Fraternity-Testvériség, 1967 (45. évfolyam, 2-12. szám)
1967-02-01 / 2. szám
Sterns of S„ terest... Abortion: A Death Sentence For Hungary? (By The American Hungarian Federation; Committee on international Affairs) The American Hungarian Federation (AHF) believes that the tragic consequences of the 1956 governmental regulation legalizing abortions in Hungary are rather pertinent to the nationwide review of abortion laws in the United States with the generally acknowledged goals of updating them and making them uniform across the fifty states of the Union. Among the many physicians who objected against the abortion proposals submitted by the Committee of Human Reproduction of the AMA was Dr. Joseph P. Donnelly, medical director of Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital in Jersey City, N.J. Dr. Donnelly stated as quoted in the December 17, 1965 issue of the Medical World News: “If freely interpreted they would do away with any safeguard against abortion.” In Hungary, we have witnessed during the last ten years the complete breakdown of safeguards against abortion and the complete lack of restraints in interpreting the abortion regulations. As a matter of fact, abortion is so rampant in that once buoyantly vital nation that the Hungarian people literally waste away. Let us consider the following facts: 1. Last year, live births in Hungary dropped to an all time low of an annual 130,000, while abortions increased to an annual 180,000. 2. Since 1965 the number of death per year in Hungary exceeds the number of live births resulting in an actual population decline. 3. While the birth rate in the United States is still in the neighborhood of 21 per 1000, the birth rate in Hungary slipped from 12 per 1000 in 1954, to 9 per 1000 in 1956, to 6 per 1000 in 1958, to 4.5 per 1000 in 1960, to 2.2 per 1000 in 1962. 4. With the current birth rate of approximately 1.3 per 1000, Hungary has the lowest birth rate in Europe. 5. The Communist press in Hungary admits that more than one million abortions were carried out legally in that country during the last ten years. Considering the fact that Hungary’s total population barely exceeds ten million, the previously mentioned figures of one million abortions carried out during just one decade assumes added significance and is indeed cause for serious concern. If we turn to the question of how a million abortions could take place during such a short time span, we have to consider the mechanism the Communist government in Hungary set up to take care of the matter. A committee, consisting of three members, was created in Hungary, as well as in Czechoslovakia, for the purpose of formally approving applications for abortion. Such committees functioned in every district of Hungary for the last ten years. One of the committee members is a physician, sometimes an obstretrician or gynecologist, while the other two are carefully selected laymen, preferably trusted party members. The physicians’ duty is to examine and weigh the validity of the medical reasons for the contemplated abortion. Furthermore, it is his duty to explain in detail the possible complications connected with every artificial interruption of pregnancy. Had these committees restricted their approvals to cases that were supported by urgent medical reasons, the number of abortions in Hungary during the last decade would have come nowhere near the officially admitted total of one million. The fact is, however, that non-medical reasons for authorizing abortions far outnumber those permitted for medical reasons.* It is the specific, mandated duty of the two lay members of the committee to give proper consideration to the socalled “social” aspects of the case. Factors such as the housing shortage in general and the applicant’s inability to secure a larger apartment in particular, are weighed. Or, the lack of elderly relatives, such as a grandmother or an unmarrried aunt who could take care of the child while both father and mother work, must be and will be noted. Also, the distance between the applicant’s home and the nearest day care center for children is calculated. If the applicant claims that available public transportation to such a day care center is liable to take up too much of her time and energy and, thus, would tend to reduce her productive capacity — such a factor would be considered as detrimental to the efforts of the People’s Democracy in building the Socialist State. Therefore, the application for abortion in such a case has a good chance for being granted. *(one authority cites a ratio of 9 to 1) These are just some examples of nonmedical, or social reasons which are reason enough for approving an application. There are many others, some even more trivial. A physician, who fully recognizes the dangers to which the individual mother and ultimately the Hungarian nation is exposed, will usually win the first round. This may be called the preliminary hearing where medical reasons or the lack of them are of primary importance. But if the young Hungarian woman is determined to go through with abortion, her appeal will trigger an investigation of her social circumstances. Since almost any kind of economic difficulty will deemed to be sufficient reason for granting an abortion, the conscientious physician during this second round will find himself outvoted two to one. Communist authorities in Hungary deny the strict cause and effect relationship between abortions and the declining birth rate. The relationship, nevertheless, is a very real one, as can be clearly demonstrated by the citing official Czechoslovakian birth statistics as noted in the AMA Vol. 196, #4. Just as the Hungarian birth rate took a nosedive following the 1956 legalization of abortion, a similar governmental decree in 1957 resulted in a parallel decline in Czechoslovakia. Taking the matter a step further, it is most significant that a rather minor restriction of the legalized abortion procedures, insituted by a governmental decree of December 21, 1962, showed important gains for the total number of children born to mothers in Czechoslovakia during the years of 1963 and 1964. The 1962 Czechoslovakian governmental decree amended the original abortion decree to the extent that abortion was no longer permitted in cases when the pregnancy lasted longer than twelve weeks. This may seem to be a minor modification, however, subsequently the number of live births in Czechoslovakia increased steadily following a previous, persistent decline from 1957 to 1962. In Hungary, on the other hand, the birth rate continued to decline up to date. Even the Communist Regime in Hungary acknowledges the seriousness of the situation. The party gives the problem lip service and talks about the necessity of 40,000 additional births yearly. However, the 1956 governmental decree has so far not been revoked, not even modified. As a matter of fact, the party, through the officially controlled press, continues to make excuses for allowing the abortion decree to remain in force. Mr. Tibor Petho a communist journalist, discusses the claim that the abortion decree is 9
