Hungary to ease abortion rules and ratify the Istanbul Convention, PM Magyar says

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar announced a package of women’s rights measures, including making emergency contraception available without prescription and amending a 2022 rule that required women seeking an abortion to show a “definitive sign of life” of the foetus, Reuters reported. Magyar said Hungary will ratify the Istanbul Convention on preventing violence against women and domestic violence, calling it a “long overdue debt” of the Hungarian state.

The package also includes criminal code amendments to strengthen restraining orders and criminalise the misuse of intimate images, a consent requirement for sexual acts, and measures on menstrual poverty. Doctors and women’s rights groups had criticised the 2022 rule; Reuters did not report a response from the opposition Fidesz party.