📰 Newspapers

Hungary eases abortion rules as Peter Magyar announces wave of women’s rights reforms

Hungary eases abortion rules as Peter Magyar announces wave of women’s rights reforms

The measures also include stronger protections for victims of abuse

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar said on Thursday that the government will ease access to emergency contraception and roll back a controversial abortion rule as part of a series of women's rights reforms.

Marking a sharp break with the policies of former premier Viktor Orban, the measures also include stronger protections for victims of abuse and ratification of an international treaty on violence against women.

Prime Minister Magyar said in a Facebook video: “We are proposing a comprehensive package of measures to curb all forms of violence against women, for the safety and dignity of Hungarian women.”

It comes after Mr Magyar claimed a historic victory in Hungary’s elections back in April, ousting Trump and Putin ally Mr Orban after 16 years in power.

Pollsters predicted a record voter turnout, with Hungarian television showing long queues ⁠outside some voting stations in Budapest.

Mr Magyar said ratifying the Istanbul Convention would be a "long overdue debt" of the Hungarian state.

The treaty, drawn up in 2014, is designed to prevent violence against women and domestic violence. Signatories are required to criminalise rape based on the absence of consent.

Mr Magyar said the government would amend the criminal code to strengthen protections for women…

In brief

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Prime Minister Magyar said in a Facebook video: “We are proposing a comprehensive package of measures to curb all forms of violence against women, for the safety and dignity of Hungarian women. The treaty, drawn up in 2014, is designed to prevent violence against women and domestic violence. Mr Magyar said the government would amend the criminal code to strengthen protections for women…

This is the opening of the story, shared with credit to The Independent — World. The rest of the report — with every detail — continues on the publisher’s website.

Continue reading at The Independent — World ↗

Cookie settings

Choose which cookies we may use. You can change this at any time from Cookie settings in the footer. Details of each cookie are in the Cookie Policy.

Strictly necessary

Needed for sign-in, security, payments and remembering these choices. Always on.

Preferences

Remember settings such as dark mode.

Analytics & performance

Help us count visits, understand which pages, devices and countries our readers use, and measure how well the site performs – anonymous and aggregated.

Advertising & marketing

Lets advertising partners show and personalise adverts, measure impressions, clicks and visits, prevent ad fraud and pay us – this is how the free site is funded.

🔔 News notifications

Get headlines from NewsHub on this device — even when the site is closed.

You can switch this off at any time. Works on Android, Windows, Mac and Linux browsers; on iPhone/iPad add the site to your Home Screen first.