1. The punishment for rape in the Code of Constantin Mavrocordat : 1750 – People who committed rape in that era were punished with the cutting of the sexual organ. Nowadays, raping is punished with imprisonment.
2. Law against drunkenness. In accordance with its name, this law determined how the alcohol was made and sold. Also, the number of innkeepers was strictly determined by the law: one drinking house for 150 men and one drinking house for 50 men in isolated areas.
3. Banning Mickey Mouse : It is said that in 1935 the Govern of Romania decided to ban Mickey Mouse because it was thought that the animated character was scaring the children.
4. Prohibiting abortion : The communists aimed to increase the birth rate and the natural growth of the population. Thus, starting with the October 1966 and ending with December 1989 (when the decree was abolished because of the fall of Communism) all the abortions were prohibited in Romania. Only in special circumstances the abortion was allowed (for ex.: when the pregnancy was the result of a rape or incest; when the woman was more than 45 years old or had 4 children to take care of; when one of the parents suffered from a serious disease with hereditary transmission; when the pregnancy put the woman’s life in danger).
This is how the generation of the ‘decree children’ appeared. Besides the growth of the young population, this had many other negative effects such as the death of more than 10.000 women due to illegal abortion.
5. Marital rape : The criminal Code from 1968 regulated that the author or any other participant in rape was not punished if he married his victim before the judgment became definitive. In other words, the rape between spouses was not punished back then, because it was considered that it was the ‘woman’s duty’ to have sexual relation with her husband any time he wanted. Rape between spouses was incriminated just in 2000 in an aggravated form (as rape against a family member) and nowadays marital rape is regulated without an aggravated punishment.