The cultural Iron Curtain in Europe looks to be widening as conservative nationalist Hungary tightens its abortion laws. A new decree means Hungarian women must now listen to a “foetal heartbeat” before they can undergo the procedure. The new decree mandates that healthcare providers provide pregnant women with “a clearly identifiable indication of foetal vital signs” before proceeding. Justifying the move, the Interior Ministry in Budapest said that “nearly two-thirds of Hungarians associate the beginning of a child’s life with the first heartbeat” and that modern equipment can detect heartbeats early in pregnancy to provide “more comprehensive information”.

The government led by Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, has apparently adopted the policy from the Our Homeland Movement party, led by 43-year-old László Toroczkai and 35-year-old Dóra Dúró, hinting at how much support there is for traditionalist politics among younger people in central and eastern Europe. Although Hungary has relatively liberal abortion laws for the region, the country is now 80 per cent Christian after communism, while Orbán has overseen a constitution with references to God and Christianity, and funded Christian schools. Thanks to concerted policies, since Orbán returned to power in 2010, marriages in Hungary have doubled, abortions have halved, the birth rate has risen by a quarter, and divorces have hit a record low. 

Hungary’s government also subsidises parenthood and has enshrined that “the life of a foetus will be protected from conception” in the constitution. The recent move brings Hungary more into line with its conservative nationalist ally, Poland, perhaps the most Catholic country in Europe today. In Poland, the number of legal abortions fell by 90 per cent in 2021 after a landmark court ruling in 2020 where Poland’s Constitutional Court ruled it was unconstitutional for women to terminate pregnancies in cases of severe and irreversible foetal abnormalities, grounds for 98 per cent of abortions in 2019.

What is effectively emerging now are two Europes, with Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party Chairman, Jarosław Kaczyński, recently saying “that western Europe is culturally alien to us”, while describing the EU as a culturally alien project which it is “the sacred duty” of Polish politicians to oppose. As the Pew Research Center noted, there are now huge differences in social attitudes across Europe. For example, on same-sex marriage, there is a clear divide, with 59 per cent of Poles and 64 per cent of Hungarians opposed. By contrast, 77 per cent of Britons and 75 per cent of Germans are in support. Nearly a third of Poland has also passed resolutions declaring themselves free of “LGBT ideology”, while Hungary prohibits sharing content on LGBT issues to people under 18. On abortion, a Continent-wide split is also evident, although most Hungarians (70 per cent) favour abortions being legal in most or all cases, while a slim majority of Poles feel it should be illegal.

What impact could the move in Hungary have on papabile, Cardinal Péter Erdő, whose succession of Pope Francis – should it happen – would be a colossal shot in the arm to Hungary and the wider region? The prelate is seen as a traditionalist who respects those who prefer the Latin Mass while being able to reach progressives. The extent to which Erdő aligns with Orbán is a matter of conjecture. In 2015 – during the European migrant crisis – Erdő struck a tone which would seem to align with the PM. While Pope Francis was calling on Catholics to take in refugees, the Cardinal said taking in refugees would amount to human trafficking. Meanwhile, Bishop Laszlo Kiss-Rigo – the Church’s most senior official in south Hungary – was quoted as saying Francis “doesn’t know the situation” and Hungary was under “invasion.” 

Yet, despite Cardinal Erdő’s earlier statement, the following year he expressed concern about tendencies to turn religions against one another. Then in an interview with Valasz On Line in 2019 – when asked about Islam and immigration – Cardinal Erdő asked rhetorically: “Can a country, a continent, be called a Christian?”. He added: “I wouldn’t emphasise whiteness as a Catholic, though”. On abortion, however, the Hungarian cleric has previously said: “With regard to the tragedy of abortion, the Church reaffirms the inviolable character of human life. She offers advice to pregnant women, supports single mothers, assists abandoned children and is the companion of those who have suffered abortion and have become aware of their mistake.” Orbán’s civilisational Christianity aligns more with “trads” in the US, often focused on the survival of a people and culture in a given place. The Pope, of course, has little truck with such thinking.

The recent move in Hungary cements the ideological divide within Europe, which has even manifested in the Synod on Synodality, with the President of the Polish Episcopal Conference actively rebuking Germany’s Synodal Path. According to Poland’s own synodal report, Catholics there do not want doctrinal changes. In Hungary, meanwhile, the new decree may galvanise support for Cardinal Erdő, a change candidate after Pope Francis but one likely to gain support from progressives. While we have yet to hear from the prelate, given his past statement one assumes both Erdő and the Church in Hungary broadly align with the decree. What impact this will have on his potential succession remains to be seen, but the clear blue water between progressive western Europe, and the conservative east, has now grown that bit wider.

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