SOME of Italy’s most prominent political couples, including Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister, and his wife, are bitterly divided over a referendum today on whether to relax restrictions on fertility treatment.

Campaigners spearheaded by Monica Bellucci, the actress, are trying to overturn a law passed last year that bans surrogate mothers, the use of donor sperm or eggs and the freezing of embryos.

Their campaign has been opposed by conservative Catholics, led by Pope Benedict XVI, plunging Italy into the most highly charged moral debate since the legalisation of abortion and divorce in the 1970s.

The debate has divided many families, with Berlusconi confiding recently that the issue threatened to “spark a row” with his wife Veronica Lario, a former actress.

“Veronica’s on your side,” Berlusconi recently told “yes” campaigners. He is thought to favour the status quo. Lario, who has three children with Berlusconi, has disclosed she had an abortion 20 years ago, after discovering the baby she was carrying had severe defects.

At the opposite end of the political spectrum, Francesco Rutelli, leader of the centre-left Margherita party, has said he will not vote in the referendum. His wife Barbara Palombelli, a journalist, will vote “yes”.

Stefania Prestigiacomo, the equal opportunities minister and “yes” supporter, has voiced exasperation at what she sees as politicians placing their own interests before women’s health and the right to have a child.

“Italians should follow the wives of political leaders, not their husbands,” Prestigiacomo said. “The men are thinking about the next election and they’re worried about offending the Catholic church.”

The law — which was passed with the support of a cross-party alliance of Catholic politicians — has been defended by the “no” campaign as the only way of regulating a “Wild West” of fertility medicine.

For many, this was exemplified by the activities of Severino Antinori, a doctor who enabled a 62-year-old woman to become a mother.

Critics say the law, which describes the embryo as a “full human being”, has boosted “fertility tourism”, with a threefold rise in the number of infertile Italian couples travelling to consult doctors abroad.

Many “no” campaigners are urging people not to vote as the referendum will be valid only if turnout is more than 50% — which polls suggest is in doubt.

Prestigiacomo has expressed her concern that the referendum might encourage conservatives to campaign for tougher abortion laws. “If freezing a 48- hour-old embryo amounts to taking action against a person, then abortion is murder,” she said.

Her only consolation is that the referendum has not divided her own family. After a “few long talks”, her husband Angelo Bellucci has said he too will vote “yes”.

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