We welcome the recommendations in the UPR report on strengthening and facilitating non-discriminatory access to sexual and reproductive health services, including for legal abortion and contraception.
We welcome Romania’s acceptance of recommendations to adopt and fund a national strategy for sexual and reproductive health and to address health care inequities, including through access to services for marginalized communities. We are particularly pleased by the acceptance of recommendations to protect the right to safe termination of pregnancy, and to ensure that conscientious objection does not inhibit access to legally recognized sexual and reproductive rights, which, we note, includes legal abortion. We welcome acceptance of recommendations to ensure access to family planning services, including through greater access to free contraceptives for women and adolescents.
However, Human Rights Watch is gravely disappointed that Romania has failed to accept other recommendations on measures critical to the full realization of sexual and reproductive health rights. Although the law permits on-request abortion up to 14 weeks of pregnancy, public hospitals increasingly refuse access to it.[1] Doctors regularly invoke so-called conscientious objection to deny abortion care without any legal obligation to refer patients elsewhere for time-sensitive services.[2] Continued exclusion of on-request abortion from coverage by the National Health Insurance Fund further inhibits access. Decreasing public abortion care services pushes women and girls to private clinics, but cost and lack of availability present obstacles, particularly for adolescents, rural communities, and those living in poverty or otherwise marginalized.[3] The government has not provided funding for free contraceptives since 2013.[4] Adolescent pregnancy rates remain among the highest in the European Union.[5]
Romania’s existing Health Education curriculum does not meet the need or standards for comprehensive sexuality education, which the government recognizes is absent from existing legal frameworks. Staff leading Health Education are often not trained or monitored. It remains optional and requires parental consent, resulting in low participation rates.[6] Subjects such as abortion, gender identity, and sexual orientation are often excluded.[7]
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people continue to face discrimination and intolerance. We are alarmed by a bill currently in parliament that would ban mention of “gender reassignment or homosexuality” in educational materials under the guise of protecting children from so-called harmful propaganda.[8]
Romania has yet to ratify the ILO Convention on Violence and Harassment, which seeks to end violence and harassment, including gender-based violence, in the world of work.
We urge the government of Romania to fulfil its international human rights obligations by ensuring access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health rights and guaranteeing protection from violence and discrimination for all.
[1] Diana Oncioiu et. al., “Dozens of Romanian Hospitals Refuse to Perform Abortions,” Decree Chronicles, October 1, 2021, https://decreechronicles.com/dozens-of-romanian-public-hospitals-refuse-to-perform-abortions/ (accessed September 20, 2023); Lina Vdovîi and Michael Bird, “Over 30 percent of hospitals in Romania are refusing legal abortions,” The Black Sea, July 11, 2019, 2019, https://theblacksea.eu/stories/quarter-hospitals-romania-are-refusing-legal-abortions/ (accessed September 20, 2023); FILIA Center, Restrictive Access to Abortions in Romania 2019 (June 2019), https://centrulfilia.ro/new/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Abortions-Status-Report-2019_FILIA.pdf (accessed September 20, 2023), p. 7; FILIA Center, Refusal to Perform Abortion on Request in Romania: 2020-2021 (2021), https://centrulfilia.ro/new/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Abortion-report.pdf (accessed September 20, 2023), p. 8.
[2] Romanian College of Physicians, Code of Medical Deontology, published in the Official Gazette, Part I nr. 981 of December 7, 206, effective from January 6, 2017, https://www.cmr.ro/cod-deontologic (accessed September 20, 2023), art. 34(2); Lina Vdovii and Michael Bird, “Why 60 Romanian hospitals are refusing abortions,” EUObserver, July 11, 2019, https://euobserver.com/news/145391 (accessed September 20, 2023); Rosa Schwartzburg, “In Romania, Hard-Won Abortion Rights Are Being Systematically Undermined,” The WIRE, January 20, 2022, https://thewire.in/women/romania-abortion-rights-right-wing-reproductive-rights (accessed September 20, 2023); Human Rights Watch interviews with Irina Mateescu, midwife, online, January 28, 2023, Valentina Simbotin, Manager, Marie Stopes International Bucharest, Bucharest, December 9, 2022, Iustina Ionescu, lawyer, Bucharest, December 5, 2022; Human Rights Watch interview with Irina Cațighera, primary doctor, family planning office, Cuza Vodă Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Iași, May 3, 2023.
[3] Human Rights Watch interviews with Daniela Draghici, activist, Bucharest, December 6, 2022; Rosa Schwartzburg, “In Romania, Hard-Won Abortion Rights Are Being Systematically Undermined,” The Wire, January 20, 2022, https://thewire.in/women/romania-abortion-rights-right-wing-reproductive-rights (accessed September 20, 2023); European Commission, State of Health in the EU: Romania Country Health Profile 2021, https://www.oecd.org/publications/romania-country-health-profile-2021-74ad9999-en.htm, 2021, (accessed September 20, 2023), pp. 9 and 17; Akmaljon Akhmedjonov et. al., “Europe’s growing abortion nightmare,” POLITICO, July 1, 2023, https://www.politico.eu/article/europes-growing-abortion-nightmare/ (accessed September 20, 2023).
[4] Andrada Cilibiu, FILIA Center, recent update via email;Coman, “‘They Left Us Dead in the Water’: Romania’s Crisis in Family Planning,” Decree Chronicles; Human Rights Watch interviews with: Irina Mateescu, midwife, online, January 18, 2023, Mirela Buiciuc, Specialist, Women and Mother Health Unit, Ministry of Health, Bucharest, May 10, 2023, and Ema Schweninger, Adviser to the Cabinet Minister, Ministry of Health, Bucharest, May 10, 2023; Ministry of Health, “VI. Programul National de Sanatate a femeii si copilului – VI.2. Subprogramul de Sanatate a Femeii,” https://www.insmc.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/interventia2.1.pdf (accessed September 24, 2023), 1A(2).
[5] The World Bank, “Adolescent fertility rate (births per 1,000 women ages 15-19) – European Union, Romania, Bulgaria,” https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.ADO.TFRT?locations=EU-RO-BG (accessed September 24, 2023); Eurostat, “Live births by mother’s age and newborn’s sex,” https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/DEMO_FASEC__custom_1322828/default/bar?lang=en (accessed September 24, 2023).
[6] Daniela Draghici, “Romanian NGOs’ Uphill Battle for CSE in Schools, FP Clinics, Unrestricted Access to Abortion, and Trafficking Prevention,” in The EU Learning Programme in Gender Equality – Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: Comments paper – Romania, November 2022, https://commission.europa.eu/system/files/2023-01/mlp_ro_comments%20paper_november_2022.pdf (accessed September 20, 2023), p. 2; Human Rights Watch interview with Florin Buhuceanu, activist, Bucharest, December 7, 2022.
[7] Human Rights Watch interview with Savin Neculai, Deputy Inspector Chief, Brașov County School Inspectorate, Brașov, May 8, 2023; Human Rights Watch interview with Simona, nurse, Brașov, May 6, 2023; Human Rights Watch interview with Name Withheld, national coordinator, regional branch of the Standing Committee on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights including HIV and AIDS (SCORA), May 2, 2023; Human Rights Watch interview with Alexandra, 19, Iași, May 3, 2023; Human Rights Watch interview with Ecaterina Olariu, Vice President, Girl Up Romania, Bucharest, December 6, 2022; Human Rights Watch interview with Adina Manea, President, Youth for Youth, Bucharest, December 8, 2022; Human Rights Watch interview with Gabriel Brumariu, Project Manager, SECS, December 7, 2022.
