Arguably nowhere was the fight over abortion bigger than in Italy. The regional prominence of the Catholic Church, with its traditional attitudes towards contraception, meant most Italian women knew little about it. Ironically, abortion was the most common method form of birth control. Contemporary reports estimated the number of women who aborted their pregnancies from in the one to three million per year range; many of them going through the procedure for multiple pregnancies. Widely published accounts said the number of deaths resulting from these procedures was around 20,000. By the 1970s, enough support gathered in the population for legalization of abortion, and the process began.

On this day, January 21, in 1977, the Italian parliament passed a bill legalizing abortion. The decision came on the heels of an Italian court’s allowance of abortions in cases where the baby’s or the mother’s life were threatened. The bill marked the first Italian legislative allowance of abortion, but it was defeated in the second house.

The final passage for the enactment of the bill allowing abortions in Italy came in 1978. Surprisingly, it was one of the most progressive abortion laws in Europe: any Italian woman had 90 days from the start of her pregnancy to request an abortion for virtually any reason (technically, for reasons of health, economic, social, or family). The procedure, once approved, would be carried out free of charge by a state-commissioned physician.