Emma Bonino's 1975 Self-Arrest at a Bra Polling Station to Challenge Italy's Abortion Ban

On June 15, 1975, at the age of 27, Emma Bonino cast her vote at a polling station in Bra, Cuneo, and announced her intention to surrender under an arrest warrant. Subsequently, she was taken into custody and transferred to prisons in Cuneo and Florence. Under Italy's Rocco Code, abortion was criminalized, with harsh penalties for both the act and any encouragement of it. Bonino's surrender was part of a Radical and feminist strategy of public self-denunciation. In late 1973, she co-founded CISA, which established a clinic in Florence. Following a police raid on January 9, 1975, that led to the arrest of gynaecologist Giorgio Conciani, Bonino became a wanted figure after Faccio's arrest on January 26, 1975. After her release on provisional terms, she was elected to the Chamber in 1976. Law 194, which allowed voluntary termination of pregnancy, was enacted in 1978.