Shouting match in Hungarian Parliament over ‘heartbeat’ abortion decree

BUDAPEST – A fierce parliamentary debate has erupted in Hungary over the future of the controversial “heartbeat decree,” which obliges women seeking an abortion to first listen to the fetal heartbeat.

The decree was introduced by Viktor Orbán’s administration in September 2022. It has now become a battleground between the newly elected Péter Magyar government and the newly formed conservative opposition.

Abortion has been legal in Hungary since 1953, and the new government is widely expected to repeal the 2022 restrictions. While the right wing praised the rule, liberals condemned it as psychological torture. Statistically, the measure had a limited impact, with the number of abortions in Hungary falling from around 21.800 in 2022 to 20.300 in 2024.

The issue returned to the forefront during a parliamentary session when Zsuzsa Máthé, an MP for the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP), questioned the new Health Minister, Zsolt Hegedűs.

Hegedűs – who became famous for his dance celebrating the win of Magyar’s Tisza party – previously commented that the decree had “raped the medical profession,” and demanded to know if “fetuses would still be allowed to send messages with their heartbeats.”

After being challenged by Máthé over these statements, Hegedűs, a surgeon and practising Christian, strongly defended his stance. He argued that while he is personally committed to protecting human life from conception, the decree that was pushed through by the party alliance Fidesz-KDNP was “unprofessional, unethical, and heartless.”

Hegedűs cited the Hungarian Professional College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, which had explicitly stated the decree was a purely political decision made without scientific justification.

“A decree built on lies cannot save lives,” Hegedűs said, adding that true abortion reduction requires professional autonomy, social consensus, and actual support for women in crisis, rather than forced medical protocols.

The exchange quickly deteriorated into a shouting match. After Előd Novák, an MP for the far-right Mi Hazánk party, yelled “pharisee” at the minister, Hegedűs gestured airily and shouted back. He then entered a heated, un-miked dispute with KDNP faction leader Bence Rétvári, stating he had entered parliament precisely to fight the former ruling coalition.

Following the clash, a 2007 video resurfaced online showing Hegedűs’s father, the late Reformed Bishop Lóránt Hegedűs, passionately campaigning against abortion.

European Union institutions, led by the European Parliament, heavily condemned the 2022 Hungarian restriction as a veiled attack on women’s self-determination.

The Hungarian restrictions, alongside past Polish bans, heavily influenced the European Parliament’s landmark April 2024 resolution calling for the right to safe and legal abortion to be added to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

(bms, cs)