User:Molybdenum Franklin/Abortifacients

An abortifacient ("that which will cause a miscarriage" from Latin: abortus "miscarriage" and faciens "making") is a substance that induces abortion. This is a nonspecific term which may refer to any number of substances or medications, ranging from herbs to prescription medications.

Common abortifacients used in performing medical abortions include mifepristone, which is typically used in conjunction with misoprostol in a two-step approach. Synthetic oxytocin, which is routinely used safely during term labor, is also commonly used to induce abortion in the second or third trimester. Historically, a variety of herbs have been used globally to induce abortion, although many of these have not been studied and may have unintended and lethal side effects. Not all abortifacients are taken with the intention to end a pregnancy, (e.g. Methotrexate, a drug often used for management of rheumatoid arthritis, can induce abortion. For this reason contraception is often advised while using methotrexate for management of a chronic condition).

NOTES: Ideas for improving: Discuss the term “abortifacient” as an umbrella/broad/nonspecific term. It is not quite a medical term, because in a medical setting you would talk about the specific drug/chemical/compound. Discuss “abortifacients” vs abortion procedures Many “abortifacients” have multiple uses--not all “abortifacients” are taken in order to specifically induce an abortion--some might be cancer treatment drugs or ulcer treatment drugs. (This is different from a teratogen) History is good--long history of chemical/medication abortion, this is nothing new. Safety discussion could be more robust--the danger with herbs, etc is often that 1) they have other side effects 2) dosage is not certain 3) because of dosage could be toxic. Medication abortion is much safer in comparison because we have studied it, have a good sense of the dose and protocol, and know how it works.

History of abortifacients, potential source - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160932700013089

July 21 edits
An abortifacient ("that which will cause a miscarriage" from Latin: abortus "miscarriage" and faciens "making") is a substance that induces abortion. This is a nonspecific term which may refer to any number of substances or medications, ranging from herbs to prescription medications — regardless of whether or not these medications are taken intentionally for the purpose of ending a pregnancy—and substances that are not meant to be used for medical treatment (eg, tear gas).

Common abortifacients used in performing medical abortions include mifepristone, which is typically used in conjunction with misoprostol in a two-step approach. Synthetic oxytocin, which is routinely used safely during term labor, is also commonly used to induce abortion in the second or third trimester. Historically, a variety of herbs have been used globally to induce abortion, although many of these have not been studied and may have unintended and lethal side effects.

Medications
Because "abortifacient" is a broad term used to describe a substance's effects on pregnancy, there is a wide range of drugs that can be described as abortifacients or as having abortifacient properties.

The most commonly recommended medication regimen for intentionally inducing abortion involves the use of mifepristone followed by misoprostol 1-2 days later. The use of these medications for the purpose of ending a pregnancy has been extensively studied, and has been shown to be both effective and safe with fewer than 0.4% of patients needing hospitalization to treat an infection or to receive a blood transfusion. This combination is approved for use up to 10 weeks' gestation (70 days after the start of the last menstrual period).

Other drugs with abortifacient properties can have multiple uses. Both synthetic oxytocin (Pitocin) and dinoprostone (Cervidil, Prepidil) are routinely used during healthy, term labor. Pitocin is used to induce and strengthen contractions, and Cervidil is used to prepare the cervix for labor by inducing softening and widening of this opening to the uterus. When used this way, neither medication is considered an abortifacient. However, the same drugs can be used to induce an abortion, particularly after 12 weeks of pregnancy. Misoprostol (discussed above) is also used to treat peptic ulcers in patients who have suffered gastric or intestinal damage from use of NSAID s. Because its use in treatment of ulcers makes it easier to access, misoprostol alone is sometimes used for self-induced abortion in countries or regions where legal abortion is not available or readily accessible.

Not all abortifacient agents are taken with the intention to end a pregnancy. Methotrexate, a drug often used for management of rheumatoid arthritis, can induce abortion. For this reason contraception is often advised while using methotrexate for management of a chronic condition.

August 28 edits
Safety concerns of abortifacient herbs

The use of herbs and herbal preparations to end pregnancy spans centuries. The practice of self-inducing abortion with herbs continues today, and is affected by factors that can include both the legality and economic accessibility of abortion in a given area. Although not every individual who uses herbal preparations to induce abortion will suffer life-threatening complications, users have suffered severe and harmful effects, such as scarring of the uterus, hemorrhage, multiple organ system failure and even death. Additionally, using herbal abortifacients does not guarantee that an abortion will be completed -- an incomplete abortion, where some tissue still remains in the womb, can carry its own risks of infection and sepsis.

Herbal abortifacient use is particulary dangerous for a number of reasons: first, many of these herbs have not been well-studied for use in inducing abortion. There is often insufficient information on conditions that could make their use more dangerous (eg, it is not known if a particular herb is worse for someone with high blood pressure, or if hemorrhage is more likely after a particular point in pregnancy). There is also no information on appropriate and safe dosages--an herbal preparation that led to an uncomplicated abortion in one individual could cause multiple organ system failure in another individual who takes a higher dose. Second, obtaining abortifacient herbs or herbal preparations often involves purchasing substances with contents that cannot be verified and are not regulated.

In a small study of 30 individuals who had self-induced abortion between 1979 and 2008, only 3 individuals had a successful abortion without complications. According to the authors, "Most [of the participants interviewed] would not self-induce again and recommended clinic-based services."

History
The use of substances or preparations to end a pregnancy extends for centuries.

In aboriginal Australia, plants such as cymbidium madidum, petalostigma pubescens, or Eucalyptus gamophylla were ingested, inserted into the body, or were smoked with Erythropleum chlorostachyum.[page needed]

In ancient Babylonian texts, scholars have described multiple written prescriptions or instructions for ending pregnancies. Some of these instructions were explicitly for ingesting ingredients to end a pregnancy, whereas other cuneiform texts discuss the ingestion of ingredients to return a missed menstrual period (which is used repeatedly throughout history as a coded reference to abortion). "'To make a pregnant woman lose her foetus: ...Grind nabruqqu plant, let her drink it with wine on an empty stomach, [then her foetus will be aborted].'"The ancient Greek colony of Cyrene at one time had an economy based almost entirely on the production and export of the plant silphium, which had uses ranging from food to a salve for feral dog bites. It was also considered a powerful abortifacient used to "purge the uterus". Silphium figured so prominently in the wealth of Cyrene that the plant appeared on coins minted there.

The medieveal Islamic physician Ibn Sina documented various birth control practices, including the use of rue as an abortifacient. Similarly, 11th-century physician Constantine the African described different abortifacients, which he classified by order of their intensity, starting with abortifacients that had weaker effects on the body and ending with the most potent substances.

Quickening
For much of history, ending a pregnancy prior to "quickening" (the moment when a pregnant person first feels fetal movement) did not have the type of legal or political restrictions and taboos found in the 21st century. Early medieval laws did not discuss aboriton prior to quickening. The early Catholic church held that life began at "ensoulment" (at the time of quickening), a continuation of Roman norms and positions on the use of abortifacients prior to quickening.

In English law, abortion did not become illegal until 1803. At that time, abortion after quickening became subject to the death penalty. In 1837, the significance of quickening was removed, but the death penalty was also abandoned.

18th - 20th Century

During the American slavery period, 18th and 19th centuries, cotton root bark was used in folk remedies to induce a miscarriage.

In the 19th century Madame Restell provided mail-order abortifacients and surgical abortion to pregnant clients in New York.

Early 20th-century newspaper advertisements included coded advertisements for abortifacient substances which would solve menstrual "irregularities." Between 1919 and 1934 the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued legal restraints against fifty-seven "feminine hygiene products" including "Blair's Female Tablets" and "Madame LeRoy's Regulative Pills."

See also[edit]

 * Georg Eberhard Rumphius – documented some claims of abortifacient properties of herbs

In the Bible, many commentators view the ordeal of the bitter water (prescribed for a sotah, or a wife whose husband suspects that she was unfaithful to him) as intended to cause the abortion of a potential bastard. The wife drinks "water of bitterness," which, if she is guilty, causes the abortion or miscarriage of a pregnancy she may be carrying. Others dispute this interpretation, saying that "There is no reason to suppose that the woman was pregnant at the time" and "Final proof of the woman's innocence would be pregnancy, final proof of her guilt would be the 'belly swelling and thigh falling' which possibly describes the prolapsed uterus."

Ancient silver coin from Cyrene depicting a stalk of Silphium

The ancient Greek colony of Cyrene at one time had an economy based almost entirely on the production and export of the plant silphium, considered a powerful abortifacient. Silphium figured so prominently in the wealth of Cyrene that the plant appeared on coins minted there. Silphium, which was native only to that part of Libya, was overharvested by the Greeks and was effectively driven to extinction. The standard theory, however, has been challenged by a whole spectrum of alternatives (from an extinction due to climate factors, to the so-coveted product being in fact a recipe made of a composite of herbs, attribution to a single species meant perhaps as a disinformation attempt).[citation needed]

In aboriginal Australia, plants such as cymbidium madidum, petalostigma pubescens, or Eucalyptus gamophylla were ingested, inserted into the body, or were smoked with Erythropleum chlorostachyum.[page needed]

As Christianity and in particular the institution of the Catholic Church increasingly influenced European society, those who dispensed abortifacient herbs found themselves classified as witches and were often persecuted in witch-hunts.

Medieval Muslim physicians documented detailed and extensive lists of birth control practices, including the use of abortifacients, commenting on their effectiveness and prevalence. The use of abortifacients was acceptable to some Islamic jurists provided that the abortion occurs within 120 days of conception, the time when the fetus is believed to receive its soul, though others considered the procedure fully prohibited.

In English law, abortion did not become illegal until 1803. English folk practice before and after that time held that fetal life was not present until quickening. "Women who took drugs before that time would describe their actions as 'restoring the menses' or 'bringing on a period'." Abortifacients used by women in England in the 19th century (not necessarily safe or effective) included diachylon, savin, ergot of rye, pennyroyal, nutmeg, rue, squills, and hiera picra, the latter being a mixture of powdered aloe and canella.

During the American slavery period, 18th and 19th centuries, cotton root bark was used in folk remedies to induce a miscarriage.

See also[edit]

 * Georg Eberhard Rumphius – documented some claims of abortifacient properties of herbs

In the Bible, many commentators view the ordeal of the bitter water (prescribed for a sotah, or a wife whose husband suspects that she was unfaithful to him) as intended to cause the abortion of a potential bastard. The wife drinks "water of bitterness," which, if she is guilty, causes the abortion or miscarriage of a pregnancy she may be carrying. Others dispute this interpretation, saying that "There is no reason to suppose that the woman was pregnant at the time" and "Final proof of the woman's innocence would be pregnancy, final proof of her guilt would be the 'belly swelling and thigh falling' which possibly describes the prolapsed uterus."

Ancient silver coin from Cyrene depicting a stalk of Silphium

The ancient Greek colony of Cyrene at one time had an economy based almost entirely on the production and export of the plant silphium, considered a powerful abortifacient. Silphium figured so prominently in the wealth of Cyrene that the plant appeared on coins minted there. Silphium, which was native only to that part of Libya, was overharvested by the Greeks and was effectively driven to extinction. The standard theory, however, has been challenged by a whole spectrum of alternatives (from an extinction due to climate factors, to the so-coveted product being in fact a recipe made of a composite of herbs, attribution to a single species meant perhaps as a disinformation attempt).[citation needed]

In aboriginal Australia, plants such as cymbidium madidum, petalostigma pubescens, or Eucalyptus gamophylla were ingested, inserted into the body, or were smoked with Erythropleum chlorostachyum.[page needed]

As Christianity and in particular the institution of the Catholic Church increasingly influenced European society, those who dispensed abortifacient herbs found themselves classified as witches and were often persecuted in witch-hunts.

Medieval Muslim physicians documented detailed and extensive lists of birth control practices, including the use of abortifacients, commenting on their effectiveness and prevalence. The use of abortifacients was acceptable to some Islamic jurists provided that the abortion occurs within 120 days of conception, the time when the fetus is believed to receive its soul, though others considered the procedure fully prohibited.

In English law, abortion did not become illegal until 1803. English folk practice before and after that time held that fetal life was not present until quickening. "Women who took drugs before that time would describe their actions as 'restoring the menses' or 'bringing on a period'." Abortifacients used by women in England in the 19th century (not necessarily safe or effective) included diachylon, savin, ergot of rye, pennyroyal, nutmeg, rue, squills, and hiera picra, the latter being a mixture of powdered aloe and canella.

During the American slavery period, 18th and 19th centuries, cotton root bark was used in folk remedies to induce a miscarriage.

See also[edit]

 * Georg Eberhard Rumphius – documented some claims of abortifacient properties of herbs

Riot control agents
Miscarriage is not a listed side effect of tear gas by the CDC https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/riotcontrol/factsheet.asp however, this is likely because there is insufficient evidence to make a definitive claim.

UN urges Israel to stop use of tear gas due to death and miscarriage https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19880601&id=aN4cAAAAIBAJ&sjid=dWMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6930,23415

Physicians for Human rights report on miscarriage caused by tear gas use in bahrain https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Bahrain-TearGas-Aug2012-small.pdf

Tear gas is way more dangerous that police let on https://www.propublica.org/article/tear-gas-is-way-more-dangerous-than-police-let-on-especially-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic

"we don't know whether one exposure to tear gas..." https://rewire.news/article/2020/06/09/tear-gas-miscarriages-and-breastfeeding-is-it-safe-to-protest-while-pregnant/

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/tear-gas-abortifacient-why-wont-anti-abortion-movement-oppose-it/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/legal/history_1.shtml#h1