From Protest to Protection: Transfeminist Practices for the Rights to Health in Italy's Civil Society. Insights from self-managed “Consultorie”

Sexual and reproductive rights are fundamental human rights. From this consideration, the aim is to analyse the feminist response to the welfare crisis and access to the right to health in the Italian context. The international framework provides the regulatory and political context where it is possible to situate the transformations in Italy, highlighting the conflict between state sovereignty and self-determination. Women’s health emerges as a collective political experience which, since the 1970s, has found expression in the creation of spaces of resistance where medical knowledge is being reappropriated through practices such as the "self-help". These instances contributed to significant changes, including the establishment of family health-centers (Consultori), but today this is threatened by the crisis in public welfare and by a structural conscientious objection. This thesis explores contemporary forms of feminist mutualism through qualitative interviews with four self-managed transfeminist “Consultorie”, which reveal the systemic crisis of access to rights and the challenge to the right to self-determination.