Has Power Moderated Italy’s Leader? Not to Same-Sex Parents.

While their curly-haired rescue dog napped on the floor, an Italian couple logged on to a late-night video call with their American surrogate, sunbathing in her garden in Oregon. The fathers-to-be cooed as she told them she was playing fairy tales close to her belly that they had recorded for their future daughter. “And she is kicking!” she said.

But the men, both civil servants, said they had not dared to share their excitement with almost anyone around them. They did not talk about the pregnancy with many friends, colleagues or neighbors or post about it on social media. They asked to remain anonymous for this article.

They have reason for caution. Surrogacy is already illegal if conducted in Italy. But the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wants to expand the prohibition. It has promoted a bill that would also punish Italians who make use of surrogacy even in places abroad where it is legal, like in parts of the United States. Those Italians who do could face up to two years in prison and be fined the equivalent of about a million dollars.

Italy’s lower chamber of Parliament approved the bill last summer, and the Senate’s justice committee greenlighted it last month. The Senate is expected to vote on it as soon as the fall.

On the international stage, Ms. Meloni has presented herself as a pragmatic partner for mainstream European leaders and aligned herself with Western democracies on the issues that matter to them, like support of Ukraine.

But at home, Ms. Meloni has asserted her conservative credentials on cultural issues such as abortion, gender, gay rights and surrogacy.