Abortifacient
[4] For thousands of years, writers in many parts of the world have described and recommended herbal abortifacients to women who seek to terminate a pregnancy, although their use may carry risks to the health of the woman.
[5] 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[6] with fewer than 0.4% of patients needing hospitalization to treat an infection or to receive a blood transfusion.
In general, a dose sufficient to be effective poses a risk to the mother because of potential liver and kidney damage; failed attempts may require a follow-up clinical abortion because the uterus did not evacuate completely.
[17] The medical literature of classical antiquity often refers to pharmacological means of abortion; abortifacients are mentioned, and sometimes described in detail, in the works of Aristotle, Caelius Aurelianus, Celsus, Dioscorides, Galen, Hippocrates, Oribasius, Paul of Aegina, Pliny, Theodorus Priscianus, Soranus of Ephesus, and others.
"[19]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.
[31]: 124 According to the historian of science Londa Schiebinger, in the 17th and 18th centuries "many sources taken together – herbals, midwifery manuals, trial records, Pharmacopoeia, and Materia medica – reveal that physicians, midwives, and women themselves had an extensive knowledge of herbs that could induce abortion.
"[31]: 177 For Aboriginal people in Australia, plants such as giant boat-lip orchid (Cymbidium madidum), quinine bush (Petalostigma pubescens), or blue-leaved mallee (Eucalyptus gamophylla) were ingested, inserted into the body, or were smoked with Cooktown ironwood (Erythrophleum chlorostachys).
[35] Following a tradition among European and English authors, colonial Americans were advised by Benjamin Franklin to use careful measurements in his recipe for an abortifacient that he used as an example in a book he published to teach mathematics and many useful skills.
[36] The historian Angus McLaren, writing about Canadian women between 1870 and 1920, states that "A woman would first seek to 'put herself right' by drinking an infusion of one of the traditional abortifacients, such as tansy, quinine, pennyroyal, rue, black hellebore, ergot of rye, sabin, or cotton root.
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.
"[42] For much of history, ending a pregnancy prior to "quickening" (the moment when a pregnant woman first feels fetal movement) did not have the type of legal or political restrictions and taboos found in the 21st century.
