Birth rate in trouble again

A pro-government commentator calls on the government to come up with yet more incentives to boost the birth rate, as it has sunk to a new low in the wake of the COVID pandemic. An alt-left blogger thinks that only a complete overhaul of the current economic system and endorsement of gender equality would increase women’s willingness to have more children.

Magyar Hírlap’s Tamás László calls on the government to introduce further legislation to boost the birth rate in order to maintain Hungary’s demographic balance. The pro-government commentator recalls that in its last Competitiveness Program published in 2019, the National Bank set out a plan to boost the number of annual births to 110,000 from the current 90,000. In order to reach this target, the government should offer more subsidies for young couples to buy homes and help mothers to take up jobs, László recommends. In addition to economic incentives, the government should address cultural issues as well, he believes. The government should continue to promote marriage and fight the ‘LGBTQ-lobby’ through books and study programs, he continues. László also thinks that the government should follow US conservatives and consider the revision of abortion legislation ‘to make sure that all conceived children are actually born’.

On Mérce, Júlia Bakó finds government incentives to boost the birth rate ineffective. The alt-left blogger points out that in the first quarter of 2022, a record low of 19,688 children were born in Hungary – the first time this century the number has fallen below 20,000. She thinks that the government’s constant pumping of traditional family values fails to make childbearing more attractive for women. In order to incentivize births, the government should do more to stop domestic violence, promote gender equality in employment, improve the health care system, open more nurseries and make housing affordable – rather than blaming feminism for the low birthrate, Bakó claims.

Tags: abortion, birth rates, family