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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 who led campaigns legalizing abortion in Roman Catholic Italy, died on Friday at age 78, her party More Europe announced.
  • Bonino rose to prominence through the Radical Party, founded by Marco Pannella, by promoting civil disobedience; she turned her clandestine abortion into a public act of defiance, fueling the legalization of abortion in Italy in 1978.
  • Appointed to the European Commission in 1994, Bonino defied norms as a colorful presence in Brussels, becoming the first woman to wear trousers at Commission meetings. She rejected gender categorization, stating, "I do not want and I do not think that we women are a category."
  • Following an acute health scare in November 2024, Pope Francis made an unusual visit outside the Vatican to Bonino's home, reflecting her high standing despite her abortion advocacy in Roman Catholic Italy.
  • Bonino founded More Europe in 2017 to promote European integration, continuing her lifelong struggle for rights. "I have been fighting for rights all my life, warning people to defend them, because they don't last forever," she told Rai in 2024.
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Lean Right

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 …

·Rome, Italy
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Lean Left

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

·Madrid, Spain
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Lean Right

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...

·Madrid, Spain
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Winnipeg Free Press broke the news in Winnipeg, Canada on Friday, September 11, 2026.
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