Fertility Effects of the Abolition of Legal Abortion in Romania.

The fertility effects of legal shifts occurring in Romania in 1966 are examined as a large, naturally-occurring `experiment' on the impact of laws on fertility behaviour: In all likelihood, the effects of the Romanian policies represent the largest short-term increase in fertility ever experienced by a large human population. All fertility indicators nearly doubled in the space of one year. The greatest relative increases occurred to women aged 30-34, 35-39, and 40-44 of parities 2 and 3. There is clear evidence, however, of an accelerating decline in fertility since 1967. The sharp fluctuations in age-cohort size resulting from the drastic increase and subsequent decrease in fertility are likely to lead to important and difficult problems of accommodation as these cohorts move through the age span. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]