Abortion should happen only after women are informed. Despite this tragic event, abortion is still difficult to access one year after the start of the pandemic. One lead researcher wasAndrada Cilibiu, who in June 2020 called 134 hospitals asking if they provided abortions. Tanese and his parishioners built a shrine in their hillside community dedicated to the millions of unborn children aborted by their mothers.

To enforce the decree, society was strictly controlled.

As for sexual education, its implementation is constantly decried by some politicians.

It was fall 2021, and Kai, a 21-year-old veterinary student in Bucharest was calling a clinic to inquire about obtaining an abortion. At first I thought of having an abortion on my own, writes Cristina.

Women are seen as baby machines, says Cilibiu. We had a girl come in for an abortion and she ended up dying, she explained. By the time the procedure was performed, the sedative had almost completely worn off. Articles 482-485 of that code dealt with abortion. She is currently at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. While the 2016 conscientious objector clause allows doctors to avoid providing abortions, the medical code also states that a doctor refusing to perform a medical procedure, they must first give their reasons and then direct the patient to another colleague or medical unit. It really changed my perspective on a womans right to abortion, said Kai. Under Ceauescu, Romanian women suffered because politicians feared demographic decline. If they were caught breaking any aspect of the abortion law, they were to be incarcerated, though some prosecutors were paid off in exchange for a lesser sentence. Article written by Marine Leduc and published in partnership withLe Courrier dEurope Centrale. And the Romanian anti-abortion movement has been able entrench itself in particular by allying with the powerfulOrthodox Church especially in rural communities. [12] A relatively similar policy of restricted reproductive rights during that period also existed in Communist Albania, under Enver Hoxha.

In October 1966, it passed the pronatalistDecree 770, outlawing abortion and contraception outright. Kai left and came back the next Monday, when she was given a sedative and then waited over a day to see the doctor. Many gynaecologists in the surrounding towns do not perform abortions, and the only ones who do are two or three hundred kilometres away. Its very likely that some of them sought to perform abortions at home, with non-sterile medical equipment..

, Cristinas testimony was shared with us, with her consent, by Adriana Radu, from the sexual education association Sexul vs Barza (Sex vs Stork). Eighty-three percent of those women were no longer attending school when they filled out their forms. Not to mention the assistants who hung up on us, advised us not to terminate the pregnancy or called us sadistic because we were calling around Easter, explains Andrada. Article 201 (1) punishes the performing of an abortion when done under any of these following circumstances: (a) outside medical institutions or medical offices authorized for this purpose; (b) by a person who is not a certified physician in the domain of obstetrics and gynecology and free to practice this profession; or (c) if the pregnancy has exceeded 14 weeks. In 1972, when Daniela Draghici was in high school, the Ceauescu regime demanded that all high school girls have a gynecological exam to make sure they werent secretly pregnant. We do not encourage these terminations of pregnancy, said the Romanian Health Ministrys spokesperson, Oana Grigore, in astatement. This is far from an uncommon experience. Abortion in Romania is currently legal as an elective procedure during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, and for medical reasons at later stages of pregnancy. A doctor saw her, assessed her, and told her to come back the next day. She should stay prone on a bed and see the image [of the fetus] and the heartbeat, and be shown a doll of what she has in her belly.In 2014, the head of the Orthodox Churchgranted diplomasto eighteen doctors who refused to grant abortions, and theIndependentreportsthat one Orthodox priest boasted on television that he convinced scores of doctors to stop 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 number of fake family planning clinics and pregnancy crisis centers that try to dissuade women from having abortions isgrowing. During that period, 10,000 women died as a result of clandestine abortions and more than 100,000 self-mutilated. As in much of Europe, the Romanian conservative movement has been emboldened by thegrowth of right-wing populism. Also read: Illegal Abortion Case Leads Police to 11 Skulls, 56 Foetal Bones in Hospital Premises. Yes, Kai answered. However, unlike in other countries such as Hungary, the discourse on reproductive rights remains present in the media and on the internet. But it also helped the theatre play reach a wider audience: during the two weeks of its broadcast on Vimeo in November 2020, it accumulated nearly 8,000 online views. To make up for the states shortcomings, Romanian NGOs have stepped up to help women in distress. Motherhood was described as "the meaning of women's lives" and praised in sex education courses and women's magazines, and various written materials were distributed detailing information on prenatal and child care, the benefits of children, ways to ensure marital harmony, and the consequences of abortion. Kais experience is a parallel of Draghicis 35 years later: painful, shameful, secret, and difficult to obtain. In 1990,nearly one million abortionswere legally performed in Romania and the maternal death ratefell by 50%. But whenEU Observer contacted hospitals requesting abortion procedures, ten failed to make any referral at all and 16 gave no specific referral instead simply suggesting that our reporter go to another city or a private clinic.. Abortion on request was firstlegalizedin Romania in 1957, and was used as a major form of birth control. And the same is happening now. . I was screaming and crying in agony. The nurse assisting in the procedure told Kai Well, maybe next time youll be more careful.. Hospitals can charge whatever they want, says Cilibiu. [6] When a physician did not want to help or could not be bribed to perform an abortion, however, women went to less experienced abortionists or used old remedies. [10] During the 1990s, the street children seen in Romanian cities were a reminder of this policy. In 1989, a popular uprising brought down Ceauescus regime and he was executed. If hospitals cannot perform abortions during the pandemic, we need to find a national solution: distribute contraceptives and make medical abortion accessible, offer IUDs, go into communities to give information on reproductive rights. In recent years, an increasing number of gynaecologists have decided no longer to perform abortions, asserting their conscience clause. [28], Ceauescu's demographic policies are feared of having serious effects in the future because of the low number of births in the 1990s and 2000s. In April 2020, Andrada Cilibiu, together with her colleagues from the association, spent several hours calling public hospitals one by one. [6] Women with histories of abortion were watched particularly carefully. In a country where abortion up to 14 weeks has technically been legal since 1989, reproductive rights are increasingly under attack. Imagine a poor woman from a village: if she has to go to another district, she needs to be able to save up to pay for the bus and the operation, which is not reimbursed unless there is a malformation of the foetus [a cost of about 100 euros in public hospitals]. And then wed have to call the ambulance anyway, the technician added.

[6], Medical practitioners were also expected to follow stringent policies and were held partially responsible for the national birthrate. [6] Each administrative region had a Disciplinary Board for Health Personnel, which disciplined all law-breaking health practitioners and on occasion had show trials to make examples of people. [6] Those born in this period, especially between 1966 and 1972, are nicknamed the decreei (singular decreel), a word with a negative nuance due to the perceived mental and physical damage due to the risky pregnancies and failed illegal abortions.

She already had two children, and no hospital would take her, recalls Adriana Radu. In 2019, investigative publicationThe Black Seadove into reports of abortion restriction across Romania. The real number is much higher. State security operatives would hover at hospitals,forcing womento give up the names of underground clinics even as they bled to death. In the town of Piatra Neamt, known for the simple fact that the management of the public hospital has banned abortion, a play about a teenager who becomes pregnant became an unexpected success. And if a doctor does agree to perform an abortion, they often charge prohibitively expensive rates. [1] In the year 2004, there were 216,261 live births and 191,000 reported abortions,[2] meaning that 46% of the 407,261 reported pregnancies that year ended in abortion. Written by Andreea Tanase for the citys Youth Theatre, 98%: Correct Decision initially caused a scandal in local newspapers. , She fears that access will be even more restricted for women in precarious situations: They already have almost no access to this right in Romania.

[19] Over 9,000 women died between 1965 and 1989 due to complications arising from illegal abortions.[6]. Romanian for pipe, this was a small plastic catheter that a woman inserted into her uterus to administer some kind of liquid to dislocate [the] fetus and cause abortion. Other common methods of do-it-yourself abortion were jumping from a high place or falling on your stomach, Dracigi explains. In addition to outlawing abortion, Ceauescu also promoted early marriage (immediately after finishing school), made divorce very difficult to obtain, and criminalized homosexuality in the 1969 Criminal Code even if done in private and without "public scandal" (a difference from the previous 1936 code). Shocked, Kai hung up.

The punishments increased if the woman didn't consent to the abortion, if she was severely injured, or if she died. I was taken to an old woman who didnt really know what she was doing, recounts Draghici. At one clinic Cilibiu called, the procedure would cost 3,000 lei (600) around theaverage monthly income. Back in 2021, Kai went to several private clinics and public hospitals seeking an abortion. While Romania has the highest rate of teenage mothers in the EU after Bulgaria (in 2018, a quarter of teenage mothers in Europe were Romanian), Adina Paun sees no real improvement in sight: family planning clinics are remote and almost non-existent, contraception isnt free, and sexual education still isnt taught in schools. Only55 hospitalssaid they did, and only one hospital would prescribe amedical (pill-administered) abortion(as opposed to a surgical procedure). Polands anti-abortion stance has attracted particular media attention, as part of the global backlash against abortion rights. The 1980s austerity policy in Romania, imposed by Ceauescu 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. The situation is most dire for women in rural areas and those who are part of marginalized groups such as the Roma community, Cilibiu adds.

In 2015, theCoalition for the Familyattempted toamendthe Romanian constitution by changing the definition of the family from the gender-neutral term spouses to the union between a man and a woman.

The policies towards unmarried people were harsh: they received poor housing (named cmine de nefamiliti[18]) and were considered unfit citizens. This policy was reversed in 1990, after the Romanian Revolution, and, since that time, abortion has been legal on request in Romania. Pingback: Hungarian women seeking abortion increasingly opt for Vienna Kafkadesk. In September 2020, a 45-year-old woman named Magdalena Clisaru died of a hemorrhagefollowing a surgical abortion carried out at a doctors clinic on the ground floor of an apartment building. The procedure was very painful, Kai recalls. Some developed an extensive underground network for kitchen-table abortions, according toDaniela Draghici, a former member of the network and a current reproductive and womens health activist in Romania. In its own terms, the measure worked:doublingthe birth rate in one decade, from1.9 to 3.7children born per woman.But Romanian women still wanted access to abortion.

In Romania, the generations born under Ceauescu are very large (especially the late 1960s and the 1970s), while those born in the 1990s and 2000s are very small. The local prosecutors office charged the OB-GYN with murder and soliciting an illicit payment from a patient (100 euros). There are also lots of anti-choice NGOs that are being funded by American and European funds. The European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights corroborates this, publishing a June 2020reportdetailing how US and Russian organizations have provided nearly a quarter of a billion dollars of funding for anti-abortion and anti-LGBT causes in Europe over the last decade. This article was originally published on Jacobin. Article 246 punished the person who performed the abortion with "minimul recluziunei" (a shorter form of imprisonment), while the pregnant woman who procured her own abortion could be punished with 6 months2 years imprisonment. So-called pregnancy crisis clinics, which are sometimes found in the first results of search engines when one types abort (in Romanian), urge women not to have an abortion.

But then I found a gynecologist who performed the operation in her flat. A hospital in the city of Turda said that the main reason their doctors do not perform abortions is to support the increase of the birth rate and to respect the right to life. A hospital in Pacani, a city in the Moldavia region, said that any doctor is free to refuse without explanation the request for voluntary pregnancy interruptions and we remind you that the doctors graduated from the Faculty of Medicine to save lives., Some hospitals and clinics also claimed that they would not perform abortions because they considered them dangerous medical procedures which is patentlyuntrue. The Penal Code of 1865, which followed shortly after the union of the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, and was in force between 1865 and 1936, banned abortion. She reminds us that an unwanted pregnancy condemns young girls who are already in a precarious situation to a vicious circle: With a child, they will no longer have access to education, so they will not be able to get a decently paid job, and this also condemns their child to poverty, and so on. She also points out the contradictions of the Romanian Orthodox Church and politicians close to the Church who strongly condemn abortion but do not encourage sexual education or contraception.. Abortionwas legalizedup to fourteen weeks, contraception was made both free and accessible (in urban areas), and sex education began to be taught in public schools. Bucharest, Romania Although abortion has been legal in Romania since 1990, more and more doctors are refusing to perform it. But I dont think it is extremely widespread and changes the [lives] of many women., They can always find someone else to do it, and pay a little more money. Dr Vladareanu adds: We dont have issues like in Poland.. When she did, she was told that the nurses didnt feel comfortable treating her because it was a minor Christian holiday. In Romania our medical system is very tangled by the conservative parties and political figures, says Draghici. ", "Overcrowding and 'under-occupancy' in Romania: a case study of housing inequality", "Povestea de groaz din spatele afacerii decreeilor" comuniti.

Three decades after the official legalization of abortion, abortion rights are being steadily eroded across Romania.

In Romania, Hard-Won Abortion Rights Are Being Systematically Undermined, Illegal Abortion Case Leads Police to 11 Skulls, 56 Foetal Bones in Hospital Premises, stopped teaching birth control in public schools, Romanian Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Why Amendments to Medical Termination of Pregnancy Bill Dont Go Far Enough.

Activists claim that the gutting of government funding has forced many clinics to shut. In Bucharest, two public hospitals now perform the operation, but not without additional restrictions: the pregnancy must be at 10 and 12 weeks maximum. [20], Mifepristone (medical abortion) was registered in 2008. But, many women are still finding it impossible to get an abortion, faced with a right-wing assault against reproductive rights.

The woman then sent Kai video after video over WhatsApp about how abortion was dangerous and wrong. [14] Most of these families were housed in standardized apartment blocks that were built in large numbers across Romanian cities during systematization.

At one hospital where the doctor refused to perform the procedure, he said, How do I know you wont come back and say you didnt want the abortion afterwards? meaning that he could be prosecuted for malpractice or negligence. One of the post-communist transitional governments first acts was to overturn the 770 Decree. "Political Demography: The Banning of Abortion in Ceausescu's Romania". - Ziarul Financiar", "Pensiile "decreeilor" sunt o bomb cu ceas. the Ministry encourages giving birth., In 2020, if you dont want to have any children, there is contraception.. union of the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, Abortion statistics of Romania up to 2004, "The remarkable story of Romanian women9s struggle to manage their fertility", "Imaginea i rolul femeii n perioada comunist", "BBC NEWS - Europe - What happened to Romania's orphans?

They just couldnt. While Cristina managed to find a solution, this was not the case for another 21-year-old woman from Bucharest, who was living in extreme poverty. Is this your first abortion? asked the woman on the phone.

Like the previous leader, Ceauescu officially promoted gender equality, but also desired to increase the nation's population. [6] Ceauescu's ideas of mandating large families were inspired by the Stalinist USSR (abortion was illegal in USSR between 1936 and 1955), as well as by his own conservative upbringing in rural Olt county. , The map clearly shows empty areas, such as the Moldovan region, which are already among the poorest territories in the country. There have been attempts to restrict the practice of abortion, such as in 2012, when Sulfina Barbu, an MP of the Democratic Liberal Party, proposed a legislative initiative requiring women wanting to undergo an abortion to attend psychological counseling sessions, and to "reflect" for five days. There were an estimated15,000-20,000unnecessary deaths of children in childrens homes between 1966 and 1989, and images of emaciated and traumatized children shocked the world. 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.

[6] Contraceptives disappeared from the shelves and were soon only available to educated urban women with access to the black market, many of them with Hungarian roots. In 2011, the Romanian governmentstopped funding contraceptive subsidies, making birth control much harder to access, andstopped teaching birth control in public schools. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); In Romania, women living in precarious conditions face restricted access to abortion, Hungarian women seeking abortion increasingly opt for Vienna Kafkadesk. [1], Abortion statistics, according to the National Institute of Statistics for data between 1990 and 2010[23] and according to Eurostat for data between 2011 and 2018:[24][25][26], United Nations data puts the abortion rate at 21.3 abortions per 1000 women aged 1544 years in 2010. [6], From 1979 to 1988, the number of abortions increased, save for a decline in 19841985. So we also have a problem with the way medical staff address patients. . If the woman did not consent to the abortion; if she was seriously injured by the procedure; or if she dies as a result of it, the penalties are increased - sections (2) and (3) of Article 201. I was always pro-choice, but I never really realized just how important it is to actually be able togetan abortion.. Pretending to be patients, they realised what a headache it was to access this information. [6], Initially, this natalist policy was completed with mandatory gynecological revisions and penalties for single women over 25 and married couples without children,[7] 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. It was incredible, young people came from all over the country, comments Andreea Tanase.

A reporter contacted 189 hospitals with gynecology departments, finding that sixty of themrefused to perform abortions. This new line of action will perhaps make these rights to abortion, contraception and sexual education more accessible, for everyone. The TikTok account of Sexul vs. Barza had over 200,000 new followers during the pandemic. At the Marie Stopes clinic in Bucharest, the technician told Kai that because it was her first pregnancy, an abortion could cause her to bleed out and die. As for medical abortions, theyre rarely administered.

[21][22], The new Penal Code, which came into force in 2014, regulates the procedure of abortion.

However, the journalist showed that only one of these facilities was actually dedicated to treating Covid-19 patients, and that the private practice to which she was referred by a public hospital did not comply with health regulations. 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. Every household had a Sonda, says Draghici.

In 1989, Romania dropped its infamous policy banning all forms of birth control. 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. The first child born in 2021 in Romania was to a 15-year-old girl. An exception to the 14 weeks limit is provided by section (6) of Article 201, which stipulates that performing an abortion is not an offense if done for therapeutic purposes by a certified doctor until 24 weeks of pregnancy, and even after the 24 weeks limit, if the abortion is needed for therapeutic purposes "in the interest of the mother or the fetus". Like many who had underground abortions, Draghicis was painful. They discussed access to contraception, and they shared channels where to find information. All this in a very short time, whereas its something that cannot wait.

FILIA Centre documented that a clinic in the city of Iai claimed that abortion can cause varicose veins which can then turn into cancerous tumors or cause rupture of the uterus, citing a case of a girl who died after an abortion cause her uterus to break. The clinic also claimed that abortion-inducing pills burn the uterus, causing pieces [to] come out of the uterine lining and that many patients have been left with malformed children., Dr Radu Vladareanu, president of theRomanian Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, disagrees that abortion is difficult to access. There were no attempts to provide for equitable sharing of chores within the family (between the husband and wife) like most communist regimes, Romanian politics too considered it sufficient to promote gender equality in the public sphere, not the private one; the personal relations and gender roles within the family were ignored. Romanias birth rate rose at the end of 2020 while the number of abortions fell by 35% from 2019 to 2020.

As a result, rates of illegal abortions were very high, especially in big cities. Abortion on demand was first legalized in Romanian in 1957 and stayed legal until 1966, when it was again outlawed by Nicolae Ceauescu. This is despite the fact that the trend in Romania is towards a plummeting birth rate. We must not leave them alone and tell them to behave for a few more years, the midwife argued.

Kai ended up having her abortion at a public hospital. Abortions are steadily declining in Romania; the Health Ministry reports that the number performed per year dropped from103,386 in 2011 to 31,889 in 2020. Such attempts have been criticized as being motivated by the demographic downfall of Romania. [6] In an effort to ensure "normal demographic growth", Decree 770 was authorized by Nicolae Ceauescu's government. The law is still being debated in Parliament, in particular to add the obligation to have the parents consent.

I will never forget that line of school girls, recalls Draghici, waiting outside the clinical medical room at the high school. It was her first experience with any kind of gynecological or reproductive health care, and it drove home what use her body was to the totalitarian regime. 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. This limited access for almost a year is reflected in the official statistics: in 2020, the number of abortions fell by 35% compared to 2019. A physician has no obligation in cases of abortion on demand. Numrul terifiant al romncelor moarte din cauza avorturilor ratate n perioada 1966-1989", "Decreeii generaia copiilor nscui de frica morii", "Proiectul legii anti-avort - un atentat mpotriva femeilor i al familiilor - Romania Libera", "Gynuity Health Projects List of Mifepristone Approval", "Legally induced abortions by mother's age", "AVORTUL NTRE DREPT CTIGAT, RESPINGERE MORAL I PRACTIC LARG RSPNDIT", "Ce se va intampla cand vor iesi la pensie "decreteii", cei 1,7 milioane de romani care sustin economia? Indeed, doctors across the country are increasinglyinvoking a conscientious objector clauseincluded in Romanias 2016 professional code for medics, where doctors can cite moral reasons such as religious beliefs for refusing to perform procedures.

Its cheap and easy to get an abortion in Romania, said Tanese. Some of these children were purposely given AIDS-infected transfusions in orphanages; others were trafficked internationally through adoption. The research for this article was partly funded byn-ost, with support from the German Federal Foreign Office. Sometimes, however, punishments were lessened for cooperation. Maternal mortality doubledbetween 1965 and 1989. That number only includes the women who actuallymadeit to the hospital, says Draghici. If the acts are done by a doctor, apart from criminal punishment, the doctor is also prohibited from practicing the profession in the future - section (4) of Article 201. One evening, the ensuing discussion on Zoom lasted over three hours. By contrast, in December 2020, nine months after the start of the restrictions, 15,857 children were born in Romania, 2,103 more than in November and 433 (2.8%) more than during the same month a year earlier, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INS). This troubled past seemed to resurface in September when a 45-year-old woman died following a surgical abortion at a private clinic. There should be a regulated protocol for that.

It was legalized again after the Romanian Revolution. I helped her get a free gynecological consultation, but all this took time and she had already passed the legal deadline for abortion. She was one month pregnant, after being raped. [6] Despite this, many unplanned children were born; as their parents could scarcely afford to care for the children they already had, they were subsequently abandoned in hospitals or orphanages. Some are getting secret IUDs because condoms are out of the question. In addition, she notes, Many women dont have enough education and cant enter the job market, meaning that they are unable to be financially independent.