This paper examines the impact of an abortion ban during
NicolaeCeausescu’s communist regime on socioeconomic outcomes in
Romania, with a special emphasis on the educational outcomes of
citizens from rural areas. An econometric model is used to analyze
data from the 2002 Romanian census. In the first part of this paper,
the reader will find a bibliographical review of scholarly articles
regarding the enactment of pronatalist policies in Ceausescu’s
Romania and their socioeconomic impacts. In the second part, data
from Romanian citizens born in rural areas in 1967 are used to
evaluate the impact of the abortion ban on the educational outcomes of
the cohorts bornbefore and after its enactment. In the last part, the
analysis of the model’s results shows that the cohort born after Decree
770 came into force had lower educational outcomes that those of the
cohort born prior to the ban.