The Representation of the Socialist Abortion Ban as Women’s Reproductive Burden in Postsocialist Romanian Cinema

Abstract

This paper examines the representation of back-alley abortions in postsocialist Romanian cinema as reproductive burden and the abortion ban during the socialist period 1966–1989, when Decree 770 was in effect. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007), tells the story of a university student, who resorts to an illegal abortion. The female characters in Mungiu’s art film show reproductive agency. Back-alley abortions became a way of reclaiming women’s bodies. In the documentary Children of the Decree, director Florin Iepan explores Ceaușescu’s pronatalist policies by subversively juxtaposing official propaganda images with a series of interviews with medical professionals, abortionists, and women. Iepan’s contribution is to show the eugenic dimensions of Ceaușescu’s population policy that preferred healthy children to the detriment of disabled children. In another serialized documentary Truths about the Past female director Raluca Rogojină explores the impact of communist patriotic pronatalist policies on women and children.