Public funding for the cryopreservation of eggs in women in their thirties? Fratelli d’Italia says no

"I still believe that a major cultural revolution is needed: people should have children whilst they are young. It is one thing to cryopreserve eggs at public expense when there are health reasons, but it is quite another to want to postpone motherhood within one’s own timeframe for career reasons and to attempt to overcome biological, physical and health-related limits at any cost,” says Lavina Mennuni, a senator for FdI. As Parliament awaits its reopening, the issue is causing a stir over the Ferragosto holiday. Italy is one of the countries in the world with the lowest fertility rate – that is, the average number of children per woman of childbearing age (18–49) – and this figure is continuing to fall: 1.14 children per woman of childbearing age, a far cry from the 1.8 which, combined with a positive net migration balance, could prevent the progressive decline in the population. In terms of the number of births each year, this means that by 2025 the overall decline compared with 2008 will stand at 38.4 per cent. Not only that – and this is perhaps the most interesting figure when considering the issue – but the average age of women having their first child continues to rise; in 2025, it stood at 33.4 years. And the later a woman has her first child, the greater the likelihood that she will not have any more. It is therefore only natural that politicians, faced with the momentous issue of the birth rate crisis, should be examining this matter.

In France, a country where the demographic winter is less severe than here, a public subsidy is offered for the cryopreservation of eggs to all women aged between 29 and 37. In Italy, there are two proposals – from the PD and the M5S – tabled in the Chamber of Deputies moving in this direction (and another will be added in September in the Senate, tabled by Democratic Party Senator Filippo Sensi, who proposes replicating the model already in place in Tuscany). Another proposal has also been announced by the former Prime Minister and leader of Italia Viva, Matteo Renzi, who suggests adopting the French model, with an allocation of 100 million euros to be included in the next Budget Bill. The aim is to reach a cross-party agreement. There is no lack of openness from Forza Italia and the Lega. Elisabetta Tovaglieri, a Lega MEP, admitted to La Repubblica that she had personally made use of social freezing: “It cannot be a divisive issue,” she said. But within Giorgia Meloni’s party, the idea is not gaining traction. There is reluctance. Mennuni adds: “I find it abhorrent to suggest to a woman – as if it were a sign of modernity – that she should wait to have children and then undergo the difficult and painful process of stimulation for the transfer of frozen embryos. Instead, we must channel our energies into restoring a woman’s ability to choose to become a mother within the natural timeframe available to her. For her own good and for the well-being of the child, who, I would remind you, is not an object of other people’s rights.” For this reason, the FdI senator addresses her colleagues in the opposition directly: “I propose that the PD and the Five Star Movement should not bow to the market logic that revolves around these businesses, and should instead focus their efforts on securing budgetary resources to offer young people the opportunity to start their own families.” 

The position of another FdI MP, Ylenja Lucaselli, is more nuanced but essentially no different: “We are not opposed to the idea out of hand, but it is a sensitive issue. Are we sure that these choices really help boost the birth rate? And then there is the question of age: if you freeze your eggs, at what age will you have children? Are we sure we want mothers in their 50s or 60s? It’s true that we’re all younger these days, but are we certain that a woman of that age can truly be a mother? In principle, it’s a good thing that technology helps women to have children, but before such a decision is taken, there needs to be a wide-ranging ethical debate.”