The communism sterilized this society of anything different than “the norm” imposed by them. Intellectuals and believers were imprisoned because they thought outside the box.
Ceasusescu tried to create the new man, and increase the strength of the country by increasing its numbers. The law he passed in 1966 making abortion illegal was a purely political decision. He did not highlight the value and sanctity of life or the manslaughter that abortion is, but he saw the society thriving by its sheer numbers.
Before abortion was outlawed, doctors and would-be-mothers could go to jail if they requited or performed an abortion. The solution of abortion was being promoted to the women who already had many children at home, or if there was a possibility that the child would be born with malformations.
In a sense, the law saved a few lives. But that law coincides with the drastic increase in the number of children abandoned. Though supposedly there were social services in place to supplement the suport of parents.
The maintained socialist approach was that the state would take care of the kids, through an increased number of daycares, and kindergartens, which are still free, ran by trained professionals. And school is free, and so is health care for any minor in the county regardless of their parent’s status.
The daycares freed up half the county’s workforce tied up at home, and the productivity of the country did see a boom. Romania managed to pay off its national debt within a short period of time.
But the reality stands. From 1966 to 1989, the number of orphanages (which may have started as nice or well staffed and equipped) soon enough they became hell on earth. Exhausted personnel (1 adult to 30 children around the clock) gave up the warmth in favor of harshness.
There was a disconnect between what was really going on in the orphans and what people outside knew. Sometimes regular families going through a rough patch would drop off the kids to the orphanage because they were told the kids are well taken care of there – like a boarding school. They are fed and schooled and housed. Some people never went back for their kids.
When comunism fell there were between 150,000 and 200,000 kids housed in over 700 orphanages. Documentaries show that some orphanages looked like the nazi concentration camps. The stuff of nightmares.
Abandoning one’s children was somewhat acceptable. My grandmother who was a widow raising 5 kids was visited by a representative of the state and was asked if she wants to send her youngest two kids to the orphanages because they will be well taken care of. My grandmother shuddered at the thought and sent that man away. She was a strong woman and I am grateful for her sense of courage and clarity of mind.
It is ironic that after Ceausescu was executed and the comunism fell, soon after, when a famous documentary about the children in the Romanian orphanages surfaced, people from around the world came and adopted 20,000 of our children (over the course of a year) and gave them a future and life. Ceausescu’s desire to grow our nation was an illusion and the outcome was that other nations (mostly evangelicals living out the gospel) adopted Romanian children, taking them away.
Abandoning one’s children is a virus of the heart and of the mind. A nation that produces orphans in a steady stream is sick from within. We perpetuate a belief that it’s not a big deal, but we are called to raise a strong next generation, not a weak, selfish, self-centered one. Teaching our kids about a moral code, living bravely, this is what will save our nation. Indeed, Romanians are stepping up, adopting 2000 kids every year and giving them a childhood of love and healing and values and courage. Sometimes with more intentionality and wisdom than the regular families who get lost in social media and gentle parenting mantras, without direction and fear covered up in niceness and constipated truth.
As a kid we went to visit the orphanage and the old people home in my town. These two institutions shared a yard. Both buildings were depressing and quiet. It was a social activity we did as a church, bringing biscuits and socks and singing carols or hymns.
The old people cried, and they smelled. The kids smelled and reached their arms to be picked up. And we visited and left. I have these pangs of guilt – why didn’t we do more? Why did we just visit once or twice a year. Those kids needed families, not visits.
They were the outcasts of society, and while we were naive enough to go look them in the eyes and leave, most people didn’t even acknowledge their existence. We should have done more. We could have done more.
I’m glad adoption is more promoted in the last decades. It’s not as complicated as I thought. It is streamlined and supported. It is transparent and encouraged.
There are still kids who don’t have families. There are people out there giving birth to kids and don’t know how to take care of them, don’t have the capacity or knowledge or social context to provide even the most basic needs.
I’m not usually emotional. I’m pragmatic and my empathy is very logical. But I am deeply moved by social justice. And I do believe we could do much more as a society.