OBJECTIVES

The abortion ban (1966-1989) and associated pronatalism during Ceauşescu’s regime is considered one of the most repressive reproduction policies of the twentieth century. Immediately after the fall of the communist regime, the new Romanian government legalized abortion on request and liberal policies were implemented, initially with international aid and later on the basis of national health-programs. Based on a thick ethnography of the abortion issue in post-communist Romania, the REPROAB project seeks to understand the legacy of the former abortion ban in terms of institutional norms and individual practices. Interdisciplinary in nature, and primarily qualitative, it combines a social anthropology and Memory Studies approach in order to:

Objective 1: Inventory the public policies directly developed with regards to abortion and birth control in post-communist Romania and the institutions which implement them.

Objective 2: Identify the main influences (recent past politics, public health concerns, public opinion, international/European norms, etc.) concerning those public policies.

Objective 3: Examine the ways in which post-communist institutional practices regarding abortion (medical protocols, gathering of statistical data, specific professional training of obstetrician/gynecologists, etc.) have evolved over the years.

Objective 4: Analyze the current practices of health professionals dealing with abortion (chirurgical or medical) in contemporary Romania and the discourses associated with them.

Objective 5: Analyze the current knowledge, attitudes and behaviors related to abortion care, of women/couples asking for a pregnancy interruption.