Countries Abortion Profile
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Romania |
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Countries Abortion Profile
Home > Country profiles > Romania
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Romania |
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1. Law related to Abortion |
Brief history: Abortion on request was first legalized in Romania in 1957. The abortion had to be performed during the first trimester of pregnancy in a hospital. The Law was enacted by the Government for several reasons in order to protect women’s health and to support reproductive self-determination.
Pregnancy termination can be performed later by a specialist physician only if this is necessary for therapeutic reasons.
(MOH Standards and practice recommendations for performing elective pregnancy termination-June 2003). |
2. Policy |
Elective abortion is legal in Romania if it is performed by a gynecologist, upon a woman’s request, up to 12 weeks from the date of conception (or up to 14 weeks from the last menstrual period). (Abortion and Contraception in Romania-A Strategic Assessment of Policy, Program and Research Issues-2004) |
3. Second Trimester Abortion |
4. Practice |
No recent data available at the moment. |
5. Reproductive Health Perspective |
Signatory to ICPD, CEDAW: Yes |
6. Abortion Statistics |
Induced abortion rate among women aged 15-44 years |
7. Public sector |
Abortion services available: |
8. Private sector |
Abortion services available: |
9. Methods used |
Dilatation and curettage is the main method used (over 50% of all cases) for elective abortion, in both public and private facilities. There are some hospitals, even at the tertiary health-care level or in university clinics where vacuum aspiration is completely unavailable; in other sites vacuum aspiration equipment is available only to select specialists and their clients. Even in facilities where vacuum aspiration equipment is available to all personnel it was not routinely used for all patients. Depending on their experience and personal preferences, some gynaecologists, especially older ones, prefer to use dilatation and sharp curettage. Electric aspiration equipment is old, improperly maintained, and faulty. |
10. Provider level allowed for surgical and medical abortion |
Only Ob/Gyn. |
11. Abortion related morbidity mortality statistics |
No recent data. |
12. Manufacture and/or availability through import of abortion equipment (MVA syringes, EVA equipment) |
Originally MVA supplied by Ipas through distributor, but activity discontinued; no recent data available at the moment. |
13. Manufacture/ import of Mifepristone, Misoprostol |
14. Facility and provider certification norms in brief |
15. Information available in national service delivery standards |
Guide to Providing Abortion Care |
16. Informal / illegal providers – if present who are they |
17. Population urban/ rural: Demography of the country, with an analysis of availability of abortion services ratio to population |
18. Role of government |
Supportive, enabling, creating barriers, provides adequate funding to run training and service delivery programmes |
19. Role of religion/ religious leaders |
Restrictive. |
20. Local Ob Gyn societies |
Supportive. |
21. Current status and potential of research |
22. Awareness amongst community members |
23. Role of member organization/ individual |
Represented Ipas in Romania since 2002, with focus on abortion assessment, operations research, and MVA promotion; Ipas Europe program closed in 2008; currently on a 10-day consultancy for Ipas Medical Abortion unit. |