How we skillfully ignore the elephant in the room of Romania’s demographic collapse

Guest post originally published on Alexandra Nadane’s Facebook page

Every month, another study tells us the same thing: the population is declining, declining alarmingly, and in the future, the pension system will fail not because of corruption, but because of the lack of people.

But while experts warn that we are approaching the most severe social and financial crisis of the last century, the state and society refuse to see the giant elephant sitting in the middle of the demographic room: the enormous number of abortions, the ideological promotion of abortion, and the absence of real statistics.

To help us ignore this elephant, it has been given a convenient name: “Don’t do what Ceaușescu did—he banned abortion.” And since no one wants to be associated with Ceaușescu, the elephant of abortion has become a sacred animal: no matter how much damage it causes, we must prostrate ourselves before it.

To pretend that we are “getting things done” (the famous sign shown on TVR on December 22, 1989, signaling the break from Ceaușescu’s regime), we spend hundreds of millions of lei on state-funded IVF—while ignoring the fact that only about 5% of the created embryos end up being born. And without asking what happens to the rest: heaven forbid we discover that some are intentionally destroyed or kept frozen with no prospect of ever being implanted, because the elephant has a baby elephant whispering that it is perfectly fine to destroy on demand the human life created through IVF or to be indifferent to it—otherwise, you become a Ceaușescu fan.

And to sleep peacefully, we apply an old lesson from the Communist county committees, which were also afraid of Ceaușescu: fake statistics spare us uncomfortable questions, and completely unrealistic statistics earn us applause. So we don’t even flinch when several counties report fewer than five abortions in a year. We tell ourselves that doctors there simply don’t perform abortions (Ceaușescu’s doctors, of course!), instead of admitting that the reality is simply not being reported.

More recently, because Romania has the longest paid parental leave in Europe, we must also take a little something away from these mothers—10% of their allowance, mostly out of spite—since the amount saved by the state in a few months is the equivalent of a studio apartment.

On a more analytical note: the state and society systematically avoid discussing the central issue—the massive loss of children before birth—and direct funds toward expensive and minimally effective solutions, while refusing to build real policies for pregnant women and families in difficulty.

In 2025, Romania still does not have an official abortion statistic compiled with scientific rigor—an intentional absence, because the reality would be extremely uncomfortable.

Instead:

• we fund IVF with a 5% success rate;
• we cut support for mothers (health insurance contributions withheld starting August 1, 2025);
• we explicitly ban the funding of centers for pregnant women and mothers;
• we pretend that entire counties have fewer than five abortions a year;
• we ignore that we are the country with the fastest aging population in the EU.

The real conclusion of the elephant movie: pregnant women are not a priority; children are not a priority; abortion is an ideological issue that we enthusiastically support while lying to ourselves, just like at the pre-1989 August 23rd parades.

The solution for anyone who wants to exit the elephant movie:

If Romania wants to stop this demographic collapse:

• it must finally see abortion for what it is: the main factor behind population loss;
• it must build support policies for pregnant women and vulnerable families;
• it must acknowledge that IVF cannot save a nation, especially with such a low success rate.

As officials said when explaining the austerity measures: telling the truth is not popular, but it is necessary. True—though with one clarification: the whole truth.