If you do not have a uterus, stop deciding about abortion The situation in Italy in 2025
"RU486 at home? Women flush the fetus down the toilet." These words weren’t spoken by an anonymous troll on social media, but by Michele Bocchi, a regional councilor from Fratelli d’Italia in Emilia-Romagna. This happened just a few days ago, in Bologna. And it wasn’t an isolated incident. Around the same time in Turin, councilor Marrone organized an all-male meeting about the so-called “listening room” inside Sant’Anna hospital, one of the symbolic facilities for abortion rights in Piedmont. This ideological space was designed to “convince” women not to terminate their pregnancies, funded with public money, and declared unlawful by the regional administrative court (TAR) thanks to a case brought by CGIL and Se Non Ora Quando. Yet, the message in both cases is the same: men speaking, deciding, and acting on bodies that aren’t theirs.
Abortion is not a matter of opinion
If we’re still wondering why people without a uterus keep talking about abortion, the answer is as simple as it is brutal: because they can. Because they sit at the decision-making tables, hold leadership roles, and set the political agenda. Because in our society, women’s bodies - or more precisely, the bodies of people with uteruses - are still seen as collective property, an ideological battleground, something to debate publicly, preferably without involving those who live in those bodies. Although established by a now-outdated law (Law 194 of 1978), the right to abortion in Italy continues to be obstructed by bureaucracy, ideology, and conscientious objection. In 2023, there were 65,493 voluntary terminations of pregnancy: a number that’s rising compared to previous years, though still far from the peaks of the 1980s. But behind this data lies a reality that varies greatly from one region to another.
Where can you actually get an abortion in Italy?
According to a recent interactive map published by the Italian National Institute of Health, only a portion of Italy’s hospitals actually provide abortion services. And even this important map fails to report key information, such as the number of conscientious objector doctors. In reality, many of the listed facilities are authorized but not operational. The situation is dire in regions like Molise or Basilicata, where more than 85% of gynecologists are objectors, making timely access to abortion nearly impossible. In Sicily, out of 68 documented facilities, only 19 actually perform voluntary terminations. In Lombardy, the region with the highest number of IVGs each year, less than half the hospitals are truly accessible.
Medical abortion is on the rise, but it’s not enough
The now-infamous pill mentioned by councilor Bocchi is RU486, the abortion pill that allows a pregnancy to be terminated without surgery. Today, about 58% of abortions in Italy are carried out pharmacologically. However, access is still patchy: some hospitals lack equipped outpatient services, others refuse to administer the pill. In many areas, the pill is only available through hospital admission, a barrier that deters many women. Not to mention the stigma, isolation, and ideological resistance that still surrounds “at-home” abortion.
When only men speak about abortion
The point is that abortion isn’t just a right. It’s an essential healthcare service, and it should be guaranteed with seriousness, respect, and promptness. Instead, it’s still called into question. Every time a man publicly comments on abortion with accusatory, paternalistic, or moralistic tones, a centuries-old pattern is repeated: control over women’s bodies. It’s no coincidence that the people speaking are often men. Or that those sitting at the decision-making tables are mostly men. Or that ideological facilities - like the “listening room” in Turin - are planned, approved, and defended by people who have never faced an unwanted pregnancy, a difficult decision, or the loneliness and bureaucracy still surrounding abortion access. What we need are data-driven policies, not ideologies. We need comprehensive, secular sex education to reduce unwanted pregnancies. We need abortion to no longer be experienced as a shameful journey, but simply as one of the many possibilities in a person’s life. And most of all: those without a uterus need to take a step back. And learn how to listen.
A bitter afterword
In Italy, while abortion access is being obstructed, help desks for “abused men” are being launched. In Rome’s District VI, the only one governed by the right, a center for “male victims of violence” was recently opened, promoted as a counter-narrative to the work of anti-violence centers. An initiative that risks delegitimizing the issue of gender violence and fueling a false equivalence between male and female violence. The feminist movement does not deny the importance of offering psychological support to men, especially those raised in violent or toxic environments. But it’s crucial to expose the hypocrisy and political exploitation behind projects that, rather than offering protection, seem aimed at undermining the decades-long work of anti-violence organizations. The numbers speak clearly: in 2024, 51 women have already been killed in Italy, in addition to 33 attempted femicides. The last official figure for men killed by women was in 2023: 6 cases in the entire year. Male violence against women is systemic. And it cannot be tackled with “equal” help desks or with propaganda, but with emotional education, awareness, and deconstruction work. If we truly want to help men, that’s where we need to start.
