THE actress Monica Bellucci has accused the Roman Catholic Church of behaving like the Inquisition by interfering with the “sacrosanct” right of Italian women to have children.

Bellucci, who played Mary Magdalene in Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ, has joined an increasingly acrimonious campaign to overturn a law introduced last year that limits fertility treatment to heterosexual couples who are married or live together on a “stable” basis.

“The law creates an absurd situation,” said Bellucci, 36. “If I asked a priest or a politician what my body is like, what my ovaries consist of, how my ova work, they wouldn’t know what I was talking about. Politicians and priests should stay out of this.”

Last year the Italian-born actress posed naked and pregnant for the Italian edition of Vanity Fair to highlight her opposition to the law, which also bans the use of donor sperm or eggs, surrogate mothers and experimentation with embryos. When the photographs were published, the Vatican described them as “squalid” and condemned Bellucci for turning maternity into an exhibition.

Her latest intervention comes as Italians prepare to vote on June 12 and 13 in a referendum that could lead to a repeal of the law. Opposition to it over the past year grew so quickly that campaigners collected one million signatures, twice as many as needed to force next month’s vote.

Supporters of the restrictions say they have put an end to a chaotic, anything-goes “Wild West” atmosphere of grandmothers giving birth and experiments with cloning.

The church has urged “mature Catholics” to abstain from voting in the referendum, the result of which will be valid only if turnout is more than 50%. Although polls show a majority of Italians opposed to the law, it is not certain if enough will bother to turn out.

For Bellucci, though, the laws are symptomatic of the Italian government’s harsh and restrictive attitude towards women. “In the Islamic world, they put a chador on you to keep you quiet,” she said in a recent interview. “Over here, if you aren’t married with all the proper rubber stamps, they stop you using science to have a child.

“When I travel, people abroad laugh at me when I describe the Italian law to them. It’s a law against women which is worthy of the Inquisition.”

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