Source: Revista 5W
On October 1, 1966, when autumn began and the cold started to be felt in communist Romania, Nicolae Ceaușescu, the dictator then in power, signed and enacted Decree No. 770, a provision aimed at promoting childbirth in the nation.
It was a time of true demographic winter in Romania. The regime was trying to halt a trend that had been dragging on since World War II, when the country's population began to decline due to both casualties at the front and the post-war crisis. In this context, the government presented motherhood as a patriotic duty and a strategy to boost the national economy, encouraging families to grow without any limits.
Initially, the decree was presented as a measure to prohibit abortion. However, in practice, the policy also led to the withdrawal of all contraceptives (both male and female) from state pharmacies, in order to eliminate any voluntary control of childbirth. The regime's official stance was captured in the words of Ceaușescu, who warned in a speech: “The fetus is the property of the entire society… Whoever avoids having children is a deserter who abandons the laws of national continuity.”
The policy was an overwhelming success at the outset. In the first three years of the application of Decree 770, two million children were born, which boosted the growth of the population in the communist country.
However, the national economy did not take off as expected. In reality, the exit from the demographic winter occurred at the expense of a genuine social catastrophe. Forcing the population to have children without any possibility of control led to numerous unwanted pregnancies and situations of deep family difficulty. The tragic consequence was the abandonment of thousands of children, victims of a system that made motherhood a duty. Most Romanian families at the time were too poor to support four or five children, let alone provide them with decent living conditions.
Many of the abandoned children ended up living in the sewers of large cities or were confined to unsanitary orphanages, where they grew up in inhumane conditions. In those sad institutions, many small children were affected by various diseases, including AIDS, and their care was practically nonexistent.
Source: Mike Abrahams
“It’s the Economy, Stupid”
In the 21st century, many Western countries, even those more relegated like Argentina, have implemented state incentive plans to guide childbirth in families. In other regions where these policies have already left deep marks, such as China, there have been cases of sham marriages to access the lucrative benefits that the State offers to new families.
It's not new that Western countries are experiencing a demographic winter, particularly in Europe. The rates of population decline or stagnation are currently affecting nations worldwide, although the phenomenon hits the European continent with particular intensity. In 2024, billionaire Elon Musk referred to this problem, stating that “Civilization can end with a bang or a whimper (in adult diapers)” in reference to Europe's prolonged demographic weakness.
This trend is already beginning to arrive in Latin America, as evidenced by recent demographic decline numbers recorded in the first half of 2025.
At the same time, it is also not new that the economies of developed countries are going through an unprecedented crisis since the pandemic, a situation exacerbated by tariffs imposed during the Trump administration, the rapid growth of China in strategic sectors such as electric vehicles, which particularly affects countries like Germany, and Europe's impotence to establish itself as a true engine of innovation and development.
In short, the Romanian experience under Ceaușescu demonstrates that forcing childbirth without a solid economic foundation or a long-term social vision can lead to collective tragedies. Today, in the face of the new demographic winter affecting the West and Latin America, the challenge lies not in imposing births by decree or in offering isolated incentives, but in building societies capable of sustaining their new generations with decent jobs, education, health, and a horizon of opportunities. Only then can the population grow in a balanced manner, without repeating the mistakes of a past where quantity was sought above dignity.
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