LGBTQ activists and legal experts in Italy fear a new law criminalizing international surrogacy could have a chilling effect on the country’s same-sex families and their children. Same-sex couples singled out for criminal investigation. Legal ties between gay parents and their children severed. Italian citizens jailed for a procedure that’s completely legal in other countries, the U.S. included. “We are all in a bit of a shock,” said Yuri Guaiana, an LGBTQ activist and secretary for the Certi Diritti Association, an Italian gay rights organization. “This law feels like a joke, a very sad joke.” Surrogacy was banned in Italy two decades ago. But the new law goes one step further by imposing criminal penalties on Italians who have children through the procedure, even in countries where it’s legal.