After the dissolution of the DC, she joined the centre-left-leaning Italian People's Party (PPI) in 1994 and Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (DL) in 2002.

Elected a Chamber of Deputies in 1994, after a total of six legislatures, she did not run for re-election in 2018 and left the PD, ending her political career.

[7] From 1984 to 1989, Bindi held the position of vice-president of Azione Cattolica, the most popular Italian Catholic lay association, with which she continues to be active.

[3] Following the coalition's victory in the 1996 Italian general election, Bindi was named Minister of Health, a position she held in the governments led by Massimo D'Alema.

During her tenure at the Ministry of Health, through Bindi's circolare of 2 December 1996,[nb 1] electroshock therapy (ECT) was re-introduced in Italy to treat psychiatrized patients.

[9] In addition to the restrictions on ECT, other reforms included the definitive closure of psychiatric hospitals, the bills on the rights and duties of cohabitations, which brought criticism from Catholics because too radical and from LGBT people because too moderate, and on equality between natural and legitimate children.

[9] Under Bindi, the Ministry of Health contributed to the rewriting of Title V of the Constitution of Italy with the redefinition of the relationship between state and territory in the healthcare sector.

[16] She continued to work for the party, leading the Democrats Really faction,[17] until the 2018 Italian general election, when she did not seek re-election,[18] and ended her political career.

[22][23] In the 2013 PD leadership election that ensued after Bersani resigned due to Prodi's failed candidacy, she did not endorse neither eventual winner Matteo Renzi nor Gianni Cuperlo, who succeeded her as the party's president; she said that she did not recognize herself in neither candidate.

[35][36][37] In April 2017, the Antimafia Commission headed by Bindi invited the Guardia di Finanza to seize and make public the lists of 35,000 members of the four main Italian Masonic obediences.

[51] Although Juventus was the only club investigated by sports justice, the Antimafia Commission report also cited Catania, Genoa, Lazio, and Napoli, and concluded that "the largely criminal background of the representatives of organized groups is the ideal humus to allow the infiltration of mafia-type organized crime" and that these cases "paint a varied picture".

Bindi commented: "Football, as a body, is not healthy enough to consider itself immune from mafias, it is a world rich in money and the possibility of creating consensus.

"[52][nb 4] Bindi's post-retirement activities included reports on mafia and information and on confiscated assets, the legislative proposals on the anti-mafia code and on witnesses of justice, the diffusion of the first list of the unpresentable in 2015, the seizure of the lists of Masonic lodges, the contribution to the working group on excommunication of mafias established in the Vatican, and the publication of some books, including La salute impaziente, Famiglia, Cattolica e democratica, and Quel che è di Cesare.

[2] In 2020, Bindi joined the scientific committee of lavialibera, a bimonthly information and in-depth magazine on mafias, corruption, the environment, and migration directed by Luigi Ciotti.

Europe has lost its social function and the ability to guide the rules of the market and the liberal right has imposed its development model, with the capitalism of shareholders and profit.

"[54] On the issue of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Bindi took a classic Italian Catholic pacifist view, saying: "Now the war is inside Europe, is the EU aware that it is the force of politics and not of weapons that can end it?

"[54] On the Middle East and the 2023 escalation of the Israeli–Palestine conflict, she stated: "It's humiliating to see European leaders going to Tel Aviv to say different things.

"[54] In April 2024, ahead of the 2024 European Parliament election in Italy, Bindi defended the PD candidates, such as Marco Tarquinio and Cecilia Strada, who held different views from the party on issues like Ukraine and war, saying that voters shared Tarquinio and Strada's views more than the party's leaders.

I always say that I am a woman of the left but I have never been a communist, however in my small way with my political militancy, from the DC to the PD, I believe I have contributed to ensuring that communism, which was present in the life of our country, was a factor integral part of Italian democracy.

"[56] She further explained to Sangiuliano that while the Constitution of Italy recognizes private property and profit as legitimate, it attributes a social purpose to them.

[1][2][3] Controversy ensued in 2006 after the then National Alliance senator Maurizio Saia implied that Bindi was a lesbian and thus was not suitable to be Minister for Family Policies.