Italy passed a law on Wednesday that criminalizes seeking surrogacy abroad, a move the country’s conservative government said would protect women’s dignity, while critics see it as yet another crackdown by the government on L.G.B.T. families, as the law will make it virtually impossible for gay fathers to have children.

The West’s most restrictive law against international surrogacy threatens would-be parents who use birth mothers abroad with jail time and severe fines.

Italy on Wednesday criminalized citizens who go abroad to have children through surrogacy, a measure slammed by opponents as “medieval" and discriminatory to same-sex couples. The measure extending a surrogacy ban in place since 2004 was promoted by Premier Giorgia Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy party and its conservative coalition partner,