Abortion in Romania
During the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2020, the government's published list of services public hospitals were required to perform did not include abortions.
[5] Abortion remained illegal under Romania's 1936 Criminal Code, except if needed to save the pregnant woman's life or if the child risked inheriting a severe genetic disorder.
The significance of such legal provisions must be understood in an international context: for instance as late as 1943, in France, abortionist Marie-Louise Giraud was executed for performing abortions.
In 1957 the procedure was officially legalized in Romania, following which 80% of pregnancies ended in abortion, mainly due to the lack of effective contraception.
The decree criminalized abortion except in the following cases: The effect of this policy was a sudden transition from a birth rate of 14.3 per 1,000 in 1966 to 27.4 per 1,000 in 1967, though it fell back to 14.3 in 1983.
[7] Initially, this natalist policy was completed with mandatory gynecological revisions and penalties for single women over 25 and married couples without children,[8] but starting in 1977, all "childless persons", regardless of sex or marital status, were fined monthly "contributions" from their wages, whose size depended on the sector in which the person worked.
[7] The state glorified child-rearing, and in 1977 assigned official decorations and titles to women who went above and beyond the call of duty and had more than the required number of children.
[11] Ceaușescu promoted an ideal of the superwoman, active in the workforce, politically involved, raising many children, taking care of the household chores, and succeeding in doing all these at the same time.
[12] Ceaușescu's government was unable to provide much of its promised assistance to families, leaving many families in difficult situations and unable to cope,[7] with the natalist policy being a contributor to the severe problem of child abandonment, where large numbers of children ended living in Romanian orphanages, infamous for institutionalised neglect and abuse.
[13] A relatively similar policy of restricted reproductive rights during that period also existed in Communist Albania, under Enver Hoxha.
The 1980s austerity policy in Romania, imposed by Ceaușescu in order to pay out the external debt incurred by the state in the 1970s, aggravated poverty in the country making it even more difficult to raise children.
[14] There were also other social problems, in particular the overcrowding of both homes and school classrooms; as Ceaușescu's natalist policy also coincided with mass population migration from rural areas to cities.
Ceaușescu's desire for large families proved unrealistic within Romanian society, which at the time was plagued by poverty, and where the state, despite its rhetoric, provided only nominal social benefits and programmes.
Realizing that the demographic policies had not worked as planned, the government's campaigns became very aggressive after 1984: women of reproductive age were closely monitored, were required to undergo regular gynaecological examinations at their place of employment, and investigations were carried out to determine the cause of all miscarriages.
The policies towards unmarried people were harsh: they received poor housing (named cămine de nefamiliști[20]) and were considered unfit citizens.
[7] In 1986, any woman working for or attending a state institution was forced to undergo at least annual gynecological exams to ensure a satisfying level of reproductive health as well as detect pregnancies, which were followed until birth.
This is expected to cause a serious demographic shock when the former generations retire, as there will not be sufficient young people to form the workforce and support the elderly.
