Fewer and fewer families are able to adopt a child between waiting times, postponements, psychologists, social workers and the courts. And same-parent couples are left with only the hypothesis of foster care

MILAN. In Italy one becomes a parent in only two ways, by biological relationship or by adoption. Words entrusted to a newspaper by the Minister to the family and equal opportunities Eugenia Roccella after the events in Padua, where last month the prosecutor challenged the birth certificates of 33 children of two mothers. Parents by contract? No thank you. The Italian right (and not only) opposes the Gestation for others (Gpa) so much as to want to transform it into a universal crime and does not welcome other forms of medically assisted procreation either, such as heterologous fertilization which in any case is only allowed for heterosexual couples . Lombardy councilor Guido Bertolaso recently filed a complaint with the public prosecutor's office for a much-contested fertility fair held in Milan last May.

But if the falling birth rate is a problem, primarily for the Government which makes it a flag issue, can we perhaps answer that adoptions are a viable solution? We see. A same-parent couple who have resorted to surrogacy abroad can only resort to a special adoption in Italy, a procedure which requires the intervention of a judge of the Juvenile Court and which in any case does not guarantee a full adoption since not only does it leave the children out of the estate but it is also exposed to the risk of being challenged. A long journey with an uncertain outcome, a limbo of years, as the rainbow families denounce. Ordinary adoption, an option to which heterosexual couples have access, is currently excluded. Although difficult, foster care is possible, but what happens more often than not is that same-parent couples who sign up for lists are never called back. As for the transcripts of birth certificates in the Municipal Registry, the problem is the legislative vacuum, and for dads it is a road that almost always ends with an appeal.

The life of a "traditional" couple who want to adopt is not any easier. Years of waiting and postponements, of social workers and courts, of psychologists, interviews and assessments: a story already written. Like that of Angelo and Vittoria, eight years to embrace Andrea, a native of Burkina Faso, and a coup d'état in between which certainly didn't shorten the times. Or that of Laura and Stefano, also 'linked' to Burkina Faso, who received the suitability decree from the Court of Mestre in 2020 and today may have to wait another year at least before the country's definitive green light.

Ciai, one of the authorized bodies and active since 1968, denounces a "constant, dizzying and irreversible" drop in the number of international adoptions in Italy. In 2022 it concluded 16 (there were 20 in 2021, 14 in 2020) and as of 31 December there were 58 pending. Overall in Italy at the end of 2022, the Commission for international adoptions (Cai), which supervises compliance with the Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 and operates within the Presidency of the Council of Ministers at the top of which Minister Roccella sits today, has counted 565 successful adoptions. They were 563 in 2021, 526 in 2020 and it is likely that we are heading towards a further reduction. In 2001, according to Istat data, there were almost 4,000 foreign minors adopted in Italy. There are 2,500 couples waiting, according to Ciai data, which moreover has recently opened to adoptions for singles and same-parent couples. What weighs heavily is the lack of children for reasons that concern the international scenario, from the demographic decline in countries such as China and Vietnam to conflicts such as the one in Ukraine, from nationalisms such as in the case of states such as Poland and Ethiopia, to the complications caused by administrative and judicial systems subject to continuous shocks, as in Burkina Faso, which combine to close the channels. But that's not all: the inefficiency of social services and juvenile justice also weighs heavily. to the complications caused by administrative and judicial systems subject to continuous shocks, as in Burkina Faso, which combine to close the channels. But that's not all: the inefficiency of social services and juvenile justice also weighs heavily. to the complications caused by administrative and judicial systems subject to continuous shocks, as in Burkina Faso, which combine to close the channels. But that's not all: the inefficiency of social services and juvenile justice also weighs heavily.

"Let's take the Juvenile Courts where nothing is computerized," explains Laura Cossar, a lawyer expert in family law in Milan. In cities, for example, the process can be very long because there is a heavy load on services. The preparatory courses towards eligibility can last 1 or 2 years. "Many adoptive parents - Cossar says - give up because they can't get in tune with the service". A real "obstacle course" where "no one takes less than 4 years" and which, when one goes abroad, also involves huge costs but only partially reimbursed by Cai although "Italy is the country which disburses more subsidies», as Vice President Vincenzo Starita explains.

There are those who also say that there is a certain climate of racial prejudice, not only in Italy. It was Cai itself in 2019 who raised the alarm by writing that certain "manifestations of racism" could "compromise the possibility of new agreements". "Some African countries then closed to Italy over the issue of racism - says Gabriella, adoptive mother of two boys from the Congo - and now there is a lack of channels because those countries do not want their children to be adopted in a country perceived as racist, that discriminates against black kids. And if the international road appears tortuous, the national one seems already blocked: the numbers and the experts say that there are practically no more adoptable children in Italy, especially small children. True, so many adoptive parents say, that a child is not chosen but welcomed. It is also true that welcoming a newborn is different. Looking at the numbers, between 2001 and 2021 the completed adoption procedures of Italian minors dropped from 1290 to 866. It does not seem then that it is possible to indicate adoption as one of the levers useful for solving, at least in part, the crisis of birth rate or to satisfy the desire for parenthood of many traditional and non-traditional couples. Yet there are those who argue that in Italy one can only become parents through a biological relationship or through adoption. the birth crisis or to satisfy the desire for parenthood of many traditional and non-traditional couples. Yet there are those who argue that in Italy one can only become parents through a biological relationship or through adoption. the birth crisis or to satisfy the desire for parenthood of many traditional and non-traditional couples. Yet there are those who argue that in Italy one can only become parents through a biological relationship or through adoption.