The alternative to medical abortion

So, you want abortion to be illegal.

Well, ok, for the purposes of this post, your wish has been granted. Abortion is now illegal.

Just so we're clear on this, though, here's what you trade women getting medical abortions in for:

http://www.sisterzeus.com/PregT.htm

There's lots of info out there on these so its not anything I'll get into here, the options I'd like to share are not commonly known but are occasionally given brief mention here or there, most often with no substantial information.

The first, is using certain herbs to induce miscarriage, also called herbal abortion. It is not a sure way to terminate pregnancy, and seems to work about 40-45% of the time, IF herbs are started early enough. If herbal abortion is attempted and is not successful it is very important to follow up with a clinical abortion, as the herbs can cause birth defects and or complications during pregnancy. Herbs are most commonly used during the time period when an embryo is developing the foundations for all of the major body systems, organs in particular. This occurs from developmental weeks 4 through 8, which is the time that herbs are used. This is why, it is so important to follow up with a clinical abortion if the herbs don't work. The risk of causing damage is very real. Just because this is something you can do at home, doesn't make it safe or without risk. There can be negative effects to you, or to any pregnancy carried to term. Just like they say, just because its natural doesn't make it safe.

The second little known option is called Menstrual Extraction, unfortunately it is not a very available option, and for most women, finding someone to help you, is very remote. Menstrual Extraction and the device that is used was developed in the early 70's by Carol Downer and Lorraine Rothman just before abortion was legalized with the Supreme Court decision Roe vs. Wade in 1973. It has multiple purposes, not only can it physically remove a fertilized egg, menstrual extraction can remove an inconveniently timed period, due to start right before a romantic weekend. I think it would be great if more midwives, naturopaths or inspired women took it upon themselves to learn how to do this and make it more available. However, the technique is likely to fall into the realm of practicing medicine without a license as it could be construed as an invasive procedure. It is difficult although not impossible to preform upon yourself, personally, I would suggest having the help of someone who knows what they are doing.

Want to know which herbs to use?

Here you go:

http://www.sisterzeus.com/Abortif.htm

If she doesn't want to try herbs, she can always try one of these:

http://www.sisterzeus.com/alternative_methods.html

Alternative Methods for Ending Pregnancy that don't involve ingesting substances

This page is for women who cannot or will not obtain a clinical abortion if the home abortion attempt fails. The methods discussed on this page are very unlikely to cause any damage to the embryo. If you cannot or will not get a clinical abortion (either surgical or chemical) please do not use the herbal/vitamin remedies listed on this website. The effects on the embryo are unknown and not worth taking the risk of damaging the embryo if you know you will not or cannot go to the clinic.

These methods may also be used to supplement herbs or vitamin c for women who do plan to go to the abortion clinic should the herbs/vitamin c fail to produce miscarriage.

Reflexology and Accupuncture points.

According to Sandifer (1997), acupressure applied to the following points during pregnancy may cause miscarriage:

1. SP6 - on inside of ankle three fingers' width above the anklebone, close to the shinbone

2. BL60 - on the outside of the ankle, between the ankle and Achilles tendon1

3. LI4 - back of hand, just above the web between thumb and forefinger
Stimulate these points for about 5 minutes each with a circular counterclockwise motion using index finger and/or your knuckle. The points are likely to be tender, this is an idication you have the right spot. Do it whenever you think about it.

I found these diagrams that may be helpful.

Other Suggestions to help disrupt early pregnancy.

Vigorous Exercise, like jogging, dancing, jump rope, or anything that pregnant women are told to avoid.

Long bumpy car rides, train rides, roller coaster rides. Tight jeans. Certain yoga positions.

Intense heat is contradicted in early pregnancy: Hot Baths. including jacuzzi, hot tubs. Sauna or sweat lodges.

Meditation and Visulization. Inga Muscio put it nicely - "If you want to successfully induce miscarriage, plan on devoting Your Entire Life to the attainment of this goal. Breathe, eat, smurf, and sleep thinking of nothing else but the lining of your uterus shedding." Take time out of your normal life to focus on your goal.

Invite outside support: Supportive friends are helpful, the more energy and support you have around you to help you accomplish your goal the better.

Uterine Massage: If you know someone who knows just how not to massage pregnant women, all the better. If not... gentle downward pressure just above the pelvic bone. Remember your uterus is about the size of a walnut when not pregnant, in pregnancy it begins to enlarge slighly. You don't want to hurt yourself, but you can send the message that now is not a good time to be pregnant.

Orgasms! Lots of them. There is no better way to stimulate your uterus than through orgasm. It brings blood to the pelvic area, and gets things moving. If you have a partner who can help that's fine, or do it yourself. Also nipple stimulation is known to release oxytocin which is a hormone that stimulates uterine contractions. Have your partner suck on your nipples, or if you can reach, more power to you! Having sex is also acceptable and will also help to stimulate the uterus, just make sure you reach orgasm.

Communicate with the spirit. Ask the spirit to find someone else who is ready and wanting a child.

Enlist the help of an experienced acupunturist to help you stimulate the forbidden points. Having professional help during this time certainly can't hurt.

http://www.womenonwaves.org/set-274-en.html

The best and safest way a woman can do an abortion herself until the 9th week of pregnancy is with the use of two medicines called Mifepristone (also known as the abortion pill, RU 486, Mifegyn, Mifeprex), and Misoprostol (also known as Cytotec, Arthrotec, Oxaprost , Cyprostol, Mibetec, Prostokos or Misotrol).

The brand names for Misoprostol are Cytotec and Arthrotec and Oxaprost or Cyprostol , Prostokos or Misotrol. Sometimes it is sold over the counter without a prescription. Sometimes a prescription is asked. It is less likely that one would need a prescription for Arthrotec.

And of course we can't forget the old standbys:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-induced_abortion

• attempted removal of the fetus with a coat-hanger or similar device inserted into the uterus through the cervix (the historical use of this method has led to the use of coathangers as a symbol of the abortion rights movement, which associates self-induced abortion with the illegality of abortion)
• attempted piercing of the fetus with a knitting needle or similar device inserted into the uterus through the cervix
• suction through the insertion of a rubber tube into the uterus via the cervix

Many of the above named methods present significant dangers to the life or health of the woman. In particular, attempts to insert hazardous objects into the uterus can cause punctures leading to septicemia. Ingesting or douching with harmful substances can have poisonous results. Receiving blows to the abdomen, whether self inflicted or at the hands of another, can damage organs. Furthermore, the less dangerous methods - physical exertion, abdominal massage, and ingestion of relatively harmless substances thought to induce miscarriage - are less effective, and may result in the fetus developing birth defects. However, abdominal massage abortion is traditionally practised in Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia [2][3]

The cheap prescription blood pressure drug Misoprostol is often used as an abortifacient in self-induced abortion in Latin American countries where legal abortions are unavailable, and its use has also been observed in immigrant populations in New York.[3] Although proponents of this method deem it to be safer than those using insertion of objects or chemicals into the uterus, they also note that failure to effect an abortion by this method can lead to the child being born with serious birth defects. Furthermore, the drug causes a drastic drop in blood pressure, and women may haemmorhage as a result of misusing the drug for the purpose of abortion.[4]

So, congratulations. Women can now no longer get doctors to provide abortions. They're now resorting to the above methods.

Is that really better?

C.

hmmmmm

the purpose of this is?.....

Quoting Butterflykisses4all:“ hmmmmm the purpose of this is?.....”

*looks around at the forum we're in*

Hmmm, well the forum is called DEBATE and DISCUSS, so what do YOU think the purpose is?

C.

Quoting Butterflykisses4all:“ hmmmmm the purpose of this is?.....”

To...debate and discuss? lol.

I think it is appropriate to post thisessay again here. This was written by an OBGYN (retired) about the pre-roe v. wade days in this country. This is what we would be going back to.

With the Supreme Court becoming more conservative, many people who support women’s right to choose an abortion fear that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that gave them that right, is in danger of being swept aside.



When such fears arise, we often hear about the pre-Roe “bad old days.” Yet there are few physicians today who can relate to them from personal experience. I can.
I am a retired gynecologist, in my mid-80s. My early formal training in my specialty was spent in New York City, from 1948 to 1953, in two of the city’s large municipal hospitals.
There I saw and treated almost every complication of illegal abortion that one could conjure, done either by the patient herself or by an abortionist — often unknowing, unskilled and probably uncaring. Yet the patient never told us who did the work, or where and under what conditions it was performed. She was in dire need of our help to complete the process or, as frequently was the case, to correct what damage might have been done.
The patient also did not explain why she had attempted the abortion, and we did not ask. This was a decision she made for herself, and the reasons were hers alone. Yet this much was clear: The woman had put herself at total risk, and literally did not know whether she would live or die.
This, too, was clear: Her desperate need to terminate a pregnancy was the driving force behind the selection of any method available.
The familiar symbol of illegal abortion is the infamous “coat hanger” — which may be the symbol, but is in no way a myth. In my years in New York, several women arrived with a hanger still in place. Whoever put it in — perhaps the patient herself — found it trapped in the cervix and could not remove it.
We did not have ultrasound, CT scans or any of the now accepted radiology techniques. The woman was placed under anesthesia, and as we removed the metal piece we held our breath, because we could not tell whether the hanger had gone through the uterus into the abdominal cavity. Fortunately, in the cases I saw, it had not.
However, not simply coat hangers were used.
Almost any implement you can imagine had been and was used to start an abortion — darning needles, crochet hooks, cut-glass salt shakers, soda bottles, sometimes intact, sometimes with the top broken off.
Another method that I did not encounter, but heard about from colleagues in other hospitals, was a soap solution forced through the cervical canal with a syringe. This could cause almost immediate death if a bubble in the solution entered a blood vessel and was transported to the heart.
The worst case I saw, and one I hope no one else will ever have to face, was that of a nurse who was admitted with what looked like a partly delivered umbilical cord. Yet as soon as we examined her, we realized that what we thought was the cord was in fact part of her intestine, which had been hooked and torn by whatever implement had been used in the abortion. It took six hours of surgery to remove the infected uterus and ovaries and repair the part of the bowel that was still functional.
It is important to remember that Roe v. Wade did not mean that abortions could be performed. They have always been done, dating from ancient Greek days.
What Roe said was that ending a pregnancy could be carried out by medical personnel, in a medically accepted setting, thus conferring on women, finally, the full rights of first-class citizens — and freeing their doctors to treat them as such.

Waldo L. Fielding was an obstetrician and gynecologist in Boston for 38 years. He is the author of “Pregnancy: The Best State of the Union” (Thomas Y. Crowell, 1971).

Quoting Beth [due 12-25-08]:“ To...debate and discuss? lol.”

debated to death thanks to government involvement, and precidence with Roe v. Wade
Discussed from a psychological, physical or intellectual manner is still open to interpretation centred on religious belief, personal understanding and the bias that is brought forward by peoples perceptions.

My personal opinion, a woman has a right to chose understanding she herself has to live with the ramifications of her choice....and not withstanding its use as a na alternate form of birth control.

Quoting God:“ *looks around at the forum we're in* Hmmm, well the forum is called DEBATE and DISCUSS, so what do YOU think the purpose is? C.”

I think your SICK AND TWISTED!!!!!!!! I pray for the little one you're carrying if these are the thoughts that go through your mind........I always wondered where serial killers came from!

Quoting broken hearted mom:“ I think your SICK AND TWISTED!!!!!!!! I pray for the little one you're carrying if these are the thoughts that go through your mind........I always wondered where serial killers came from!”

Hey, if you want to keep your head in the sand and pretend that women don't give themselves home abortions, go right ahead.

The rest of us will be adults and try to deal with adult issues.

C.

Quoting broken hearted mom:“ I think your SICK AND TWISTED!!!!!!!! I pray for the little one you're carrying if these are the thoughts that go through your mind........I always wondered where serial killers came from!”

Um, what?

yikes

Quoting broken hearted mom:“ I think your SICK AND TWISTED!!!!!!!! I pray for the little one you're carrying if these are the thoughts that go through your mind........I always wondered where serial killers came from!”

How old are you?

Quoting God:“ Hey, if you want to keep your head in the sand and pretend that women don't give themselves home abortions, go right ahead. The rest of us will be adults and try to deal with adult issues. C.”

I am sure lots of women have done so but to annouce it publically and even send links to where you can find out more........way to go helping them out....sick!

ok that was way out there....

but then again everyone has a right to an opinion right?

Quoting broken hearted mom:“ I am sure lots of women have done so but to annouce it publically and even send links to where you can find out more........way to go helping them out....sick!”

You think women don't know how to use google? That's how I found them.

I'm sorry that you think women are so stupid that they won't find this information if they want it.

C.

Quoting Dev22:“ How old are you?”

Not really sure what age has to do with this but 31!