Womenʹs perspectives on abortion in Romania

Romanian women have commonly used abortion (both legal and clandestine) to prevent unwanted births. We introduce this paper with a brief summary of the recent history of abortion in Romania, then we combine quantitative data from a previous report ([1] Johnson et al., Lancet 341, 875, 1993) of the research with womenʹs own words about the following issues: their decisions to have an abortion, the impact of abortion restrictions under the Ceauimageescu government, and their needs and desires for improved reproductive health services. We also present gynaecologistsʹ views of abortion restrictions and needs for improved family-planning services to make a compelling case for the need for safe, legal, comprehensive abortion care in Romania and elsewhere.