Emma Bonino, Italian Abortion and Divorce Rights Leader, Dies at 78
Bonino led campaigns that helped legalize abortion and divorce in Italy and later served as a European Commissioner in Brussels.
- Emma Bonino, the Italian civil rights advocate and founder of the More Europe party, died on Friday at age 78, her party announced. She had been hospitalized in serious condition on Monday and transferred to a private clinic on Thursday.
- Bonino rose to prominence through the Radical Party, founded by Marco Pannella, by promoting civil disobedience campaigns. In 1974, she traveled to a clandestine clinic in Florence to terminate an unplanned pregnancy, then handed herself to police as a public act of defiance.
- Her arrest fueled a campaign that legalized abortion in Italy in 1978. Appointed to the European Commission in 1994, Bonino became a colorful presence in Brussels, famously being the first woman to wear trousers at Commission meetings.
- Pope Francis made an unusual visit outside the Vatican in November 2024 to visit Bonino at her home following an acute health scare, underscoring her high standing in Italy. The gesture defied Roman Catholic institutional disapproval of her abortion advocacy.
- Bonino founded the More Europe party in 2017 to promote closer European Union integration, continuing her lifelong struggle for civil rights. "I have been fighting for rights all my life, warning people to defend them, because they don't last forever," she told state broadcaster Rai in 2024.
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Emma Bonino, former minister, senator, deputy and activist of the Radicals, died. She was 78 years old. "Emma left us but will never leave us. Today she does not leave us only our leader, she leaves us one of the most lucid, courageous and free protagonists of the political history of our country and the free world," this is the note of the Radicals who announces the death of her leader. "Emma was "chosen by radical politics" when a ban changed …
Firm fighter for the legalization of abortion in her country, she was European Commissioner for Fisheries and received the Prince of Asturias for International Cooperation in 1998
Italian politics Emma Bonino, former minister and former European Commissioner of Health and Consumer Affairs (1995-1999), died this Friday at 78 years in Rome, according to the party...
The Straits Times
Times of IndiaEmma Bonino, Italian politician who fought for abortion access, dies aged 78
ROME, Sept 11 - Emma Bonino's life in politics began with a crime. In 1974, at a time when abortion was illegal in Italy, she travelled to a clandestine clinic in Florence to terminate an unplanned pregnancy. Read more at straitstimes.com.
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