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DK DEMANDS EXPLANATION FOR NEW ABORTION RULES

 

The opposition Democratic Coalition has called on the government to explain why it had tightened abortion rules. Judit Földi Ráczné, a party board member, told an online press briefing that Interior Minister Sándor Pintér, “inspired by the hard-right”, had decreed changes without any form of preliminary consultations. Before every abortion, pregnant women must now obtain a certificate attesting to hearing their baby’s heartbeat, she said, adding that the real reason for the new rule was to introduce a document which is time-consuming to acquire; women waiting for an abortion may “slip beyond” the deadline within which it is still possible. DK, she said, wanted to know how such an important decision could be introduced in the form of a ministerial decree, bypassing parliament. “In several countries restrictions like this were the starting point of a process which culminated in the ban of abortions,” she added.