Hungary Has a New Heartbeat Rule
Postliberal Order talks with Miklós Szánthó about Hungary’s efforts to protect fetal life
Miklós Szánthó is the director of the Center for Fundamental Rights, a conservative research center and think tank in Budapest. Earlier this year, the Center hosted the first “CPAC Hungary” event, drawing conservative thinkers from Europe and the United States. Postliberal Order’s Gladden Pappin caught up with him to talk about Hungary’s new regulation on abortion.
Gladden Pappin: The Hungarian government recently issued a new regulation to the law concerning abortion, causing Western media to react hysterically. What is the change in the law? Why was it made?
Miklós Szánthó: The current Hungarian regulation concerning the protection of the life of the fetus was laid down in the 1990s and reviewed by the Constitutional Court several times, and can be characterized as relatively unrestrictive by European standards. The Hungarian Constitution adopted in 2011, however, underlines that “the life of the fetus shall be protected from the moment of conception.” In the current interpretation, this means that it is the duty of the Hungarian state to protect fetal life, by providing medical and social protection to the pregnant mother and the fetus.
“Let’s Protect the Children!” reads a poster prior to Hungary’s child protection referendum.
It is important to note that the national law governing abortions was not changed. Act LXXIX of 1992 on the protection of fetal life allows abortions in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy for women who describe it as causing a “personal crisis,” and in the case of rape. Abortion in this period is also permissible for less severe health reasons. A pregnancy may be terminated at any point if it threatens the life of the mother, or if the fetus develops a medical condition incompatible with life post-birth. An amendment concerning fetal viability has been issued to an already existing ministerial decree issued by the Minister of Welfare in 1992 to facilitate the execution of Act LXXIX of 1992 on the protection of fetal life. The long-standing decree addresses various technical requirements, the tasks of health care institutions, administrative and bureaucratic issues. It includes the questionnaire I refer to in the next sentence.
The most recent amendment by the interior minister, Sándor Pintér, adds a line to the questionnaire that pregnant women need to fill out before this tragic procedure can proceed. [The official text is here. —Eds.] It requires that women will have to receive a medical evaluation that demonstrates the viability of the baby. This includes evidence of a fetal heartbeat—but the heartbeat standard is merely one of several medical findings that demonstrate viability, not the sole one.
GJP: Amnesty International called this new rule “a worrying step backwards.” How does Hungary deal with the lobbying efforts of foreign NGOs like Amnesty International and Planned Parenthood, which use Brussels and the UN to achieve goals contrary to the goods of countries? How can leaders protect their people against these large, well-funded movements that threaten the person and the family?
Miklós Szánthó: In general, liberal groups that aim to influence and shape policy decisions have, over many decades, and with great wealth, built up a highly efficient global network. They use various tools to manipulate international organizations and, in the case of national governments like Hungary, they use outright coercion to achieve goals quite different from our own. It’s now commonplace to observe this nexus of loosely allied, dynamic networks that cooperate instinctively around issues that they care about, by launching simultaneous influence campaigns in the global and national press, in international organizations, through special interest groups, on the internet and even in the courtroom. This is not a conspiracy theory, this is an observable conspiracy in practice, and it threatens the cornerstone of a democratic society: popular legitimacy.