
Decree 770 was a decree of the
communist government
A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...
of Romanian dictator
Nicolae Ceaușescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu ( ; ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian politician who was the second and last Communism, communist leader of Socialist Romania, Romania, serving as the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 u ...
, signed in 1967. It restricted
abortion
Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...
and
contraception
Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth control only be ...
, and was intended to create a new and large Romanian population. The term (from the
Romanian language
Romanian (obsolete spelling: Roumanian; , or , ) is the official and main language of Romania and Moldova. Romanian is part of the Eastern Romance languages, Eastern Romance sub-branch of Romance languages, a linguistic group that evolved fr ...
word , meaning "
decree
A decree is a law, legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state, judge, monarch, royal figure, or other relevant Authority, authorities, according to certain procedures. These procedures are usually defined by the constitution, Legislativ ...
"; diminutive ) is used to refer to those
Romanians
Romanians (, ; dated Endonym and exonym, exonym ''Vlachs'') are a Romance languages, Romance-speaking ethnic group and nation native to Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. Sharing a Culture of Romania, ...
born during the time period immediately following the decree.
Origin of the decree
Before 1968, the Romanian
abortion
Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...
policy was one of the most liberal in Europe. Because the availability of
contraceptive
Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth control only be ...
methods was poor, abortion became the foremost method of Romanian family planning.
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 up-to-date in 1966. Romanian leaders interpreted the decreasing number of births to be a result of the 1957 decree that
legalized abortion.
To counter this sharp decline in the birth rate, the
Communist Party decided that the country's population should be increased from 20 million to 30 million inhabitants. In October 1966, Decree 770 was personally sanctioned by Ceaușescu. Abortion and contraception were declared illegal, except for:
* women over 45 (later lowered to 40, then raised again to 45).
* women who had already borne four children (later raised to five).
* women whose life would be threatened by carrying to term, due to medical complications.
* women who were pregnant through rape and/or
incest
Incest ( ) is sexual intercourse, sex between kinship, close relatives, for example a brother, sister, or parent. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by lineag ...
.
Enforcement
To enforce the decree, society was strictly controlled. Contraceptives were removed from sale and all women were required to be monitored monthly by a
gynecologist
Gynaecology or gynecology (see American and British English spelling differences) is the area of medicine concerned with conditions affecting the female reproductive system. It is often paired with the field of obstetrics, which focuses on pre ...
.
Any detected pregnancies were followed until birth. The
secret police
image:Putin-Stasi-Ausweis.png, 300px, Vladimir Putin's secret police identity card, issued by the East German Stasi while he was working as a Soviet KGB liaison officer from 1985 to 1989. Both organizations used similar forms of repression.
Secre ...
kept a close eye on hospital procedures.
Sex education
Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including human sexual anatomy, Human sexual activity, sexual activity, sexual reproduction, safe sex, birth ...
was refocused primarily on the benefits of motherhood, including the ostensible satisfaction of being a heroic mother who gives her homeland many children.
The direct consequence of the decree was a huge
baby boom
A baby boom is a period marked by a significant increase of births. This demography, demographic phenomenon is usually an ascribed characteristic within the population of a specific nationality, nation or culture. Baby booms are caused by various ...
. Between 1966 and 1967 the number of births almost doubled, and the estimated
total fertility rate
The total fertility rate (TFR) of a population is the average number of children that are born to a woman over her lifetime, if they were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) through their lifetime, and they were t ...
(TFR) increased from 1.9 to 3.7. The generation born in 1967 and 1968 was the largest in Romanian history. Thousands of nursery schools were built. As the children got older, their needs were not properly met. There were cases where lectures were shortened to enable three school shifts. In schools, a
student–teacher ratio
The student–teacher ratio or student–faculty ratio refers to the number of students who attend a school or university divided by the number of teachers or staff in the institution. For example, a student–teacher ratio of 10:1 indicates that ...
of over 40 children per class became frequent.
When, after the revolution, lots of businesses closed or shrank their workforce,
the latest hires were fired preferentially.
The decree was abolished on 26 December 1989,
days after the
Romanian Revolution
The Romanian revolution () was a period of violent Civil disorder, civil unrest in Socialist Republic of Romania, Romania during December 1989 as a part of the revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several countries around the world, primarily ...
.
Circumvention and mortality
In the 1970s, birth rates declined again. Economic pressure on families remained, and people began to seek ways to circumvent the decree. Wealthier women were able to obtain contraceptives illegally or to bribe doctors to give diagnoses which made abortion possible. Especially among the less educated and poorer women there were many unwanted pregnancies. These women could only use primitive methods of abortion, which led to infection, sterility or even their own death. The
mortality among pregnant women became the highest in Europe during the reign of Ceaușescu. While the childbed mortality rate kept declining over the years in neighboring countries, in Romania it increased to more than ten times that of its neighbors.
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
Child mortality is the death of children under the age of five. The child mortality rate (also under-five mortality rate) refers to the probability of dying between birth and exactly five years of age expressed per 1,000 live births.
It encompa ...
.
Romanian orphans
A consequence of Ceaușescu's
natalist
Natalism (also called pronatalism or the pro-birth position) is a policy paradigm or personal value that promotes the reproduction of human life as an important objective of humanity and therefore advocates a high birthrate.
Cf.:
According to ...
policy was that large numbers of children ended up living in
orphanages
An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abusiv ...
, because their parents could not cope with looking after them. The vast majority of children who lived in the state-run orphanages were not actually orphans, like the name implies, but simply children whose parents could not afford or did not want to look after them.
Romanian revolution
In their book ''
Freakonomics
''Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything'' is the debut non-fiction book by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and ''New York Times'' journalist Stephen J. Dubner. Published on April 12, 2005, by Wil ...
'', authors
Steven Levitt
Steven David Levitt (born May 29, 1967) is an American economist and co-author of the best-selling book ''Freakonomics'' and its sequels (along with Stephen J. Dubner). Levitt was the winner of the 2003 John Bates Clark Medal for his work in th ...
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. They further argue that the Decreței are exactly the same people who spearheaded the
Romanian revolution
The Romanian revolution () was a period of violent Civil disorder, civil unrest in Socialist Republic of Romania, Romania during December 1989 as a part of the revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several countries around the world, primarily ...
where Ceaușescu's regime was violently overthrown in 1989.
In 1989, the oldest would have been 22 years old, in the general age range of most revolutionaries. Levitt and Dubner note that Romania was the only east-European communist country with strict anti-abortion and anti-contraception laws at the time, and the only country whose ruler was violently overthrown and killed at the
end
End, END, Ending, or ENDS may refer to:
End Mathematics
*End (category theory)
* End (topology)
* End (graph theory)
* End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous)
* End (endomorphism) Sports and games
*End (gridiron football)
*End, a division ...
of the
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
. Most other such countries experienced a tumultuous, but peaceful, transition. There were however other aspects of
totalitarian
Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public sph ...
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
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
, and a
cult of personality
A cult of personality, or a cult of the leader,Cas Mudde, Mudde, Cas and Kaltwasser, Cristóbal Rovira (2017) ''Populism: A Very Short Introduction''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 63. is the result of an effort which is made to create ...
built up around the leader.
The actual violence of the revolution can be attributed to divisions among the ruling and military/secret police and the vacuum of power that resulted. Revolutions are often observed to come in waves, and it is believed by some authors that Romania would have experienced violent revolution no matter its demographic situation.
Abortion after 1990

Although in the early 1990s, shortly after abortion was legalized, the abortion rate was very high, it decreased strongly as more couples started using contraception, and the economy also started to improve after the instability of the transition. The chart presented shows data from the
National Institute of Statistics for years between 1990 and 2010 and from
Eurostat
Eurostat ("European Statistical Office"; also DG ESTAT) is a department of the European Commission ( Directorate-General), located in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statist ...
for data between 2011 and 2018.
In film
* ''
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
''4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days'' () is a 2007 Romanian art film written and directed by Cristian Mungiu and starring Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu, and Vlad Ivanov. The film is set in Communist Romania in the final years of the Nicolae Ce ...
'' is a 2007 film directed by
Cristian Mungiu
Cristian Mungiu (; born 27 April 1968) is a Romanian filmmaker. He won the Palme d'Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival for his film '' 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days'', which he wrote and directed. He has also won the awards for Best Screenplay and ...
(born in 1968 under the decree). It follows two unmarried students who try to abort a pregnancy.
See also
*
Natalism
Natalism (also called pronatalism or the pro-birth position) is a policy paradigm or personal value that promotes the reproduction of human life as an important objective of humanity and therefore advocates a high birthrate.
Cf.:
According to t ...
*
Abortion in Romania
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. In the year 2004, there were 216,261 live births and 191,000 reported abortions, meaning ...
* ''
Tales from the Golden Age
''Tales from the Golden Age'' () is a 2009 Romanian Anthology film, omnibus film. It was screened as part of the Un Certain Regard section at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.
The film is composed of six whimsical, yet blackly comic short stories, ...
''
*
Tax on childlessness
The tax on childlessness () was a natalist policy imposed in the Soviet Union and other Communist countries, starting in the 1940s. Joseph Stalin's regime created the tax in order to encourage adult people to reproduce, thus increasing the number ...
*
Legalized abortion and crime effect
A theory regarding the effect of legalized abortion on crime (often referred to as the Donohue–Levitt hypothesis) is a controversial hypothesis about the reduction in crime in the decades following the legalization of abortion. Proponents argue ...
References
Sources
This article, or a previous version, was translated from
the article "Decreet 770" on the Dutch Wikipedia. This Dutch article used the following sources:
* ''Children of the decree (Das Experiment 770: Gebären auf Befehl)'', German movie from 2004 by Florin Iepan
* ''"The 1966 law concerning prohibition of abortion in Romania and its consequences - the fate of one generation"'', Manuela Lataianu, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw
External links
* {{cite web , title=decrețel , url=https://dexonline.ro/definitie/decre%C8%9Bel , website=dexonline , language=ro
Abortion law
Demographics of Romania
*
*
Romanian words and phrases
Natalism
Legal history of Romania
Abortion in Romania
1967 in Romania
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