Culture And Media
Italy: More immigrants seek abortions, despite national fall
Rome, 23 April (AKI) - Despite a drop in the abortion rate in Italy, a growing number of female immigrants are looking to end their pregnancies.
The number of female immigrants who terminated their pregnancies rose 4.5 percent in 2006-2007, while there was an overall decrease in abortions in the same period.
The annual figures released by the health ministry were reported in Italian newspapers on Wednesday.
The total number of abortions carried out in Italy fell 3 percent in 2006-2007 from 131,000 to 127,000.
Illegal abortions also fell by a quarter from 20,000 in 2005 to 15,000 in 2006, according to the health ministry report presented to MPs by outgoing health minister Livia Turco (photo).
The number of abortions has almost halved in the country in the past 25 years.
But immigrant abortions have surged over the past decade to make up 31.6 percent of the current total compared to 10.1 percent in 1998, according to the report.
A growing number of doctors in Italy are refusing to carry out abortions on moral grounds - a staggering 70 percent of doctors working for the public health service and in private clinics, compared with 59 percent in 2003, the report said.
A lower but still significant 50.4 percent of anaesthetists and 42.6 percent of non-medical personnel also had moral qualms over abortion, the report found.
The proportion of doctors who objected to performing abortions was highest in southern regions: 90 percent in Basilicata, 84 percent in Sicily, and 83 percent in Campania.
Turco, quoted in the daily, Corriere della Sera, called on Italy's various regional health authorities to "guarantee an abortion service" despite the growing number of doctors who have moral objections to it.
Italy's current legislation permits abortion on demand in the first 90 days of pregnancy, and later if the life of the mother is deemed to be at risk.
The director general of Italy's National Institute for Health Migration and Poverty, Aldo Morrone, said the rising number of women immigrants having abortions was "very serious".
"We need public information campaigns and assistance," Corriere della Sera cited him as saying.
The number of female immigrants who terminated their pregnancies rose 4.5 percent in 2006-2007, while there was an overall decrease in abortions in the same period.
The annual figures released by the health ministry were reported in Italian newspapers on Wednesday.
The total number of abortions carried out in Italy fell 3 percent in 2006-2007 from 131,000 to 127,000.
Illegal abortions also fell by a quarter from 20,000 in 2005 to 15,000 in 2006, according to the health ministry report presented to MPs by outgoing health minister Livia Turco (photo).
The number of abortions has almost halved in the country in the past 25 years.
But immigrant abortions have surged over the past decade to make up 31.6 percent of the current total compared to 10.1 percent in 1998, according to the report.
A growing number of doctors in Italy are refusing to carry out abortions on moral grounds - a staggering 70 percent of doctors working for the public health service and in private clinics, compared with 59 percent in 2003, the report said.
A lower but still significant 50.4 percent of anaesthetists and 42.6 percent of non-medical personnel also had moral qualms over abortion, the report found.
The proportion of doctors who objected to performing abortions was highest in southern regions: 90 percent in Basilicata, 84 percent in Sicily, and 83 percent in Campania.
Turco, quoted in the daily, Corriere della Sera, called on Italy's various regional health authorities to "guarantee an abortion service" despite the growing number of doctors who have moral objections to it.
Italy's current legislation permits abortion on demand in the first 90 days of pregnancy, and later if the life of the mother is deemed to be at risk.
The director general of Italy's National Institute for Health Migration and Poverty, Aldo Morrone, said the rising number of women immigrants having abortions was "very serious".
"We need public information campaigns and assistance," Corriere della Sera cited him as saying.
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