PROFITS from contraceptive pills used by the NHS are funding an organisation with close ties to Hungary’s hard-right government which has restricted access to abortion.
Gedeon Richter – a pharmaceutical firm based in Budapest – sells hundreds of millions of pounds worth of contraceptive pills globally each year and has rights to provide some commonly prescribed types of the pill to the NHS.
Analysis of financial documents shows that a 10% stake in Gedeon Richter is owned by the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) – which has been described as the “pet university” and “propaganda institution” of Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán.
Under Orbán’s charge, the Hungarian government has tightened access to abortion. In 2022, it introduced a law which makes mothers “listen to the foetal heartbeat” before they can access the procedure.
Women have reportedly been forced to travel to Austria to access abortion treatment due to long waiting lists for treatment and the “degrading” nature of services in Hungary.
MCC has recently opened a think tank in Brussels which critics say is aimed at “whitewashing Orbán’s image and ideas” to EU policymakers. As The Ferret has revealed today, MCC Brussels has links to some academics in Scotland.
Experts told The Ferret that MCC has become “one of the most important tools” for Hungary to promote an “archaic, unrealistic and traditionalist view of women in society” across Europe.
One campaigner said it was “beyond cynical” that profits from a company marketing products for women’s health should be “used to undermine women’s rights and women’s access to healthcare”.
MCC declined to comment when approached by The Ferret. Gedeon Richter said MCC is only one of a number of shareholders and has no direct control over the company. Management makes decisions “independently of any investor or government influence”, the pharmaceutical firm added.
Financial injection
MCC was founded in the 1990s but was given a big financial injection by the Hungarian government in 2020 when it was handed shares in Gedeon Richter and oil firm, MOL. These are two of Hungary’s most valuable companies.
Gedeon Richter’s business in the UK is growing. Last June, it bought the rights to sell a range of oral contraceptives here, including common brands of the pill like Rigevidon and Cerelle. The company has a particular focus on women’s healthcare.
MCC’s 10% stake in Gedeon Richter is worth around £400 million and the university will have received dividend payments worth £16m from the company in 2023 alone, our analysis of financial filings found.
First elected in 2010, Orbán (below) and his Fidesz party have been accused of trying to undermine the rule of law and democracy in Hungary. Orbán has cast himself as a defender of “traditional Christian values” and his government has undermined LGBT+ rights and characterised migration to Europe as an “invasion”.
The country has also adopted family policies which have been criticised for reinforcing traditional gender roles.
For example, mothers who have four or more children were made exempt from income tax for life while interest-free loans were extended to heterosexual couples who commit to having multiple children. The policies are aimed at boosting Hungary’s ailing birth rate without the need for increased immigration.
MCC has been described as a key vehicle for these “illiberal” views to be spread beyond Hungary’s borders. Speakers at its events in Hungary have included prominent anglosphere right-wingers such as ex-Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Spectator columnist Douglas Murray, and Canadian author and media personality, Jordan Peterson.
The chair of the board of trustees at MCC is Orbán’s political director and the university has been described by one supporter as part of an effort to create an Orbán-friendly “deep state” to keep the prime minister’s ideas alive when he is no longer in power.
One Hungarian opposition politician has claimed the establishment of MCC’s Brussels office is an attempt to “create an alliance in Europe around Orbán’s ideas”.
Some MCC publications and affiliates have suggested support for anti-abortion views. A podcast the university published last year was entitled Defending Life In Hungary and featured discussion about “what the pro-life movement is doing to change minds and save lives”.
In 2022, a then-fellow at the university described abortion as “legal infanticide” and other visiting fellows are supporters of the US anti-abortion movement.
Meanwhile, since it opened its doors two years ago, MCC Brussels has produced articles on the “survival of the family” and the EU’s “anti-family” policy.
However, some key staff of MCC Brussels are supporters of women’s right to choose an abortion. John O’Brien, the head of communications at MCC Brussels, was previously the president of Catholics for Choice which advocates for the legalisation of abortion.
The executive director of MCC Brussels, Frank Furedi, is married to Ann Furedi, a prominent pro-choice campaigner who used to run the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), a charity which provides abortions to thousands of women in the UK. Frank shared one of her articles arguing that you can “ban abortion, but you cannot stop abortion”.
MCC Brussels says it is an independent group which sets its own “program, agenda and goals”, although it is associated with MCC in Hungary and receives a grant from it.
‘Archaic and unrealistic’
Accoeding to Neil Datta, the executive director of the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, women should know about Gedeon Richter’s “involvement with illiberal actors working to undermine their rights to healthcare”.
“MCC has become one of the most important tools for Hungarian soft diplomacy against women’s rights across Europe promoting an archaic, unrealistic and traditionalist view of women in society,” Datta claimed to The Ferret. “That part of this anti-women, anti-abortion effort could be fuelled by profits from a women’s health company like Gedeon Richter adds insult to injury. By using products from this company, women are unknowingly contributing to their own oppression.”
Baroness Elizabeth Barker, a LibDem member of the House of Lords, said it is evident that “religious nationalists” are trying to “demonise people working for equality for women, LGBT+ people and minority communities”.
“But using the proceeds of reproductive medicine to campaign against reproductive rights shows the hypocrisy and cynicism of this extremist campaign,” Barker said.
“Politicians, in the UK or abroad who promulgate this ‘anti-woke’ agenda need to be called out for the risk they pose to all women.”
Chiara Capraro, who researches women’s human rights at Amnesty International UK, said there should be more “transparency and due diligence” from the NHS on its suppliers.
Capraro added: “Anti-abortion actors are on the rise across the world and under a new Trump term they will receive injections of cash, as was the case during his first term. The threat they pose to human rights protections is very real and the Government must not be complacent.”
A spokesperson for Gedeon Richter said the company was “proud to specialise in the women’s healthcare field” and is committed to developing “therapies for the unmet needs of women worldwide”.
They added: “Gedeon Richter is listed on the Budapest stock exchange. The majority of its shares (63.16%) are owned by institutional investors [such as banks and pension funds].
“The Hungarian Government transferred its shares to the foundations of three Hungarian educational institutions in 2020. The foundations hold 25% of Gedeon Richter’s shares which do not constitute a controlling majority.
“The company has been operating independently since its foundation, and to this day, its management makes its strategic and operative decisions – including those concerning its portfolio – independently of any investor or government influence.
“It is part of Gedeon Richter’s strategy to always stay politically neutral and transparent, and not engage in any forms of political activities.”
Both the NHS and UK Government Department for Health and Social Care were asked to comment.
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