Hungary on Thursday said it would ease abortion rules and ratify an international treaty on violence against women.
Under the planned changes to the so-called "heartbeat regulation," women will no longer be forced to listen to the vital signs of the fetus before an abortion.
Women will also be able to get emergency contraceptive pills without prescription.
The changes proposed by the new government under Prime Minister Peter Magyar are a significant break with the conservative policies of his predecessor Viktor Orban.
The country also plans to ratify the Istanbul Convention, a treaty aimed at preventing violence against women and domestic violence.
Hungarian law allows for most abortions to be performed up to 12 weeks, and up to 24 weeks in cases of severe developmental abnormalities. Until now, women were required to have a medical provider show them evidence of a definitive sign of fetal life, commonly understood as the so-called "fetal heartbeat," before deciding whether to have an abortion.
The controversial 2022 policy had received widespread criticism from doctors and women’s rights groups as being cruel and humiliating. It will now now be scrapped.
The policy had not led to a decline in abortions and according to Magyar, had raised "serious bioethical questions."
The second major change is that emergency contraception will be available without prescription.
