Italy Blocks Reproductive Health Websites Women on Web and Women Help Women
Our analysis of OONI data reveals that at least six major Italian ISPs, including Fastweb and Vodafone Italia, began blocking access to Women on Web and Women Help Women in mid-February 2026. Using DNS tampering and redirection techniques, these networks restrict access to critical reproductive healthcare information, exacerbating existing barriers caused by conscientious objection and legal delays within the country.
Many come to us because they have no other choice, but over the years we’ve noticed that more and more women simply want to have a peaceful abortion at home, via telemedicine, which is also the direction recommended by the World Health Organization.
- eur0pa
Abortion is legal in this country, and any woman can go to the hospital (as in the ER), or at a consultorio familiare to initiate the process. Both options are free of charge and free of judgement, especially the latter. As to why these two websites were rendered inaccessible it beats me, as there are many other local alternatives one may peruse, and they're all accessible. Hell, even the Italian Government Website has resources[1][2]!
[1] https://www.salute.gov.it/new/it/tema/salute-della-donna/
[2] https://www.salute.gov.it/new/it/tema/salute-della-donna/int...
- altern8
I couldn't find a lot of information, but abortion is a right in Italy.
Women seeking terminations in the first 90 days of pregnancy are protected under law 194.
From what I got, these organizations illegally sent women abortion pills.
At least when I was young and still living in Italy, you could walk into a hospital and they'd give you abortion pills or day after pills for free.
I guess it has to be a hospital/doctor and not a random website?
Not sure.
- petcat
It's bizarre to me that countries in Europe can just compel their ISPs to block websites completely without any judicial review. That kind of thing would run afoul of all kinds of first amendment litigation in the US. The FBI will occasionally seize a domain, but only after a court order.
- khalic
What’s this fixation of far-right populists on genitals and reproduction? It’s really disturbing
- arlattimore
If other websites exist about this topic, why are these two specifically being censored and by who? If abortion is legal (within a set of guidelines), what laws exist that these sites are breaking or close to breaking that might lead them to be censored?
- pstuart
This is obviously a contentious issue, but it's important to understand why.
Catholics are "pro birth" in general, but it really doesn't have much in scripture to support it; there is of course the "Quiverfull" movement which aims for each birth to be "an arrow in the quiver of God's army"
So for all of that, it's clearly a religious viewpoint and that raises serious 1A questions.
A question I've never seen addressed by those who hew to this belief system:
Apparently roughly 1 in 4 pregnancies end in miscarriage, which is (using the belief system above), God is performing an abortion. How does that reconcile with that stance.
My personal take is simple: "every baby should be a wanted baby"
The politics of it started half a century ago, and the politicizing of abortion was very much intentional:
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/04/1096154028/the-movement-again...
It's important to have discussions based on logic and facts, rather than emotion. It will be interesting to see how that plays out here.