Italian Association for Demographic Education

The Associazione Italiana per l'Educazione Demografica (AIED), known as AIED, is an Italian non-profit association founded on 10 October 1953 by a group of journalists, scientists and intellectuals of diverse political backgrounds but with a common secular and democratic inspiration. It has no commercial or profit-making purpose. Its mission has been to defend fundamental civil rights for women and couples, including contraception, divorce and sex education, and to promote free and responsible parenthood. AIED operates throughout Italy through national bodies (national congress, national council, national president, national executive) and local sections. It has offices in many cities, including Albenga, Ascoli Piceno, Bari, Bergamo, Bolzano, Brescia, Genoa, L'Aquila, La Spezia, Latina, Messina, Mestre, Milan, Naples, Novara, Pisa, Pordenone, Rome, Sassari, Udine and Verona. The Rome section is the oldest and largest, with three clinics and services in more than 20 medical areas such as gynaecology, andrology, obstetrics, dermatology, psychotherapy, infertility and senology. From its foundation, AIED has been engaged in civil battles for Italian society. Among its earliest objectives was the repeal of Article 553 of the Italian Penal Code, which banned the propaganda and use of any contraceptive means and punished it with up to one year of imprisonment. In 1955 it opened Italy's first contraceptive assistance clinic in Rome. In 1954 it joined the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), and in 1955 it represented Italy at the fifth International Conference on Family Planning in Tokyo. In the 1950s and 1960s it received funding from American philanthropist Clarence J. Gamble, which supported its activities in Rome and later in Naples, Vibo Valentia and Palermo. In 1965 AIED was formally expelled from the IPPF. AIED achieved a major legal victory on 10 March 1971, when the Constitutional Court repealed Article 553 as unconstitutional. In 1976 it took legal and political action against the then Minister of Health for non-compliance with Law No. 405 of 22 July 1975, which had established family counselling centres but in practice could not provide contraceptive assistance. This led to the repeal of those norms by ministerial decree in October 1976. In February 1979, together with the feminist collective San Lorenzo of Rome, AIED denounced to the judicial authorities certain contraceptive products that had been promoted as totally safe but were in fact unreliable, causing women to resort to abortion. AIED remains active today, providing sexual and reproductive health services and continuing its advocacy. In September 2026 it commemorated Emma Bonino, recalling her early involvement with AIED in Milan in 1974 and the shared history of civil disobedience for the legalisation of abortion, which was achieved with Law 194 in 1978.

AIED was founded on 10 October 1953 by a group of journalists, scientists and intellectuals of different political backgrounds but with a common secular and democratic inspiration. From its inception, it committed to defending people's rights through major civil battles for Italian society. Among its earliest objectives was the repeal of Article 553 of the Italian Penal Code, which prohibited the propaganda and use of any contraceptive means and punished it with up to one year of imprisonment. In 1955, largely through the activism of psychologist and journalist Luigi De Marchi and Maria Luisa Zardini, AIED opened Italy's first contraceptive assistance clinic in Rome. In 1954, AIED joined the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), an international network founded in 1952 and based in London that brought together organisations committed to family planning. In 1955, the association participated as the Italian representative at the fifth International Conference on Family Planning in Tokyo. In the same period, De Marchi and Zardini established relations with Clarence J. Gamble, an American businessman and philanthropist active in the birth control movement, who from 1955 funded AIED's activities. In 1957 Gamble founded the Pathfinder Fund, through which he continued and expanded his international support for family planning programmes. His funding to AIED, lasting over a decade, initially concerned Rome and later the sections of Naples, Vibo Valentia and Palermo, also supporting the distribution and testing of low-cost contraceptive methods. The collaboration with Gamble inserted AIED into a broader transnational network of organisations engaged in family planning and population control. In this context, AIED members interpreted the situation of the Mezzogiorno especially through the relationship between population growth, poverty and the lack of economic and social modernisation, making the spread of contraception among the popular classes of the South and in urban peripheries one of their main fields of intervention. Between 1962 and 1963, AIED tested in Rome, Palermo and Vibo Valentia a contraceptive method based on a sponge and a saline solution promoted by Gamble, despite doubts about its effectiveness and tolerability expressed by the IPPF. The close relationship with Gamble contributed to growing tensions between the Italian association and the IPPF, which, after a previous suspension, formally expelled AIED from the international federation in 1965. This coincided with the progressive shift of priorities and funding of major international family planning organisations from Europe to the then so-called 'Third World' countries. AIED fought many battles in the front line, until obtaining on 10 March 1971 the repeal by the Constitutional Court of Article 553, recognised as unconstitutional. Despite this, the ban on selling contraceptives in pharmacies continued in Italy, due to the Ministry of Health's application of certain norms of the 'Regulation for the registration of medicines' (Reg. No. 478 of 1927), which did not allow 'the registration of medicinal specialities and medical-surgical aids having contraceptive indications'. In 1976, AIED engaged in a solitary action of legal and political denunciation against the then Minister of Health for non-compliance with Law No. 405 of 22 July 1975, which had established family counselling centres in Italy, which only in theory were intended to provide contraceptive assistance, because in practice they paradoxically could not do so. This led to the repeal of those norms by the Ministry of Health with a decree of October 1976. Finally Italy opened up to the practice of contraception and thus had the possibility of realising the principles of free and responsible parenthood. Intense campaigns were immediately promoted to publicise certain contraceptive products, defined as totally safe, even when such safety was in reality very scarce. The consequences were borne by women, often forced to abort precisely because they had used those products, guaranteed as 'safe contraceptives'. For this reason, in February 1979 AIED denounced to the judicial authorities (together with the feminist collective 'San Lorenzo' of Rome) the [text truncated]. AIED continues to operate today, providing services and advocating for sexual and reproductive health and rights. In September 2026, it commemorated Emma Bonino, recalling her early involvement with AIED in Milan in 1974 and the shared history of civil disobedience for the legalisation of abortion, achieved with Law 194 in 1978.

• AIED founded by a group of journalists, scientists and intellectuals.

• AIED joins the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

• AIED opens Italy's first contraceptive assistance clinic in Rome.

• AIED participates as Italian representative at the fifth International Conference on Family Planning in Tokyo.

• AIED is formally expelled from the IPPF.

• Constitutional Court repeals Article 553 of the Penal Code as unconstitutional.

• Ministry of Health decree repeals norms that prevented contraceptive sales in pharmacies.

• AIED and the feminist collective San Lorenzo denounce unsafe contraceptive products to judicial authorities.

• AIED issues a press release commemorating Emma Bonino.

Non-profit civil rights and family planning association

• Contraceptive assistance clinic

  First opened in Rome in 1955, providing contraceptive advice and services.

• Family counselling centres (consultori)

  AIED operates clinics offering services in over 20 medical areas including gynaecology, andrology, obstetrics, psychotherapy, infertility and senology.

1. 1Aied - Associazione Italiana per l'Educazione Demograficaaied.it
2. 2Associazione italiana per l'educazione demograficait.wikipedia.org
3. 3Associazione italiana per l'educazione demograficawikidata.org