Christian Democrats' coalition with the lay parties (Socialists and Republicans) outlasts May 17, it cannot be long before it runs into its next crisis.

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Thursday 14, 1981