Romanian women have commonly used abortion (both legal and clandestine) to prevent unwanted births. We introduce this paper with a brief summary of the recent history of abortion in Romania, then we combine quantitative data from a previous report ([1] Johnson et al., Lancet 341, 875, 1993) of the research with women's own words about the following issues: their decisions to have an abortion, the impact of abortion restrictions under the Ceauşescu government, and their needs and desires for improved reproductive health services. We also present gynaecologists' views of abortion restrictions and needs for improved family-planning services to make a compelling case for the need for safe, legal, comprehensive abortion care in Romania and elsewhere.