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The right to abortion was the forerunner of a new idea of liberty, the liberty from gender roles which 'naturalize' oppressive social constructs. In Italy, in the Seventies of the 20th Century, some feminist opinions objected, in the name of female liberty, to the battle for the right to abortion and against gender roles. This, they argued, could cost women to disclaim their sex as a resource for self-identification and social change. Actually, forty years after its legalisation, abortion remains controversial, nor tells it much about female liberty. As a matter of fact, it did not create a principle of liberty in reproductive choices, and it is regarded as an unwanted and embarassing relative by supporters of LGTB's rights. Does this reveal that there is something flawed in the idea of freedom on which the right to abortion is built? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]