Hungary’s right-wing government tightens abortion rules. The executive headed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday evening issued a decree, which will come into force on September 15, which will require doctors to present women who wish to have an abortion “a clearly identifiable indication of signs of fetal life” before proceeding. with the abortion itself. ‘Nearly two-thirds of Hungarians associate the onset of a baby’s life with the first heartbeat’ and modern equipment can detect heartbeats in early pregnancy, which may provide ‘more comprehensive information for women pregnant, ”the Hungarian Interior Ministry reported on Monday. Abortion laws in Hungary are relatively liberal and have remained essentially unchanged since abortion was legalized during the country’s socialist period in 1953.
In Hungary, abortion is currently allowed until the twelfth week of pregnancy is reached, but to be able to undertake the operation a long process of talks is required which according to the associations “has the sole objective of discouraging it”. A practice that had already been criticized by the World Health Organization (WHO). In 2021 Orbàn during the European demographic summit had declared that he wanted to propose a barrier against the demographic crisis that was hitting the continent, in particular Hungary: stop homosexual marriages and abortion. In the last 15 years, therapeutic abortions in Hungary have halved and are now around 26 thousand a year. In these 15 years Orban has been head of the government for 12.