Dozens of Hungarian women travel to Austria for abortions every week, amid tightening laws

Abortions are legal in Hungary but humiliating treatment and waiting lists prompt women to terminate their pregnancies outside of the country, women and experts told Euronews. Their main destination is Austria.

By Lili Rutai
16/08/2023

“I was sure I didn’t want to go through this procedure in Hungary,” Adri, 32, who asked to be identified only by her first name, says. She lives in an agglomeration of Budapest, works as a life coach and raises her son alone. She got pregnant again, two years ago, and decided to get an abortion.

Surgical abortions are legal until the 12th week in Hungary but women are required to attend two mandatory meetings with a state service. The first one is to inform them of other opportunities, including adoption, Réka Lebedi, a lawyer at Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ), a human rights NGO, explained. The second’s purpose is to inform them of the dangers of the surgery.

Continued: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2023/08/16/dozens-of-hungarian-women-travel-to-austria-for-abortions-every-week-amid-tightening-laws

Refugees return to Ukraine due to reproductive, sexual challenges

By Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | EURACTIV.pl
May 16, 2023

Ukrainian refugees are temporarily returning home to receive sexual and reproductive healthcare after finding their options limited in Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, while others seek illegal solutions, according to a study published by the Centre for Reproductive Rights.

A study published on Tuesday, the work of nine international human rights organisations documents the alarming impact that restrictive national laws have on refugees seeking essential care and support.

Continued: https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/refugees-return-to-ukraine-due-to-reproductive-sexual-challenges/

There’s a new surveillance state – and women are the target

Period tracking apps, car licence plate data and pregnancy registers are the latest tools experts warn are being harnessed to monitor women

By Harriet Barber, GLOBAL HEALTH REPORTER
7 October 2022

Surveillance data and technology are being exploited to stoke fear and prevent abortions in countries including the United States, China, Hungary and Poland.

Period tracking apps, car licence plate data and pregnancy registers are the latest tools activists warn are being harnessed to stop women using legal or geographic loopholes for terminations. All four countries have reversed abortion rights over the past two years.

Continued: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/new-abortion-surveillance-state-keeping-tabs-women/

Hungarians protest change in abortion rules

September 28, 2022

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - More than 1,000 Hungarians protested on Wednesday against a change in abortion rules that took effect on Sept. 15, which women's rights groups say would "humiliate" and torment women while having no effect on the number of abortions.

Under the rules amended by Conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government, pregnant women must submit evidence from their healthcare provider of a definitive sign of life, widely interpreted as the heartbeat of a foetus, before requesting the procedure.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/hungarians-protest-change-abortion-rules-2022-09-28/

28.09.2022

Hungarian women dismayed at ‘tormenting’ abortion reform

By Krisztina Fenyo, Reuters
September 15, 2022

BUDAPEST - Hungarian women voiced dismay as an amendment to abortion rules took effect on Thursday in what some see as a first step towards a tightening of access to the procedure under a deeply conservative government.

Interior Minister Sandor Pinter submitted an amendment to abortion rules this week requiring pregnant women to submit evidence from their healthcare provider of a definitive sign of life, widely interpreted as the heartbeat of a foetus, before requesting the procedure.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/hungarian-women-dismayed-tormenting-abortion-reform-2022-09-15/

15.09.2022

Hungary tightens abortion access with listen to ‘foetal heartbeat’ rule

Fears move will pave way for more restrictions in country where terminations are widely accepted

Weronika Strzyżyńska
Tue 13 Sep 2022

Hungarian women seeking an abortion will be obliged to “listen to the foetal heartbeat” before they can access the procedure, according to a new decree issued by the government of the far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán.

The new regulation is due to come into force on Thursday.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/sep/13/hungary-tightens-abortion-access-with-listen-to-foetal-heartbeat-rule

13.09.2022

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Activists Fear Abortion at Risk in Hungary From Orban’s Family-First Crusade

Reproductive rights are in the sights of Fidesz as the government ramps up its conservative rhetoric, drawing parallels with Poland’s latest attempt to limit abortion.

Edward Szekeres, Budapest BIRN
November 19, 2020

In late October, the rights of Hungarian women were suddenly in the spotlight when the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban co-sponsored an anti-abortion declaration drenched in ‘pro-family’ language and conservative purple prose. Dubbed the Geneva Consensus Declaration, the thrust of the two-page document was a non-binding yet clear denial of the international right to abortion under the guise of promoting women’s health, observers pointed out.

The sponsoring of the declaration comes amid a string of constitutional
changes that is smothering Hungary in a blanket of traditionalist and
conservative ideology, keeping local women’s rights activists on their toes as
concerns grow over the intentions of the ruling Fidesz party and its official
coalition partner, the Christian Democratic People’s Party, towards the
country’s abortion laws.

Continued; https://balkaninsight.com/2020/11/19/activists-fear-abortion-at-risk-in-hungary-from-orbans-family-first-crusade/

The Guardian view on demography and politics: nationalist narratives must be challenged

The Guardian view on demography and politics: nationalist narratives must be challenged
Women’s autonomy and reproductive rights must be upheld as far-right ideas gain ground

Fri 6 Sep 2019
Guardian Editorial

The speech on Thursday by Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister, praising the fertility of Hungarian women as a bulwark of Europe’s survival appealed to dangerous and atavistic myths. That isn’t a reason to ignore it. In fact it needs meeting head-on, for it marks a further irruption into mainstream politics across the rich world of “replacement theory”: the belief that the nature of Europe is threatened by demographic change. This fear has become central to politics in the United States and Australia, as well as many European countries, whether or not they have large immigrant populations themselves. It was one of the drivers of the result of the Brexit referendum, in which hostility towards European immigrants served as a cover for wider xenophobias.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/06/the-guardian-view-on-demography-and-politics-nationalist-narratives-must-be-challenged

06.09.2019

HUNGARY – Birthrate, family and country: Viktor Orban wants women back in the home

by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
Apr 30, 2019

When it comes to power, what does the far right do to women? In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s racist, nationalist, extremist discourse goes hand in hand with the desire to keep women pregnant. In Poland, where the ultra-conservative Law and Justice party has been in power since 2015, the government is tirelessly trying, with the support of the Catholic Church, to prevent women from having access to abortion and contraception. “In these two countries, the role of women as individuals is slowly disappearing from public policies and being replaced by ‘the family’,” warns Andrea Pető, professor at the Central European University of Budapest.

“The Hungarian government is using two topics to campaign: its anti-immigration stance and the family,” says Dóra Papp, an activist and director of the petitions platform of aHang (The Voice). Last year, the government declared that 2018 would be the “year of families”.

Continued: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/hungary-birthrate-family-and-country-viktor-orban-wants-women-back-in-the-home/

US left isolated at UN over stance on abortion and refugees

US left isolated at UN over stance on abortion and refugees
Only Hungary backed the United States and voted against an annual resolution on the work of the UN refugee agency

Reuters at the United Nations
Mon 17 Dec 2018

The United States has found itself isolated at the 193-member United Nations general assembly over Washington’s concerns about the promotion of abortion and a voluntary plan to address the global refugee crisis.

Only Hungary backed the United States and voted against an annual resolution on the work of the UN refugee agency, while 181 countries voted in favor and three abstained. The resolution has generally been approved by consensus for more than 60 years.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/17/us-united-nations-isolated-abortion-refugees

17.12.2018