Italians march for abortion rights after Meloni victory

ROME — Italians marched through Rome, Milan and other cities Wednesday to protect access to abortion, which many fear will be under threat by a far-right party expected to form the next government after leading in parliamentary elections. ”I don’t believe what she says about choice.” Organizers said they feared Meloni’s party will launch “a triad of ‘God, homeland and family’” policies — a reference to her political manifesto. That could impose “rigid gender roles and assign women the task of reproduction and growth of a white, patriarchal and heterosexual nation,” organizers said in their announcement of the rallies against the agenda of Meloni, who would become Italy’s first far-right premier of the post-war period and its first woman in that office. Perhaps Italy’s most celebrated living civil rights activist, Emma Bonino, lost her Senate seat to a Rome city councilwoman from Brothers of Italy, the party co-founded a decade ago by Meloni, who exalts motherhood and “traditional” families and decries LGBTQ “lobbies.” Lavinia Munnino’s no. “I have been an activist for a very long time and there are people who I do not know who are writing to me on Instagram, ‘I am afraid,’ ‘I don’t know what to do,’ ‘I am very worried, I want to cry.’” Crocini claimed that Meloni’s objective is “to break the LGBTQ movement.” Also defeated was Democratic Party Senator Emanuele Fiano.