BREAKING: Pope Francis makes personal visit to notorious abortionist Emma Bonino

VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis made a private visit to notorious Italian abortionist Emma Bonino today after she was recently discharged from hospital following breathing problems.

Late Tuesday morning, Pope Francis made an unannounced visit to Bonino at her residence in Rome. Francis had left the Vatican to be present at the Pontifical Gregorian University for a series of public meetings with the university community earlier in the morning.

Shortly after then, his cavalcade made the short drive through the historic center to Bonino’s home. According to La Repubblica – an Italian daily with left-leaning communist origins – Francis told reporters outside that Bonino was “very well,” when asked about her health. Bonino had been hospitalized in intensive care earlier in October after experiencing breathing difficulties.

Francis commented that the visit was a “cordial” one.

JUST IN: #PopeFrancis visited radical abortionist/politician Emma Bonino at home today, reports @repubblica.

Bonino was recently discharged from hospital after having breathing problems.

She was a key lobbyist to legalize abortion in Italy & Francis has often praised her. pic.twitter.com/jGq73KV58c

— Michael Haynes 🇻🇦 (@MLJHaynes) November 5, 2024

Bonino is widely acknowledged as one of the key lobbyists and leading voices who brought about the legalization of abortion in Italy. Notwithstanding this, Francis has repeatedly praised her during his pontificate, most recently saying in 2022 that he has “great respect for her,” though adding he did not “share her ideas.”

Bonino – who has publicly supported Kamala Harris in the 2024 U.S. election – had an illegal abortion when she was 27 years old, and after spending four months abroad evading arrest, returned to Italy where she served a 10-day prison term. Bonino credited her arrest with causing the topic of abortion to take center stage in Italy.

She subsequently became a heroine in the eyes of the left-wing media, and notorious for performing abortions with a homemade device, operated by a bicycle pump. She founded the Information Centre on Sterilization and Abortion (CISA) in 1975, which lobbied to promote abortion in Italy prior to its legalization in 1978. 

As such, she was described in 2017 as being at least partially responsible for over 6 million abortions since 1978, and has personally boasted that she and her group committed 10,141 illegal abortions. 

Bonino is a career politician, having been a member of the European Parliament. She spent many terms in the Italian Chamber of Deputies and was appointed as Italy’s foreign minister in 2013. 

Francis first praised her in February 2016 in an interview with the Italian daily Corriere Della Serra. He described the notorious abortion advocate as one of the nation’s “forgotten greats,” comparing her with great historical figures such as Konrad Adenauer and Robert Schuman.

Acknowledging her differing views, Francis said, “true, but never mind. We have to look at people, at what they do.”

Some months later in November 2016, Francis then received Bonino in a private audience, in her capacity as minister of Foreign Affairs. According to the Holy See Press Office at the time, the meeting was “mostly on the topics of the influx of migrants, of welcoming migrants, and their integration.”

July 2017 saw Bonino speak in a Catholic church in northern Italy, following praise from Pope Francis, while pro-life advocates were ejected from the church due to their protests at her presence.

Yet the history of Pope Francis and Bonino goes further back than 2016. As foreign minister, Bonino, along with President Georgio Napolitano and his key ministers, were granted an audience with Francis on June 8, 2013, only two months after he ascended to the papacy.

READ: Pope claims he speaks out often against abortion, his actions suggest otherwise

In April 2014, Bonino called Pope Francis to help end the hunger strike of Radical Party leader Marco Pannella. The Pope made the call and promised to join Pannella in his bid to better conditions in Italian prisons.

In May 2015, the Vatican Insider reported that Pope Francis personally invited Bonino to an audience in the Paul VI Hall, within the Vatican City state.

Indeed, in a now-archived 2018 report in The Guardian, Bonino described a regular and close relationship with Pope Francis, with The Guardian calling Francis an “ally” for Bonino. According to that report: “The two, she says with a grin, are in touch. ‘We have some connections, so we pass messages quite often, through friends.’”

Following the 2023 overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court, Bonino argued that the ruling “makes the USA jump back 50 years.” “The Supreme Court ruling that after 50 years cancels the right to abortion in the USA is a strong reminder also for us, women and men in Italy and in Europe: on rights you can never stand still, if you do not go forward you risk going back,” she said.