Italy prevents mention of abortion rights in G7 declaration

Bari (Italy), June 14 – Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, as host of the G7 summit, has prevented the group of industrialised democracies from reaffirming a clear commitment to the right to abortion in their final declaration, DPA has learned from diplomatic sources.

The declaration, traditionally issued on the summit’s last day, will only say that women have the right to “adequate, affordable and quality health services,” including when it comes to sexual and reproductive care.

At the G7 summit in Japan last year, the leaders took an explicit position on the topic. The text said women must have “access to safe and legal abortion and post-abortion care”.

The difference of opinion over the language surrounding abortion broke out into the open on Thursday evening, with French President Emmanuel Macron expressing his disappointment over this year’s likely outcome.

Macron noted that in France, a woman’s right to abortion and the freedom to control her reproductive autonomy is a constitutionally protected right.

Meloni, who heads a coalition of centrist and far-right parties, then accused Macron of using the G7 forum to campaign in France’s upcoming snap election.

She said this year’s text would be different simply to avoid unnecessary repetition from the final G7 communique in Japan.

After Macron’s resounding defeat to the far-right in the European Parliament elections, he dissolved the National Assembly, France’s lower house of the Parliament, on Sunday.

French citizens will be voting in Parliamentary elections in just a few weeks.

Among the G7 nations, the US has seen a major rollback in reproductive rights since a 2022 ruling by the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v Wade case that had codified the right to abortion.