Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar announced that his government will introduce legislation to amend the 2020 legal framework that effectively prevented gay and lesbian couples from adopting children, according to an official government briefing reported by Australian Associated Press on September 13, 2026. The announcement outlines a proposed reform of adoption procedures established under the previous administration.
The existing restrictions were enacted in late 2020 under the administration of former Prime Minister Viktor Orban through amendments to the Child Protection Act and the Hungarian Constitution, which defined family relations by specifying that the mother is a woman and the father is a man. While Hungarian law had previously restricted joint adoption to married heterosexual couples, single individuals had been permitted to apply. The 2020 legislation required all single-person adoption applications to obtain personal discretionary approval from the government minister overseeing family affairs, creating an administrative barrier that effectively excluded same-sex applicants.
Under the legislative proposal outlined by Prime Minister Magyar, who assumed office in April 2026 following parliamentary elections, authority over adoption suitability evaluations would be transferred away from political appointees and government ministers. Instead, assessments would be conducted by professional child-welfare specialists, social workers, and psychologists tasked with evaluating applicants based strictly on the best interests and developmental needs of the child.
The proposed amendment has encountered formal political opposition from the Christian Democratic People's Party, a former coalition partner of Orban's Fidesz party, which argued in parliamentary statements that national adoption policy should continue to restrict child-rearing to traditional heterosexual family structures. The measure remains a government legislative proposal subject to formal parliamentary drafting and committee review before being scheduled for a plenary vote in the National Assembly.
