Okay, well, maybe I spoke too soon about the abortion row finishing. The Health Minister Francesco Storace, apparently furious that the parliamentary commission has failed to deliver the report he wanted, has decided to impose a new bureaucratic checking process in an effort to block regions from buying in the abortion pill.
The regions which use the abortion pill do so thanks to a European free trade directive, which means that if a drug is licensed for use in one EU country, it can be used throughout the EU. At the moment the imports are simply rubber-stamped by the Health Ministry. But Storace says in future hospitals will have to provide a detailed account of the clinical reasons why in each case the abortion pill is more suitable than alternatives before the Ministry will agree to the import. Given the short time-period in which the pill can be used, this tactic could deny many women the choice of using it at all.