High infant mortality rates in Romania

High infant mortality rates in Romania

AFP Monday, April 18, 2005

BUCHAREST, (AFP) - Infant mortality rose in Romania in 2004 to 16.8 deaths per 1,000 births, the highest rate in Europe, Alin Stanescu, director of the national Institute for Mothers said last week.

He said this rate was "the highest in Europe due to poor health systems in Romania". Last year the rate in Romania was 16.7 per 1,000.

Still, Stanescu said that despite the 2004 figure, a total of 220,000 babies were born in Romania in 2004, a million more than in 2003.

For the first time since the fall of the communist regime in 1989, the number of births last year was higher than the number of abortions.

Romania is also among the countries with the highest rates of women dying in childbirth, with 26 fatalities in 2004 after abortions carried out by rudimentary means.

Parliament passed a law in September 2004 guaranteeing women the right to be informed about abortions and their risks.

"We hope this law will lead to fewer abortions by giving women easier access to health services," Stanescu said.

In 1990, after the fall of the pro-birth regime of communist NicolaeCeausescu, who had banned all forms of contraception, Romania had 866,934 abortions but only 275,275 births.