Politicians of Fidesz now and then about abortion

Leading politicians of Fidesz have contradicted their former young liberal selves several times already. The most conspicuous difference can be seen in the sentences of Viktor Orbán (PM) and László Kövér (House Speaker) about abortion from the 1990s. 

One of the readers of Index sent an interview to the news portal about Viktor Orbán, László Kövér, and Tamás Deutsch with Reform magazine from13th July 1990, according to 444. Their thoughts about abortion became a hot topic because of the 3rd Demographic Summit of Budapest, where László Kövér stated:

“Those who think that having children is a private issue and oppose the intervention of the state serve the “culture of death.”

He blamed “anti-national communists” and those people who support legal abortion for being responsible for the population decline of Hungary. This is not the first time that the House Speaker announced scandalous statements. However, politicians of Fidesz used to speak in a very different way three decades earlier.

“Those who want to reduce the number of abortions, which was 90,000 this year, to 2-3,000 with the help of lawful tools, are not people but monsters,”

said Viktor Orbán in 1990. “Women do not go have an abortion as a hobby,” László Kövér added.

Photo: MTI/Veres Nándor

“The normal, lawful governmental approach to the issue would not be desirable from the legal but from the social side of public welfare. Laws can be made for free; meanwhile, for a realistic approach, a concept and a lot of money are needed. Converting the abortion debate into a governmental issue would be the same kind of mistake as introducing compulsory religious education at schools of the state with a governmental measure. Not only because of its social concerns that would divide society even further but because it would incite significant tension in people,” said László Kövér in 1990.

The number of abortions drastically fell back in the ’70s and has constantly been decreasing since the change of the system – according to data from KSH (Hungarian Central Statistical Office). 

Source: 444.hu