(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 16 - A law making surrogate motherhood a "universal crime", definitively approved by the Senate on October 16, will be published in the Official Gazette on Monday, November 18, thus becoming law in Italy, ANSA sources said Saturday.
    The bill was signed into law by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, on November 4, before leaving for his visit to China, they said.
    The Senate gave final approval last October 16 to the bill making surrogacy a universal crime, even if it is carried out abroad by Italian citizens.
    Opposition lawmakers, who voted against the measure, have slammed it as "useless", "unconstitutional", and "against children and same-sex couples".
    In Italy, surrogacy has been illegal since 2004.
    The measure makes gestation for others punishable by law even if committed abroad, but only for Italian citizens.
    Surrogacy became a hot topic under the right-ring government of Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy (FdI) party presented the legislation that allows the prosecution of Italians who resort to using surrogate mothers in countries like Spain, Canada and the US where it is legal, making it a "universal crime".
    Meloni has said she thinks surrogacy is "inhuman" and takes advantage of vulnerable women whose babies are stripped away from them "in a brutal trade".
    Other countries where commercial surrogacy is legal are Georgia and Greece.
    Additionally, altruistic surrogacy is allowed in Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Guatemala, the UK and Australia.
    photo: An LGBTQUIA+ protest against the bill (ANSA).