The change of doctors’ shifts was my undoing: they let my boyfriend out of the room and I was left alone for the rest of the time. They visited me after four hours and left in the room without giving me any more prostaglandins (to induce labor, ed). They sent me home two hours later, telling me that I still had to expel a lot more and surgery was not ruled out. This is the anonymous testimony of a 21-year-old girl who eventually had to undergo an easily avoidable surgery. He only later found out that the doctor on duty had not given her the second ration of drug because he was an objector: one of the numerous gynecologists on duty in Italian hospitals who do not make voluntary interruptions of pregnancy (IVG) for reasons of “conscience”. One of many: in Italy, 69% of objector gynecologists, with frightening peaks in some areas. In Veneto, Lazio, Campania and Calabria they are over 70%; in Bolzano, Abruzzo, Puglia, Basilicata and Sicily they exceed 80%; in Molise they are more than 90%. Compared to 558 public hospitals, only 362 carry out IVG, 64.9%. Private institutes and foundations are excluded from this count, but also USL principals for which the regions have explicitly declared that they are not authorized to carry out IVG.
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Against women
The first thing I say: “I don’t want it!”, To which they reply: “Did you just know you were pregnant and you already know you don’t want it?”. I politely point out that if I take the pill I certainly don’t want to be a mother! They discharge me and give me directions to continue the pregnancy. “Maybe change your mind,” they say. The real disgust arrived when the priest entered to make us redeem us from our sins: “May God assist you in your choice tonight and forgive you”. I swear I never expected it, writes a 28-year-old girl. Cynicism and rudeness were the protagonists: the kindest sentence was that I had to stop crying, because I was neither the first nor the last, writes a Ligurian woman.
The consequences of the objection are many and, unfortunately, they do not stop only at the difficulty of accessing abortion. Sometimes, the staff refuses to give therapy to avoid pain or, even if the law does not allow it, denies theassistance to the woman during labor in the case of spontaneous abortion. To the health problems are added psychological abuse: explicit judgments, insults, digs of all kinds. I was eighteen, during the ultrasound they put the screen on display. I began to cry from the strong embarrassment and the ferocious blame suffered. The doctor, without even looking into my eyes, told me: “Eh, you should have thought about it before”: thus, for example, an Apulian woman remembers the visit for the issue of the certificate for abortion.
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The numbers and the testimonies
The objection numbers are high not only among gynecologists, but also among anesthetists (46.3%) and non-medical personnel (42.2%). For this the association Objection rejected from 2017 it maps hospitals, pharmacies, clinics through the
testimonies of women: a collective experiment born from below, which responds to a desire for self-determination that recalls the battles for 194. Many of the rumors and reports collected over the years today have converged in the book Objection Rejected! Right to health and reproductive justice, enriched by various contributions on the state of objection in Italy, as well as on other feminist battles. The meaning of the book is precisely to give depth to the numbers that are presented to us, through the stories and episodes experienced – says the curator of the volume Cinzia Settembrini, 28, activist and anthropology student. Reading it, the complexities of the stories emerge: each one has its own particularity, but there is a common background of great difficulty. Forty years after the approval of law 194, we are in terrible shape.
The mapping of Objection Rejected shows how the high number of objectors in Italian hospitals leads to serious problems shortages of IVG staff. According to the publications of the Ministry of Health, however, the problem does not exist. In the last Report on the implementation of Law 194 we read that the coverage for IVG is “more than adequate” and that it is up to the regions to organize the services in the best possible way. There are dozens of hospitals that have been discovered or can count on a single non-objector doctor. Result? Reports like these, taken from the volume of Objection Rejected: At eight they open the ward, but they accept only four visits a day, since out of twenty-five gynecologists operating only four practice abortions, An abortion has not been practiced for fifteen years, Since 2017 no IVGs have been performed why all gynecologists present in the hospital declare themselves conscientious objectors, Most of the staff in the maternity and gynecology ward belong to Communion Liberation and are objectors.
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The shortcomings of the National Health System spill over to the concerns of women who cannot wait and, as the weeks go by, live the anguish of even having to change country: If you are unable to access the IVG before the twenty-second week, the only thing you can do is to go abroad, if, of course, you have the means to do so, one woman found during the pandemic, when the troubles escalated. Objection Rejected also collected the rumors of women without Internet, or foreigners, or living in underserved areas, but dozens and dozens are those who, despite having all the necessary information and knowing the practice, are amazed at the wall they face. Wouldn’t it be better, simply, to prevent those who deal with sexual and reproductive health from objecting ?, asks Settembrini. A proposal, this, advanced over the years by various feminist associations, but it has always remained on paper, also because, to implement it, one would have to put hand to law 194.
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The illegitimate objection of pharmacists
We are practicing and observant Catholics, we do not sell condoms and contraceptives, the pharmacist has been an objector for at least ten years, she does not give any emergency contraceptive pills by choice. I was not given the morning-after pill with the doctor’s prescription, even though this was the only pharmacy on duty in town: these testimonies tell how conscientious objection is sometimes also invoked by pharmacists. Although the law does not provide this option for their category. The biggest problem concerns the sale of the so-called “morning after pill” and that of the “five days later”: two emergency contraceptives which do not act if the fertilization of the egg has already occurred, but which can avoid a miscarriage if you do not want to get pregnant. Being the emergency drugs, pharmacies are obliged to have them in stock. Yet it still happens that some pharmacists say they do not have them, invoking their opposition to abortion. A justification not only illegitimate, but also unfounded, because the morning-after pill and the five-day-after pill are contraceptives, not abortion drugs.
Once again, the testimonies collected by Objection Rejected speak for themselves: They stalled for hours without giving me any prescription for the pill, asking me to wait for the next doctor’s turn: it was 5 in the morning, I should have waited until 8, The pharmacist has tried to convince me that I was performing an abortion, pillaging myself in front of other clients and refusing to sell me the drug. Many women report that in the pharmacy it still happens to be asked for a prescription to receive the morning-after pill, though the recipe has not been compulsory for a long time for adults and been recently abolished also for minors.
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Valuable time, especially in small towns and underserved areas: taking the pill too late can mean risking an unwanted pregnancy. There are many testimonials from desperate women, bounced from one pharmacy to another, forced to grind kilometers on holidays or at night in search of emergency contraceptive. The difficulties unfortunately do not spare either consultors, the places where it should be easier for a woman to find assistance: In the outpatient clinic I found a sheet on display that reads: “For ethical and scientific reasons, neither the morning after pill nor the five days after pill are prescribed “.
The importance of emotional and sexual education
it is undeniable that there is a problem: rights such as that to IVG and emergency contraception are continually put at risk, in total silence or almost, far from public discourse. The solutions, however, exist. Making more sexual and emotional education in schools is necessary, explains Settembrini, as important as girls and boys learn how to consciously manage sexuality and relationships. In fact, she adds, the only valid way to limit abortion is not to make it illegal, nor to support anti-choice campaigns by those who oppose abortion, but to educate more.
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January 27, 2021 (change January 27, 2021 | 16:41)
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