Also in 2019, the anti-abortion group Pro Vita organized a “March for Life” in Bucharest, similarly inspired by the annual protests in Washington, DC. At the event, MEP Matei-Adrian Dobrovie explained that Romania is in demographic decline and that it is necessary to support the pro-life movement, as the country has the second highest abortion rate per live birth in the EU, behind Bulgaria. If the Supreme Court were to change its mind on abortion, it would become the prerogative of each state to decide how to regulate the procedure. Then, on the recommendation of a friend, she met Andrada Cilibiu of the Centrul Filia association. Andrada referred her to private clinics and public hospitals where abortions were performed. But every time something got in his way. Over time, Kai became increasingly worried, knowing full well that the legal deadline for an abortion in Romania is fourteen weeks. In the third clinic she visited, they even gave her an ultrasound and the doctor turned the screen to show her the embryo. Then he squeezed an image of the ultrasound into his hand. Then he concluded: “Unfortunately, we will not be able to perform your abortion, we fear that you will bleed too much. You have to go to the hospital.
From 1979 to 1988, the number of abortions increased, with the exception of a decrease in 1984-1985. [6] Nevertheless, many unplanned children were born; As their parents could barely afford to care for the existing children, they were later abandoned in hospitals or orphanages. Some of these children have deliberately received AIDS-infected transfusions in orphanages; Others have been traded internationally by adoption. [6] People born during this period, especially between 1966 and 1972, are called Decreței (singular Decrețel), a word with a negative undertone due to the perceived psychological and physical damage due to unsafe pregnancies and failed illegal abortions. [19] More than 9,000 women died from complications of illegal abortions between 1965 and 1989. [6] In 2013, Romania had one of the highest abortion rates in the EU (14.9 per 100 births). Five years later, the percentage had fallen to 8.6. The decline was even steeper after the first wave of Covid-19.
According to the National Institute of Public Health, the number of abortions dropped by 40% between 2019 and 2020, from 26,862 to 15,595. In the first nine months of 2021, 10,429 abortions were performed, an average of even fewer than in 2020. However, this decline is not the result of public policies that promote contraception or sex education. In fact, in 2011, the Romanian government stopped funding contraceptive subsidies, making access to birth control much more difficult, and stopped teaching birth control in public schools. Sign and share with the recently launched “We Had Abortions” petition – whether you have had an abortion yourself or simply stand in solidarity with those who have done so – to let the Supreme Court, Congress and the White House know: we will not give up the right to safe, legal and accessible abortion. Doctors also had to follow strict guidelines and were held partly responsible for the national birth rate. If they were caught violating any aspect of abortion law, they should be jailed, even if some prosecutors were paid in exchange for a lighter sentence. [6] Each administrative region had a disciplinary committee for health workers, which sanctioned all illegal health practitioners and sometimes conducted show trials to set an example for individuals.
Sometimes, however, sanctions for cooperation have been eased. [6] Despite the occupational risks involved, many doctors helped women who decided to have an abortion, realizing that otherwise women would take a more dangerous and life-threatening path. This was done by being falsely diagnosed with a condition that qualified them for abortion, such as diabetes or hepatitis, or by being prescribed drugs known to counter-induce pregnancy, such as chemotherapy or antimalarial drugs. [6] However, when a doctor would not help or could not be bribed to perform an abortion, women turned to doctors with less abortion experience or used old means. [6] Another consequence of Romania`s abortion ban was that hundreds of thousands of children were taken to public orphanages. When communism collapsed in Romania in 1989, about 170,000 children were found in dirty orphanages. Having previously been hidden from the world, images surfaced of skinny children, many of whom had been beaten and abused. Some were left tied to metal bed frames. In 2021, Kai visited several private clinics and public hospitals to request an abortion. In a hospital where the doctor refused to perform the procedure, he said, “How do I know you won`t come back and say you don`t want the abortion after that?” At the Marie Stopes clinic in Bucharest, technician Kai said an abortion could cause her to bleed and die because it was her first pregnancy. “And then we should call the ambulance anyway,” the technician added. Draghici himself aborted as a young woman under the prohibition of the Ceauèescu era in 770.
“I was taken to the home of an old woman who didn`t really know what she was doing,” says Draghici. “She had cooked metal instruments and put a cloth in my mouth so the neighbours couldn`t hear her. After her abortion, Draghici joined the underground network of people who connect women with those who might have abortions. Romania`s abortion ban was reinforced by a contraceptive ban, which was not mentioned in the Alabama law. But the Trump administration dealt a blow to birth control in 2017 when it allowed employers not to provide it as part of employee insurance for religious reasons. This decision was stopped by a federal judge in January of this year. In September 2020, after the death of a Romanian woman as a result of an unsafe abortion, Health Ministry spokeswoman Oana Grigore was criticized by activists for saying that the ministry “encourages pregnancies and does not promote abortion.” Andrada Cilibiu has never had an abortion, but abortion has traumatized several generations of women in her family. “My grandmother, who is 100 years old, told me that her mother died of a secret abortion in 1938.
My mother told me that she had to have an abortion in the early 2000s and that it was very complicated to do so. In 1957, communist Romania was one of the first countries in the world to legalize abortion. But in 1966, Nicolae Ceausescu issued Decree 770 due to the stagnation of the population, which violated the regime`s development plans. Its pro-natalist target has worked perfectly: in a decade, the number of children per woman has doubled, from 1.9 to 3.7. But at the same time, about 10,000 women lost their lives and 100,000 were mutilated by clandestine abortions. Not to mention the extremely high infant mortality rate and orphanage scandals that made international headlines after the fall of the regime. Romania`s health ministry declined to comment. Various anti-abortion organizations could not be reached for comment; One group, the Pro Vita Association, declined to comment, citing concerns about “pro-abortion and gender bias.” “Women will continue to perform abortions at home with sharp objects in 2021,” she said, recalling Ceausescu`s 24-year ban on abortion.
Poland`s anti-abortion stance has attracted particular media attention as part of the global backlash against abortion rights.
