Szalma Ivett -  Sipos Alexandra. (2024). A comparative analysis across reproduction policy fields in Hungary. In H. Zagel (Ed.), Reproduction Policy in the Twenty-First Century: A Comparative Analysis (pp. 119–135). Edward Elgar Publishing.

 

This chapter gives a comparative overview on the trajectories and interactions of reproduction policies in Hungary starting from 1989, after the democratic reform, with a focus on the changes that took place after 2010 during the second Orbán government. We focus our analysis on this period, which had particular relevance to how reproduction is regulated across different policy fields. Notably, and as described by others (Szikra, 2018), the Orbán government has pursued a strongly pronatalist approach to family policy. It has been an explicit aim of the Orbán government to reach replacement-level fertility. As for the desired effects of these efforts, there was no increase in the number of births (90,335 live births in 2010, and 88,491 in 2022), and only a small increase of the total fertility rate (from 1.25 to 1.52) (HCSO, 2023a), which can be attributed to the growing number of reproductive women in the period. What this rather shows is the strong orientation in Hungarian politics towards pronatalism as an ideological and political project that aims to promote child-bearing, assuming it is conducive to the wellbeing of society.

The pronatalist approach of the post-2010 Orbán government has been analysed extensively in the domain of family policies. For example, Szikra investigated the (in)consistencies of the ideological pattern in the Orbángovernment’s approach to family policy (Szikra, 2018). Others examined gendered policy approaches to work–life reconciliation in the pronatalist context (Glass & Fodor, 2022; Inglot et al., 2022). According to Cook et al. (2023), neo-familialist ideologies that are dominant in Hungary emphasise traditional values encouraging women’s roles and responsibilities in the private sphere, particularly in reproductive labour. They identify similar discourses on the relationship between family policies and the so-called demographic “crises” in Hungary, Russia and Poland, but distinguish different strands within the pronatalist discourse. Conservative discourses emphasise traditional values, whereas nationalist discourses highlight the survival of the nation and the outside “threat” of immigrants. It is precisely these cross-ideological discourse coalitions that allow many citizens with different views to identify with the pronatalist perspective. Moreover, in Hungary, pronatalism discriminates against poorer families, that is, better-off families are even more advantaged, and the poor are even more excluded from state transfers (Cook et al., 2023).

Beyond that research, Hungarian pronatalism has not systematically been examined across different fields of policies regulating reproduction. Previous studies focused on single policy fields or specific issues. For example, Takács (2018) examined how policies limit queer reproduction in Hungary, Szalma (2021) examined the access of individuals to medically assisted reproduction
(MAR), and Neményi and Takács (2015) focused on the issue of adoption. This chapter is the first to comprehensively examine policies related to reproduction in the post-2010 era, including abortion, MAR, contraception, adoption, and sexual education. Through these policies, we aim to understand the broader policy landscape and point out interactions, biases, and potential (lack of) coherences in their goals concerning the Hungarian pronatalist approach.