A bill, passed on Wednesday, extends a ban that forbids surrogacy within Italy to include those who travel to countries such as the United States or Canada where the practice is legal.

Those who break the law could face prison sentences of up to two years and fines of up to €1m (£836,000).

The proposed law was first brought about by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy party and seeks to promote what she believes are traditional family values.

However, critics have argued it makes it progressively harder for LGBTQ couples to become legal parents.

In a protest on Tuesday ahead of the vote in Italy's parliament, demonstrators said the government was lashing out at LGBTQ people and damaging those who wanted to have children, despite a sharply declining birth rate in Italy.

"If someone has a baby, they should be given a medal. Here instead you are sent to jail... if you don't have children in the traditional way," Franco Grillini, an activist for LGBTQ rights in Italy, told the Reuters news agency.

"This is a monstrous law. No country in the world has such a thing."

The bill passed through the upper house of the senate by 84 votes to 58. It was approved by the lower house last year.

During the debate, Brothers of Italy senator Lavinia Mennuni said the party wanted to "uproot" the phenomenon of "surrogacy tourism".

"Motherhood is absolutely unique, it absolutely cannot be surrogated, and it is the foundation of our civilisation," she said.

President of the charity Rainbow Families Alessia Crocini said 90% of Italians who choose surrogacy are heterosexual couples, but they mostly do so in secret, meaning the new ban would, by de facto, affect only gay couples.

Back in April, Ms Meloni called surrogacy an "inhuman" practice when speaking at an event in Rome. She said the process treated children as supermarket products, echoing a position expressed by the Catholic Church.

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When vying to become Italy's first female prime minister, Ms Meloni promised "family-friendly policies" and, much to the anger of the LGBTQ community, lauds the priority of a child being brought up by a mother and father - she also opposes fostering by same-sex couples.

The clampdown on surrogacy coincides with a backdrop of falling birthrates in Italy. National statistics institute ISTAT published in March that births had dropped to a record low in 2023 - the 15th consecutive annual decline.