Italy probes grave markings of aborted fetuses
Placement of names seen as gross violation of women’s privacy
ROME — Italian prosecutors and the government’s privacy watchdog are investigating how the names of women who miscarried or had abortions ended up on crosses over graves for the fetuses in a Rome cemetery.
Rights groups have denounced the grave markings as agross violation of the women’s privacy, which is protected by the 1978 law that legalized abortion in Italy. While regulations require burial of a fetus after 20 weeks, women who have complained said they never knowingly consented to the burials, much less to having their names put on crosses.
The scandal — brought to light last month when a woman wrote on Facebook about happening upon her name on a cross in Rome’s Flaminio Cemetery — has reverberated in this largely Roman Catholic country at a time when women say finding a doctor to perform an abortion has become increasingly difficult and that they face poor treatment when they do.
Women’s rights group Differenza Donna says it has so far identified more than 1,000 such graves in the Roman cemetery in overgrown plots. The crosses are crude wooden or iron slats, and some of the graves are adorned with filthy stuffed animals or toys that have been left to the elements.
“As if what I went through was not enough, I discovered that at the Flaminio Cemetery there is a tomb with my name on it,” said one of the women, Francesca, whose name appears on a grave.
She said she had an abortion in September 2019 after a scan showed her baby would not survive a malformed heart and aorta and that her own life would be at risk if she carried the pregnancy to term.
“Somebody, without my consent, collected the fetus, buried it at the cemetery and put over it a cross with my name and family name on it,” said Francesca, who spoke on condition that her last name not be used because she said she feared retaliation from anti-abortion ac
tivists.
Differenza Donna has filed a formal complaint with Rome prosecutors, providing testimony from some of the women who asked the rights group for help.
“By displaying names and family names of the women on the crosses, there was a violation of a crucial aspect of the law ... which is the right to privacy and confidentiality for women who voluntarily interrupt the pregnancy,” said the president of Differenza Donna, Elisa Ercoli.
Additionally, some of the
women weren’t Christian or religious believers, meaning the crosses violated their freedom of conscience and religion, she said.
Parliamentarians have demanded explanations from the public entities implicated, and Italy’s government-appointed guarantor of privacy opened an investigation.
Former health minister Livia Turco has led the charge, visiting the cemetery herself.
It is unclear who is to blame, and there are indications the scandal may have more bureaucratic than ideological roots.