Against women and against the law: what the "Listening Room" story at the Sant'Anna Hospital in Turin tells us.

The counseling room at Turin's Sant'Anna Hospital is closing (for now?) , the Piedmont Regional Administrative Court (TAR) has ruled, bringing relief to associations defending sexual and reproductive rights and to women demanding free and full self-determination. The "Counseling Room," often described as dilapidated, was supposed to intercept, either voluntarily or at the direction of staff, those seeking abortions , offering them financial incentives up to the baby's 18th month to change their minds. This is actual psychological abuse disguised as counseling and funded by local politicians. This initiative was strongly supported by Councilor Maurizio Marrone , who also promoted the "Vita Nascente" fund, which allocated over €2 million in public funds to groups and associations dedicated to "defending life from conception," and which has sparked strong controversy.

The regional administrative court has now declared the agreement signed in 2023 between the Movimento per la Vita and the Città della Salute hospital in Turin to be illegitimate , forcing the closure of the counseling room inaugurated last September within the gynecology department . The judges found that the competence of the staff at this desk, who are fervent anti-abortionists , had not been verified by the health authority, and even the qualifications of the volunteers had been guaranteed only by the president of the Movimento per la Vita with a sort of self-certification.

This is unacceptable in a public facility , but it is part of a very specific program implemented in recent years in Piedmont, a region that has pioneered countless initiatives opposing women's sexual and reproductive rights . In 2020, for example, at the initiative of FDI, with the support of President Cirio and Forza Italia, the region issued a circular that rejected the ministerial guidelines on access to RU486 , and proposed funding and strengthening the access of anti-abortion groups and movements to hospitals and clinics.

Celebrating the TAR ruling are the institutions and groups that had appealed to the TAR against the listening room: CGIL Torino and CGIL Piemonte , and the associations Se Non Ora Quando and Non Una Di Meno Torino. For the activists, the cancellation of this agreement is not the result of a change in political ideology, but of a rigorous application of the law, and this decision restores justice and protects women's freedom to self-determination .

Now we await the regional countermove , but even if it is likely only a temporary victory, the historic ruling by the administrative court represents a small but significant step forward. Because the Sant'Anna hospital case in Turin raises crucial questions about the management of public health and its independence from ideological groups : healthcare belongs to everyone and cannot be held hostage by groups that oppose women's freedom of self-determination . Public institutions, bastions of secularism, can no longer be considered unsafe spaces where women's freedom is "sold off and sacrificed on the altar of political compromise."