Reproductive Health Care from Fascism to Forza Nuova

Abstract

This article examines pronatalism from Fascism to Forza Nuova to investigate how far-right political groups in Italy have historically approached reproductive health care. Visual analysis of posters and films read in context with the urbanism of Roman streets and rationalist obstetric clinics clarifies the specific strategies these groups have used to discredit female health-care practitioners and the broader reproductive choices they have traditionally provided to women. At stake in these artistic antecedents are the constellation of far-right causes and religious concerns that anchor and inform the current call for what I term the “new pronatalism,” defined here as the promotion of higher birthrates among native Italians to buttress nationalist demographic might. Forza Nuova frames their bid for Italian women to birth more children as oppositional: “Births at historic lows/Italy needs children/not gay marriage and immigrants.” By tracing the development of far-right breastfeeding propaganda over time, we can better understand authoritarian bids for control over reproductive health care today.