Children of the Decree - documentary about the anti-abortion regime in Romania

I found the documentary Children of the Decree from youtube. The documentary is in English (also with English subtitles when Romanian is being spoken) and they talk about the decree 770 which interdicted abortion and contraception. There are also women who tell their experiences and thoughts.

Here is the first part. You can find the other parts (there are 7) from youtube. I hope the links work (they did for me at least).

I watched it all and although i've heard from mom and other women similar stories it still sent shivers down my spine. And the thought that some people want to go back to those times simply terrifies me.

I watched the whole thing. Quite disturbing.

Even more disturbing were the many parallels I did notice in certain sectors of present US culture. Such as ~

- push to outlaw all abortion.

- desire to do away with all birth control.

- fertility and birth control thought of as solely 'women's problems'.

- diminishment of women's rights.

- punishment of women who seek abortion.

- defining the man as more 'macho', press to make men more rugged, macho, etc.

- defining the man as 'over', or in charge of, the woman.

- disdain and punishment of single mothers.

- push to expand population despite serious economic issues.

- neglect and disdain of the handicapped and minorities.

- rabid Statism or Nationalism.

- worship of children.

- tax penalties against the celibate or childless.

- Propaganda on all the above including 'entertainment' based Propaganda.

It was quite interesting. Also disturbing to consider that similar could happen anywhere, indeed many similar ideas seem to be creeping up around us.

If others here have the time to watch this, do. Quite interesting and disturbing.

I also found the documentary disturbing although i heard live the same stories from my mom and other women. Myself i'm the so-called "decree child" - i was born during that time but luckily my parents wanted me and so is my sister.

When i see these nuts pushing their restrictive agenda on women i can't help wonder...is it really because they want population growth or just because they simply hate women? Because even if the communist regime claimed that they wanted more workforce - it's clear that they turned women into breeding machines and diminished their status as human beings. There are women in the documentary who speak about being shamed for having abortions (the ones who were lucky enough to survive). The women i talked to told me the same thing. It was not enough that they were mentally and physically traumatized, death hanging over their heads, they had to endure plenty of insults and guilt. My friends mom told me that after she had her, she had plenty abortions and she remembers how these nurses (or whoever was secretly hired to do it) called her a slut and that's what she deserves if she doesn't keep her legs closed (mind you she was married). And the men didn't get ANY of the guilt, they were just the saints whom upon their wife/girlfriend's pregnancy they acted like "omg! where did this come from?"eyes2 They simply didn't care...they just wanted their "deserved" share of sex and the consequences? Well...it's the woman's job.

Also the way women were monitorized, obligatory check-ups at the workplace...mom also told me about those. They were checking all women in the same room, no privacy, the gyns were very unpolite, sometimes insulting them. Even now there are some old school doctors whose behavior is a reminiscence of those times. Maybe i have mentioned here before when i had trouble with my stupid period and i had to go to see a doctor who immediately ORDERED me to undress because she was sure i had an abortion (massive bleeding). I told her i was a virgin (13 years old back then) but she didn't belive me and called me a slut. In front of my mom. Another friend of mine suffered the same treatment...she had to go for a pap smear and the gyn was so brutal it hurt her and she complained. The gyn shouted at her "shut the fuck up, when you fucked you liked it, now suffer!" :hs