Non Una di Meno protest on 28 September in Rome. Image: Claudia Torrisi. All rights reserved.
This article is part of Right to Protest, a partnership project with human rights organisations CELS and INCLO, with support from the ACLU, examining the power of protest and its fundamental role in democratic society.
“We take back the streets, we take back the squares.” The voice through the megaphone resonates in the air as groups of women reach piazza dell’Esquilino in Rome, holding fuchsia-and-black placards and shaking rolling pins. It’s 28 September, International Safe Abortion Day, and the Italian feminist movement Non Una Di Meno (Not One Less) has organised demonstrations and initiatives across the whole country to protest against the massive obiezione di coscienza (“conscientious objection”) of gynecologists – whereby doctors can refuse to conduct legal abortions on moral grounds – and to demand the women’s right to choose when it comes to their bodies.
