Decree 770

[citation needed] Through a combination of Romania's postwar modernization, high participation of women in the workforce, and a low standard of living, the number of births significantly decreased after the 1950s, reaching its lowest recorded level in 1966.

Romanian leaders interpreted the decreasing number of births to be a result of the 1957 decree that legalized abortion.

Abortion and contraception[citation needed] were declared illegal, except for: To enforce the decree, society was strictly controlled.

Sex education was refocused primarily on the benefits of motherhood, including the ostensible satisfaction of being a heroic mother who gives her homeland many children.

Wealthier women were able to obtain contraceptives illegally or to bribe doctors to give diagnoses which made abortion possible.

[3]: 8 Many children born in this period became malnourished, were severely physically disabled, or ended up in care under grievous conditions, which led to a rise in child mortality.

A consequence of Ceaușescu's natalist policy was that large numbers of children ended up living in orphanages, because their parents could not cope with looking after them.

[5] In their book Freakonomics, authors Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner discuss the legalised abortion and crime effect: the argument that children who are born after their mothers are refused an abortion are much more likely to commit crimes or refuse to recognize authority when they reach adulthood.

other aspects of totalitarian rule that would promote violent reaction instead of peaceful transition, including a lack of associational life and legal gatherings, a more extensive system of informants and special police than any state other than East Germany, and a cult of personality[6] built up around the leader.