An abortifacient is a substance that induces abortion.
Drawing from a 13th-century manuscript of Pseudo-Apuleius’s Herbarium, depicting a pregnant woman in repose, while another holds some pennyroyal in one hand and prepares a concoction using a mortar and pestle with the other. Pennyroyal was historically used as an herbal abortifacient.
Source: scanned from Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance by John M. Riddle.
Background
The ancient Greek colony of Cyrene at 1 time had an economic climate based nearly completely on the production and export of Silphium, a powerful abortifacient in the parsley loved ones. Silphium figured so prominently inside the wealth of Cyrene that the plant appeared on the obverse and reverse of coins minted there. Silphium, which was native only to that part of Libya, was overharvested by the Greeks and was proficiently driven to extinction.
As the Catholic Church gained manage of European society, females who dispensed abortifacient herbs identified themselves classified as witches and were often persecuted.
Present time
Herbal abortifacients
Quite a few herbs sold “over the counter” today, including Wild carrot, Black cohosh, Pennyroyal, Nutmeg, and Mugwort, are themselves abortifacients. Normally the labeling will contraindicate use by pregnant ladies, but won’t contain an explanation for this contraindication. You will discover naturally occurring abortifacients like green Papaya and Frequent Rue although there will not appear to become any available information on their efficacy.
King’s American Dispensatory of 1898 recommended a mixture of brewer’s yeast and pennyroyal tea as “a safe and specific abortive”
Pharmaceutical abortifacients
The methods of operation of prescription drugs utilised as abortifacients are much better understood than those of regular herbal remedies, but they’ve been controversial considering the fact that the 1980s. One of the most prominent of those is Mifepristone (also referred to as “RU-486” and marketed below the brand name “Mifeprex”), which can be utilised in conjunction with Misoprostol (an anti-ulcer drug marketed beneath the name “Cytotec”). Mifepristone has been approved for inducing abortions in several Western nations since the late 1990s, whilst this use of Misoprostol is off-label.
Misoprostol alone is occasionally made use of for self-induced abortion in Latin American countries where legal abortion just isn’t offered, and by some immigrants from these countries in the Usa who cannot afford a legal abortion.
Pre-implantation labeling controversy
There is controversy as to whether or not a woman is pregnant in the time of fertilization, or in the implantation with the blastocyst inside the uterine lining. Some agents possess a proposed back-up effect of preventing implantation and therefore destroying the blastocyst, though their principal impact would be to avert fertilization. American federal and British laws mark the starting of pregnancy at implantation; therefore, these agents are labeled as contraceptives, as opposed to abortifacients. They’re typically not useful if taken after implantation. Labeling of these agents as abortifacient is most ardently supported by these opposed to abortion, generally due to their belief that human life starts at fertilization. The following agents may possibly prevent implantation of a blastocyst, while, in most circumstances, they merely prevent fertilization:
- Hormonal contraceptives
- Combined estrogen & progesterone:
- Combined oral contraceptive pill (“The Pill”)*
Contraceptive patch
Contraceptive vaginal ring
Lunelle (monthly injection)
- Combined oral contraceptive pill (“The Pill”)*
- Progesterone used alone:
- Progesterone only pill (POP)*
Depo Provera (injection every three months)
Implants (such as Norplant or Implanon)
IntraUterine System (“IUS”)
- Progesterone only pill (POP)*
- Combined estrogen & progesterone:
- Intrauterine device (“IUD”)*
- Some herbal contraceptives may work primarily by preventing implantation
(*) These approaches could also be employed as Emergency contraception. POPs are also packaged for use as emergency contraception under the brand name “Plan B”.
References
- ^ Kramer, Heinrich, & Sprenger, Jacob. (1487). Malleus Maleficarum. (Montague Summers, Trans.).
- ^ Vivian M. Dickerson (June 2005). Emergency Contraception: Out of Sight, Out of Mind?. Advanced Studies in Medicine, Vol. 5, No. 6 pp. 283-284. Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine.
- ^ Finn, J.T. (2005-04-23). “Birth Control” Pills cause early Abortions. Pro-Life America — Facts on Abortion. prolife.com.
- ^ Abortion Facts. Center for Bio-Ethical Reform.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.
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