Deputy Premier and Transport and Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini on Tuesday reiterated his opposition to surrogacy, saying it amounts to "buying children," Azernews reports, citing ANSA.

"Parliament must legislate, less room must be left for interpretation: this applies to birth certificates, to the highway code," Salvini told Radio 24.

On gestational surrogacy, "there is the law that will outlaw renting uteruses not only in Italy, as is already the case, but also internationally, and therefore the purchase of children and women's bodies, the mere thought of which is horrible," he said.

"I am for free love in all its forms; as far as I am concerned, children must be adopted and come into the world if there is a mother and a father," added Salvini.

Parliament is currently examining a bill presented by the right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party of Premier Giorgia making gestational surrogacy, which is already illegal in Italy, a universal crime in order to be able to prosecute Italians who resort to using surrogate mothers in countries like Spain and the US where it is legal.

Many gay couples in Italy have had children via surrogacy.

Furthermore, in March the government drew criticism from the opposition and rights activists after it instructed city mayors to stop registering both members of a same-sex couple as the parents of a child via a procedure based on the transcription into Italian civic registers of the foreign birth certificates of children conceived via surrogacy or assisted fertility, which is only available to heterosexual couples in Italy, citing a ruling by the Court of Cassation, Italy's highest court.

This has led to concern that same-sex parent families will face multiple practical and legal problems, with only the member of the couple who is the biological parent of the child registered as its legal parent.