With Marriages and Births Up, Hungary's Pro-Family Agenda Works, Says Cabinet Minister

In just over ten years, marriages and births are on the rise in Hungary and abortions are decreasing.

"Our pro-family agenda is working," Minister of Families Katalin Novak told Newsmax on Wednesday.

In a briefing for visiting reporters at her ministry office in Budapest, Novak spelled out the results of her government’s policy of "support for responsible child bearing"—notably that mothers who have four children are exempt from federal income taxes for life. She also proudly noted that Pope Francis gave his support for this policy during his recent visit to Budapest.

"Our tax system favors child-bearing and it's very popular," the minister explained, pointing out that parents with young children are eligible for a housing subsidy and funds for a "seven-seater" automobile for the family. 

There is also as much as a three-year parental leave and "husbands can have parental leave as well," Novak said.

The fruits of this pro-family policy (in which the government invests 5% of Hungary’s Gross Domestic Product for family support) includes an increase in the fertility rate of 24% in the last decade —"the largest in Europe." Additionally, marriages are up by 43% in 10 years and abortions have decreased by 41% over the past 10 years.

"And 90% of twenty-somethings want to have children," Novak told us, citing a recent Europa Projekt poll. The poll also showed that, when asked whether they agreed with the statement that their country’s population should grow by citizens having more children rather than immigration, residents of European Union countries and the United Kingdom agreed by 57% to 24%.

In former socialist countries in Eastern Europe, the poll found agreement with more children-rather-than-immigrants was 74% to 15%.

Support for marriage and child-bearing by the 10-year-old government, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, was born out of necessity to a demographic crisis. With the population and birth rate declining in the previous decade under center-left governments, "many of whom were ex-communists," according to Novak, Hungary had reached a point where its only growth in population was through migration.

This has turned around, she added, because of the government embracing a pro-family agenda. Such an agenda is enshrined in Hungary’s 2011 constitution, which states marriage is between one man and one woman, although civil unions are permitted for same sex couples, and that a father is a male and mother is female. 

In proclaiming success after a decade, Novak quickly added, "We have a long way to go."