The remarkable story of Romanian women's struggle to manage their fertility

Abstract

In 1957, along with many countries in Eastern Europe, Romania liberalised its abortion law. The Soviet model of birth control made surgical abortion easily available, but put restrictions on access to modern contraceptives, leading to an exceptionally high abortion rate. By the mid-1960s there were 1 100 000 abortions performed each year in Romania, a lifetime average of 3.9 per woman, the highest number ever recorded.1 In October 1966, 1 year after coming to power, in an attempt to boost fertility, Romania's communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu made abortion broadly illegal, permitting the procedure legally only under a narrow range of circumstances: for women with four or more children, over the age of 45 years, in circumstances where the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest or threatened the life of the women, or in the case of congenital defect.1

Just months after abortion was restricted, the number of safe, registered abortions had fallen 20-fold, and 1 year after the law took effect, the total fertility rate (TFR) nearly doubled (from 1.9 just before the restrictive law to 3.6 in 1967–1968). As women gradually …

Full text

The remarkable story of Romanian
women’s struggle to manage
their fertility
Mihai Horga,
1
Caitlin Gerdts,
2
Malcolm Potts
3
1
Senior Advisor, East European
Institute for Reproductive Health,
Tirgu-Mures, Romania
2
Epidemiologist, Department of
Obstetrics, Gynecology, and
Reproductive Sciences, University
of California, San Francisco,
CA, USA
3
Bixby Professor, Bixby Center
for Population, Health and
Sustainability, University of
California, Berkeley, CA, USA
Correspondence to
Dr Mihai Horga, East European
Institute for Reproductive Health,
1 Moldovei Street, Tirgu-Mures
540493, Romania;
mhorga@eeirh.org
Received 23 September 2012
Revised 25 October 2012
Accepted 26 October 2012
To cite: Horga M, Gerdts C,
Potts M. Journal of Family
Planning and Reproductive
Health Care 2013, 39,2–4.
BACKGROUND
In 1957, along with many countries in
Eastern Europe, Romania liberalised its
abortion law. The Soviet model of birth
control made surgical abortion easily avail-
able, but put restrictions on access to
modern contraceptives, leading to an
exceptionally high abortion rate. By the
mid-1960s there were 1 100 000 abortions
performed each year in Romania, a lifetime
average of 3.9 per woman, the highest
number ever recorded.
1
In October 1966,
1 year after coming to power, in an
attempt to boost fertility, Romania’s com-
munist leader Nicolae Ceausescu made
abortion broadly illegal, permitting the
procedure legally only under a narrow
range of circumstances: for women with
four or more children, over the age of 45
years, in circumstances where the preg-
nancy was the result of rape or incest or
threatened the life of the women, or in the
case of congenital defect.
1
Just months after abortion was
restricted, the number of safe, registered
abortions had fallen 20-fold, and 1 year
after the law took effect, the total fertility
rate (TFR) nearly doubled (from 1.9 just
before the restrictive law to 3.6 in 1967–
1968). As women gradually found solu-
tions for regulating their fertility –either
through contraceptives procured illegally
or through illegal abortions –the TFR
began to fall again, reaching 2.9 in 1970,
2.2 in 1980–1984 and stabilised around
2.3 births per woman during the period
1985–1989.
12
At the same time deaths from unsafe
abortion rose rapidly. Between 1966 and
1989, while abortion was illegal in
Romania, overall maternal mortality
increased dramatically, from 85 per
100 000 live births in 1965 to a peak of
169 per 100 000 live births in 1989.
1
Over the same period, maternal mortality
from unsafe abortion skyrocketed to an
incredible 147 per 100 000 live births,
while maternal deaths from other obstet-
ric causes continued to decline. Figure 1
illustrates the peak and plateau in total
fertility, along with the striking rise in
maternal mortality that was solely driven
by abortion-related deaths, as maternal
deaths from other obstetric causes contin-
ued to fall.
SHIFT IN FAMILY PLANNING POLICY
Within days of the fall of Ceausescu’s
regime in December 1989, the anti-
abortion law was abolished and abortion
made available on request. Within the span
of 1 year, the maternal mortality rate fell
by half to 84 per 100 000 live births. In
the absence of contraceptive services, com-
modities and information, the number of
safe, registered abortions again rose dra-
matically.
34
In 1990, 913 973 registered
abortions were performed, and 314 746
births were recorded: a three to one ratio.
5
Initially, contraception use was slow to
catch on.
6
Traditional contraceptive
methods were common, but modern
methods became quickly and widely avail-
able through international donations and
in pharmacies. A network of family plan-
ning clinics was developed in the
mid-1990s and physicians were trained to
provide family planning. Family planning
services were included in primary health
care, and modern contraceptives were
made available free of charge to vulnerable
groups of the population, resulting in
increased contraceptive use.
78
According
to the latest survey, contraceptive preva-
lence in Romania is above 70%, modern
contraceptive prevalence accounts for
61.1% and the most used methods are
condoms (27.6%), pills (22.8%) and intra-
uterine devices (7.0%).
9
After a drop from 2.2 in 1989 to 1.8 in
1990 and to 1.4 in 1993–1994, the TFR
in Romania has remained constant at
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COMMENTARY
2Horga M, et al.Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care 2013;39:2–4. doi:10.1136/jfprhc-2012-100498
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1.3,
2
despite the marked rise in contraceptive preva-
lence. This rise in contraceptive use has been accom-
panied by a decisive fall in the induced abortion rate
from 163.6 per 1000 women in 1990 to 10.1 in 2010
and in the abortion-related maternal mortality rate
from 147 per 100 000 live births in 1989 to 5.2 in
2010.
5
Figure 1 shows a combined view of abortion,
contraception, maternal mortality and TFRs for the
20 years following the change in abortion legislation.
As has been suggested elsewhere,
10
there may be a
number of plausible explanations for such a dramatic
drop in the abortion rate, including increased contra-
ceptive effectiveness, and shifting attitudes about the
acceptability of abortion which could decrease
women’s willingness to report abortions. Indeed, many
factors may have contributed to decreases in induced
abortions. However, although we cannot directly attri-
bute causality, we have no data to suggest that there
was a decline in the completeness of reporting abortion
experiences in successive surveys. The marked rise in
contraceptive prevalence coinciding with a dramatic
decline in the abortion rate makes increased modern
contraceptive use the most likely explanation for the
steeply falling abortion rate in Romania.
LESSONS LEARNED
Few countries in history have made such dramatic
shifts in family planning policy or availability that
would allow the study of causal links between access
to contraception and abortion and changes in repro-
ductive outcomes. While the fertility patterns illu-
strated by the Romanian example highlight the
complex nature of fertility and its determinants, two
points emerge clearly. First, restricting access to safe
abortion in Romania caused a dramatic increase in
maternal mortality driven solely by unsafe abortion-
related deaths. And second, increased access to
modern contraception in Romania over the last 15
years has not reduced fertility in the country, but
instead has reduced the need for women to resort to
abortion. Countries that increasingly seek to restrict
access to abortion and contraception should look and
learn from Romania’s example.
Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank Dr
Martha Campbell for her guidance and invaluable
perspective.
Funding None.
Competing interests None.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned;
externally peer reviewed.
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Commentary
Horga M, et al.Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care 2013;39:2–4. doi:10.1136/jfprhc-2012-100498 3
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Commentary
4Horga M, et al.Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care 2013;39:2–4. doi:10.1136/jfprhc-2012-100498
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struggle to manage their fertility
The remarkable story of Romanian women's
Mihai Horga, Caitlin Gerdts and Malcolm Potts
doi: 10.1136/jfprhc-2012-100498
2013 39: 2-4 J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care
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