Italy Blocks Reproductive Health Websites Women on Web and Women Help Women

https://ooni.org/post/2026-italy-blocks-wow-and-whw

60•miniBill•2h ago

Comments

khalic•41m ago

What’s this fixation of far-right populists on genitals and reproduction? It’s really disturbing

fhdkweig•35m ago

Controlling reproduction means controlling women. Controlling women seems to be a high priority for crotchety old men. But that doesn't really answer your question, it just rephrases it.

I think it is like anorexia. Someone who has no control over their own lives tries to control the few things they can. An anorexic controls their food, but a married man controls his wife and kids. It makes even the weakest person feel strong to have someone to boss around.

skrebbel•27m ago

> crotchety old men

Such as Giorgia Meloni?

fhdkweig•25m ago

I don't know what is going on in Italy, but that's why we are doing it in America.

altern8•13m ago

Oh, a post about Italy. Let's take this opportunity to talk about America :-D

fhdkweig•2m ago

I zeroed in on khalic's mention of "far right populism" which I thought was a universal term, but skrebbel made it sound like that doesn't apply to Italy (but I still think it does), so I clarified.

lolgab•17m ago

The first thing she did in office was a order to be called "il signor presidente", masculine of the correct "la signora presidente". She's not an old man but behaves as such and the fascist side of her support is strongly misogynist.

philipov•23m ago

I don't think you need an analogy like that to explain why people want to control women. They want to control women for the same reason they want to control men. Is it any mystery why people seek power? Those with power can decide how to distribute the resources of the society in a way that preferences them and their inner circle.

Access to reproduction is one of the most basic resources a society has available. It is common for the old men to control the young men by being the ones to decide who gets access to women. "Work for us loyally, and we'll allow you to get married"

fhdkweig•19m ago

I don't think they are trying to control men. I'm not seeing any evidence of that. When I see a law that attacks women, it is very clearly targeted towards women, but I don't see anything that clearly targets men.

philipov•10m ago

Society became much more complex than a tribal village where the elders decide everything, and so have the levels of indirection in how control of reproduction is wielded. The situation is also quite a bit more complicated now that populations are able to grow so far above the local carrying capacity of the land. Yet we can still trace a line back to when it was necessary for a community to collectively maintain the sustainability of their population by deciding how many children could be supported at any one time.

lelanthran•6m ago

> When I see a law that attacks women, it is very clearly targeted towards women, but I don't see anything that clearly targets men.

Drafts? They typically only targeted men, with a large possibility of maiming or death as the result.

geremiiah•5m ago

This is the kind of rational you arrive to, if you spend too much time in feminist circles and never bother to actually try to understand the other side. I can assure you that nobody thinks in terms of "controlling women".

kelseyfrog•1m ago

I'm a conservative and it's 100% about controlling women.

whateverboat•30m ago

As other commenter said, control over women. But this is not just some desperate attempt, but a way to get back to the roots.

joshuaheard•22m ago

The issue with abortion is that some think the fetus deserves legal protection because it is equivalent to a human baby. So, they don't think it should be killed. In Italy, abortion is allowed in the first 90 days. After that, it is illegal. These websites were providing abortion pills to be used past the 90 day period, which is illegal.

So, these websites were being blocked because they were engaged in illegal activity.

CamperBob2•8m ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder,_K%C3%BCche,_Kirche

And in the US [1,2]:

2016 election: Approximately 39% to 42% of female voters cast their ballots for Trump.

2020 election: Approximately 44% of female voters cast their ballots for Trump.

2024 election: Approximately 46% of female voters cast their ballots for Trump

Like it or not -- and make no mistake, I don't like it -- many women want this.

----------

1: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/06/26/voting-patte...

2: https://www.cfr.org/articles/women-voters-pivotal-role-elect...

jamesbelchamber•7m ago

Reproductive control undermines most right-wing ideologies; outlawing it patches up the cracks.

altern8•29m ago

I couldn't find a lot of information, but abortion is a right in Italy.

Women seeking terminations in the first 90 days of pregnancy are protected under law 194.

From what I got, these organizations illegally sent women abortion pills.

At least when I was young and still living in Italy, you could walk into a hospital and they'd give you abortion pills or day after pills for free.

I guess it has to be a hospital/doctor and not a random website?

Not sure.

gpderetta•17m ago

It is indeed legal, but gynaecologists can object to help for conscientious reasons (65% do) and in quite a few hospitals, 100% do object, especially in the south. So in practice access to it is not always that easy.

altern8•15m ago

That's because they don't want to get sued.

So, you think the government should force doctors to perform abortions, like putting them in jail if they don't want to do it?

lelanthran•13m ago

I don't think GP was making that argument (well, I didn't read it that way). He's just saying that access may not be easy.

[EDIT: I see GP did reply to parent, and he apparently was making that asinine argument :-/ Oh well, at least I interpreted original GP comment charitably]

gpderetta•12m ago

how's that different from any other medical procedure?

eur0pa•25m ago

Abortion is legal in this country, and any woman can go to the hospital (as in the ER), or at a consultorio familiare to initiate the process. Both options are free of charge and free of judgement, especially the latter. As to why these two websites were rendered inaccessible it beats me, as there are many other local alternatives one may peruse, and they're all accessible. Hell, even the Italian Government Website has resources[1][2]!

[1] https://www.salute.gov.it/new/it/tema/salute-della-donna/

[2] https://www.salute.gov.it/new/it/tema/salute-della-donna/int...

altern8•19m ago

I couldn't find any information, either. The only thing I was able to find were many posts on Reddit from women trying to get these websites to send them abortion pills.

I assume that this might be the reason why they got blocked--or if not a possibility.

I don't understand why women would need these websites, there are plenty of free resources like local hospitals and doctors who are generally completely fine with abortion.

throwway120385•9m ago

Which medications were they trying to get? Plan B or something that works later?

flaviolivolsi•18m ago

"Both options are free of charge and free of judgement, especially the latter"

You sure about that? Unfortunately there's a thing called "obiezione di coscienza" (TL;DR: doctors opposing abortion because they're catholics). Feel free to translate this article: https://www.editorialedomani.it/fatti/aborto-obiezione-cosci...

petcat•11m ago

It's bizarre to me that countries in Europe can just compel their ISPs to block websites completely without any judicial review. That kind of thing would run afoul of all kinds of first amendment litigation in the US. The FBI will occasionally seize a domain, but only after a court order.

drnick1•1m ago

The upside of that ISP-enforced bans can be trivially bypassed by using your own DNS or a public DNS like Quad9.

lelanthran•18m ago

> As to why these two websites were rendered inaccessible it beats me, as there are many other local alternatives one may peruse, and they're all accessible.

Because, presumably, abortion is legal only in specific circumstances (first trimester, I imagine) and these websites are bypassing that.

FTFA:

> Today, Women on Web facilitates online access to abortion pills

I'd expect any website that provides access to non-over-the-counter pills is operating against the law. I mean, it'd be nice if I can buy antibiotics online, but I can't in my jurisdiction.

eur0pa•15m ago

Ah that does it. Abortion pills are not candies. There's a reason why they are expected to be used in a hospital setting, with medical personnel nearby. If these websites facilitate the distribution of prescription meds, they're no different from other "online pharmacies" and get the same treatment

mistrial9•13m ago

in this part of the world, Mexico is known for public pharmacies that sell wildly-strong drugs of different kinds easily.. I doubt there are any websites that list what you can actually get if you walk in with cash

chpatrick•9m ago

In Hungary abortion is technically legal but only surgically, and the public health system is mental torture including being forced to listen to the heartbeat of the fetus (thanks to our local fascist party). Women on Web is a million times more humane. It's not like anyone thinks "oh I'm pregnant I'll just pop a pill and it's solved".

ktm5j•2m ago

I support abortion rights, but I also think that it's a good idea to know what you're doing, especially if we're talking about an abortion where the heart has started beating. I don't think that torture is the right word for that practice.

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