SW News: In spite of the opposition posed by the Catholic Church, residents of San Marino, which is a tiny landlocked country within Italy, voted overwhelmingly for the decriminalization of abortion on September 26, Sunday. Till date, abortion has been illegal in the sovereign state while neighboring Italy had already legalized abortion in 1978.
San Marino’s Interior Ministry reported that 77 percent of the population has voted for the decriminalization of abortion in the state. Abortion, if or when legalized in the state, will allow women to terminate pregnancy during the first 12 weeks of gestation. Now the amended law will now allow a woman to undergo the procedure if she faces any physical or psychological health issues or if the fetus has any abnormalities or malformations.
Previously, abortion was considered a punishable crime in San Marino. Women who went through the procedure were sentenced to three years in prison; the doctor who performed the procedure got six years. Women of the state who chose to go through with the procedure usually went to Italy.
Like Italy, San Marino has a strong Catholic presence and was one among the few remaining countries in Europe, including Malta, Andorra, and the Vatican City, to criminalize the act of abortion. The ruling Christian Democratic Party of San Marino was firmly against the referendum and appealed to the people to vote “NO’ in order to protect the sanctity of life.
In addition, Andrea Turazzi, the state’s bishop, also opposed the vote saying in a statement that “without ifs, ands, or buts, we are for the welcoming of life.” He further went on to say, “It is not to be defended as an abstract principle, but as the welcome of a person: the one who is conceived, albeit fragile and defenseless.”
Bishop Turazzi further stressed that the Church has always been by the mother and father’s side and has no intention of abandoning the mother before and even after the birth of her child.
San Marino is a small sovereign territory situated in Central Italy. It was said to be founded by a fourth-century monastic community, therefore becoming one of the world's oldest constitutional republics.