The 70 years of AIED, all the battles for civil rights

70 years have passed since a group of journalists, scientists and men of culture met to support the repeal of article 553 of the Penal Code, a legacy of fascist legislation, which prohibited the use and propaganda of contraceptive means, under penalty of year of imprisonment. It was born in those days theAiedthe historic Italian Association for Demographic Educationseven decades during which AIED took Italy by the hand, guiding it on the path of cultural and social evolution.
It all began, towards the end of the 1960s, with the publication of by Sugar Inhuman livesthe investigative book by Maria Luisa Zardini De Marchi with the news and the budget of the AIED intervention in the suburbs of the capital. Through the voices of 41 women, the tragedy of the legal and moral prohibitions on sexual information and the use of contraceptives unfolded: if the home care provided by AIED had been extended to the whole country, the author argued, it would have been possible «reduce the million abortions performed every year in Italy to one hundred thousand». A prediction which was then promptly confirmed with the approval of law 194. In the meantime, the decade of the formidable seventies had begun, with the reforms that became the cornerstone of civil rights: 1970 law on divorce; 1971 repeal of article 553 of the Criminal Code; 1974 referendum to repeal the divorce law (divorce confirmed); 1975 family law reform; 1975 law establishing public family counseling centres; 1975 vote for eighteen year olds; 1978 law 194 legalization of abortion; 1981 referendum to repeal abortion (confirmation of the law).

Today Aied is a help desk open to all Italians, with its 19 offices spread across the peninsula, including the islands: from Rome to Milan from Pisa to Bergamo, Naples, Sassari, Messina, and then La Spezia, Genoa, L’Aquila , Ascoli Piceno, Mestre, Albenga, Bolzano, Mestre, Novara, Pordenone, Udine and Verona. A daily reference for citizens, who can request medical and psychotherapeutic advice, have access to checks and prevention in many areas such as gynecology, andrology, obstetrics, diagnostics, infertility, breast care, vulvar pathology, urology, psychotherapy.
To celebrate its 70 years, Aied organized a Forum in Rome on Friday 17 November: an opportunity to retrace a broad history of social evolution in Italy between political and cultural transformations. The appointment is at 9.30 in the Chapter Room of the Cloister of the Convent of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva for a broad reflection on “Sexuality, rights, demography”.