WOMEN AND ABORTION DURING 1966-1989 Cover Image

FEMEIA ŞI AVORTUL ÎN PERIODA 1966-1989
WOMEN AND ABORTION DURING 1966-1989

Author(s): Elena Bărbulescu
Subject(s): History
Published by: Argonaut

Summary/Abstract: The author of this paper wants to present some powerful experiences that occurred during Ceauşescu’s era. The paper is based on Oral History interviews, taken by author during the Spring of 1997 in two neighbourhoods from Cluj-Napoca, one of the five big cities of Romania. The interviews were taken from women of the same age, coming from the same walk-of-life, and all were born in rural areas. First, an emphasis is put upon the political climate that led to the Decrees, the way they were sustained by sociologists, doctors, psychologists, even writers, as the general ideas was that a woman without - at least one - a baby is mentally and physically an infirm. Secondly, the author points out the contraceptive methods by dividing them into medical and natural ones, showing at the same time what the informants think about them. Further on, the abortive methods are divided in the same way, and continued by the experiences those women were forced to pass through and the symbols that come out of them. The author analyzes the interviews, the way people talk and the clichees and stereotypes, as also the facts, thoughts and circumstances that led to the bitter conclusion: “And then, you know, there were good people and communists, communists!”.

  • Issue Year: 1999
  • Issue No: I
  • Page Range: 177-193
  • Page Count: 17
  • Language: Romanian
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