On August 25, 2022, the Texas Tigger Law declared the complete ban on abortion within the state. Soon after, the controversial topic of women's body rights was widely discussed. Uterus, a female reproductive organ born with them, are now deprived of their body, fell into the hands of politicians. Some experts explained that this law might bring benefits such as increasing the fertility rate and solving the aging crisis in the U.S. However, Romania is one example that taught people from history the devastating situation society faced once women were deprived of reproductive rights. Approximately 10,000 women died due to seeking alternative methods of abortion; 100,000 children were neglected and sent to orphanages with egregious conditions; neglected Romanian orphans grew to become adults with only 70% of average I.Q. level.
In recent decades, due to the inverse correlation between the economy and birth rate, the higher the GDP of a country is, the lower the fertility rate there will be. The increasing growth of the world economy exerted a positive effect on developing technology; however, accompanied by the damaging impact of the low fertility rate. Highly developed countries worldwide, such as Japan, Korea, U.S., U.K., and China, have been trying to overcome the challenge of low birth rates.
At first, the government implanted family welfare to promote the fertility rate among young people. For example, Japan government announced the pro-natalist law of plus one policy, which funded 50,000 more new daycare centers. The Chinese government also adjusted the family planning law from a two-child-only policy to three-child-policy. These policies were carefully tested out for decades. Apparently, from the declining fertility rate, it can be said that most pro-natalist laws are not working out. According to the U.N. database, the worldwide "pro-natal policies have risen from 10% in 1976 to 15% in 2001, to 28% in 2015", while the world fertility rate remains decreased from 4.04 in 1976 to 2.67 in 2001, to 2.46 in 2015.
Facing the extravagant pressure caused by the world's low birth rate crisis, experts suggested new pro-natal laws to drag the fertility rate back to normal (2.1 children per family). Some stated the government should restrain women's high-level education, forcing them to spend more time at home than at school. They said that women would pay attention to raising babies instead of attending university. Some other experts said the overturning of Roe V. Wade could be seen as an opportunity for a low fertility rate crisis. They said if all women were deprived of their reproductive rights, then the birth rate would rapidly rise to normal. Even though these ideologies have logical fallacies, some professors still uphold their proposals.
Nevertheless, in 1966 Romania used decree 770 to gain complete control of female citizens' reproductive rights. Ceausescu's government prohibited abortion and contraception in order to achieve the purpose of increasing the fertility rate. In the short term, the birth rate rapidly leaped to a new level of 3.66 in 1967 and continued for one year. After communism was abandoned and new leaders overturned this decree, the fertility rate dropped to 2.44 and continued declining. Although this decree did not continue for an extended period, it left cataclysmic consequences that Romania's politicians were forced to encounter.
Due to the situation that all citizens do not have access to any contraception methods, unexpected babies were brought into the world, abandoned by their families, and starved to death on the street. "Unwanted children were turned over to state orphanages. There, they were subjected to institutionalized neglect, sexual abuse, and indiscriminate injections to 'control behavior.'" The 33 orphanages in the country only have 4,451 beds, covering 50% of the total demanding population. These children are mostly illiterate and left with irreversible mental or physical diseases. "By the end of the 20th century, over 10,000 institutionalized children were living with AIDS due to neglect and failure to sterilize medical instruments.". Poverty is the grave consequence brought by decree 770. Corruption within the Romanian government failed to renovate the grievous social problem, resulting in most orphans with ADHD, depression, and deleterious effects on their I.Q. level. A research article from PNAS has shown that "Early childhood deprivation is associated with higher rates of neurodevelopmental and mental disorders in adulthood.". Researchers compared the 67 Romanian adoptees with 21 normal U.K. adoptees, with the astonishing result that Romanian adoptees have an 8.6% reduction in their total brain volume. The profound influences of decree 770 do limit not only the drastic amount of neglected orphans but also the 1.1 million women demanding abortions.
In 1966, the communist leader of Romania, Ceaușescu, announced, "The fetus is the property of the entire society … Anyone who avoids having children is a deserter who abandons the laws of national continuity." The sudden criminalization of abortion placed Romanian women's health in danger. From what was recorded, at least 9,452 women died under unprofessional abortion procedures in illegal clinics. No one acknowledged the pain and desperation these girls encountered, and no one stood out to speak for them under the censorship of the Romanian communist government. A Romanian gynecologist B.T. was interviewed about his experience of being an illegal abortion operator. He said, "Many of the women were not anesthetized. A curettage is not at all pleasant, you know. It hurts like hell. If it were me, I would have died a hundred times. And these women refrained from shouting, from making noise." Fortunately, on December 26, 1989, decree 770 was abolished after the success of the Romanian Revolution; women were finally liberated after suffering 23 years of deprived reproductive rights.
After the recent overturn of Roe v.Wade and the complete ban on abortion within Texas, the reproductive rights women had fought for centuries have been deprived again. A new "decree 770" had been put into action. What will the consequences be? Who is going to be responsible for the unexpected babies? Where are we heading to? The answers remain unknown.
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