Roevember and Beyond

 

All the talk today, and possibly for years to come, will be about the overturning of Roe vs Wade by the Supreme Court (06/24/22). Women are up in arms in what they consider an assault on their health care choices and rights. Many are sounding the alarm of a return to back alley abortions where many women lost their lives in a desparate attempt to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy. Women are pushing for a ROEVEMBER when they head to the voting polls to vote against those enacting laws making medical choices for women and limiting their healthcare choices. Hostages currently in the Israel - Hamas conflict, are being raped and inpregnated, and by U.S. laws, will be forced to continue the pregnancy of the rapist once released.

But will women really return to extreme and archaic means of aborting an unwanted pregnancy? Over fifty-one years ago, before the advancements in technology, women had to resort to dangerous practices and "gimmicks" to end pregnancies. The advancement of medical information and application at speeds and accuracies unimaginable in the day of back alley abortions, is now at the fingertips of women. Will HOME HERBAL ABORTIONS be a viable alternative for women seeking to end a pregnancy? Will the internet's medical offerings be the "go to" for desparate women wanting to end a pregnancy? As with the opiod epidemic, will there be a "health crises" of poisinings from attempt to end pregnancies herbally? (Most women do not admit to their physician to taking at home remedies to end pregnancies when seeking treatment when it goes wrong).

The internet has been a source for bomb making and the ability to make lethal weapons for several years now. Will it be the go to source for abortion needs? Will there be a rise in hollistic abortions or apothecary services as a healthy/safe alternative and a new choice in women's health care due to laws restricting doctors from performing abortions? Let's look to the past in determining a new possible path for the future.

Here I am today at the only abortion clinic in Jackson, MS as pro life and pro abortion activists make their voices known to women who enter the facility for a sceduled surgical abortion. When medical facilities offering safe surgical abortions were being closed down due to federal rulings, women began searching the internet for viable means of terminating pregnancies. Fear and desparation gave way to entertaining alternatives to keeping unwanted pregnancies. Women were immediately transported, if only in their minds, to the era of pre - Roe v Wade.

In “Eve’s Herbs: A History of Contraception and Abortion in the West,” the author, John M. Riddle, posits that while we may think of ancient and medieval people as superstitious and prone to rely on useless remedies when it came to abortion, many knew what they were doing. The historian illustrates how their methods, most commonly drugs taken orally, were developed through careful observation of nature (noticing, for example, which plants caused livestock to bear fewer offspring), experimentation, and the accumulation of botanical knowledge passed down by word-of-mouth, and also occasionally in written form, including a text by a thirteenth-century physician, Peter of Spain, who later became Pope John XXI!

The plants, which caused pregnancies to end were put in different classifications as to what affect they caused within the body. Certain chemicals within plants or herbs were noted to cause miscarriages or interrupt the nature pattern of menstruation. Detailed documentation of plants and outcomes each plant causes has been available and used for centuries. Modern medicine developed drugs which mimic "treatments" nature offered FIRST for centuries. The medical field also classified the drugs the pharmacidcal companies manufactured and made available for women's healthcare needs. Many plants ingested to terminate pregnancies, did not reliably do so.

An abortifacient ("that which will cause a miscarriage" from Latin: abortus "miscarriage" and faciens "making") is a substance that induces abortion. Common abortifacients used in performing medical abortions include mifepristone, which is typically used in conjunction with misoprostol in a two-step approach. Misoprostol (discussed above) is also used to treat peptic ulcers in patients who have had gastric or intestinal damage from use of NSAIDs. Synthetic oxytocin, which is routinely used safely during term labor, is also commonly used to induce abortion in the second or third trimester. 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. Methotrexate, a drug often used for management of rheumatoid arthritis, can induce abortion.

Emmenagogues are defined in herbal medicine as herbs capable of stimulating the menstrual flow even when it is not due and are also to be avoided during pregnancy. For centuries, herbal abortifacients have been made from infusions or oils of plants such as pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium), angelica (Angelica species) which I have planted in my flower garden at the moment, and tansy (Tanacetum vulgare). 

Such preparations are no more likely to terminate a pregnancy than they are to induce potentially lethal reactions such as vomiting, hemorrhages, and convulsions in the women who take them. Overconsumption of pennyroyal and mugwort, for example, can cause liver failure, according to Ryan Marino, the medical director of toxicology and addiction at the University Hospitals in Cleveland. Several extreme cases of herbal poisoning among his patients, including some who suffered seizures have been noted with Pennyroyal. Truly effective abortifacients were not developed until the end of the 20th century, when the biochemical processes behind cell division and growth and the role of hormones in reproductive processes were understood. 

The medical literature of classical antiquity often refers to pharmacological use of plants and herbs) 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.

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 ancient city of Cyrene in modern-day Libya was famous for a plant called silphium that grew nowhere else. Silphium was the wonder herb of the classical world. It was a type of fennel, sort of like celery, or maybe parsley, with heart-shaped leaves. The Greeks and later the Romans imported it in massive quantities. They served it in fancy meals like stewed flamingo. They used it to cure growths in the anus and the bites of wild dogs. Men used it as an aphrodisiac. And women used it to, as Hippocrates and Pliny and other doctors at the time delicately put it, “purge the uterus.” Of course, not everyone could afford silphium. The Greek physician Dioscorides wrote down a recipe for “abortion wine” that contained ingredients that could be gathered closer to home—hellebore, squirting cucumber, and scammony—but neglected to mention quantities.

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). In the Middle Ages, women who wanted to restore their cycles were instructed to eat, among other things, crushed ants, the saliva of camels, and tail hairs of black-tail deer dissolved in bear fat. But herbs were generally considered more helpful, not just in Europe, but everywhere in the world: blue cohosh, calamus, horseradish, and red cedar in North America; Peruvian bark in South America; the boat-lip orchid, blue-leaved mallee, and Cooktown ironweed in Australia.

Historically, the First Nations, people of eastern Canada used Sanguinaria canadensis (bloodwort) and Juniperus virginiana to induce abortions

According to Virgil Vogel, a historian of the indigenous societies of North America, the Ojibwe used blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) as an abortifacient, and the Quinault used thistle for the same purpose. The appendix to Vogel's book lists red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), American pennyroyal (Hedeoma pulegioides), tansy, Canada wild ginger (Asarum canadense), and several other herbs as abortifacients used by various North American Indian tribes. The anthropologist Daniel Moerman wrote that calamus (Acorus calamus), which was one of the ten most common medicinal drugs of Native American societies, was used as an abortifacient by the Lenape, Cree, Mohegan, Sioux, and other tribes; and he listed more than one hundred substances used as abortifacients by Native Americans.

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."

During the American slavery period, 18th and 19th centuries, cotton root bark was used in folk remedies to induce a miscarriage. Cotton root bark was historically used by indigenous North American tribes as an emmenagogue and abortifacient. Its use as an emmenagogue was adopted by the Eclectic physicians, and as an abortifacient by southern physicians into the 1800s. The plant has a profound history, reportedly used as an abortifacient by female slaves in the United States who were frequently victims of rape by their “masters,” and consequently, experienced unwanted pregnancies.

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."

The peacock flower (or flos pavonis) is an arresting plant, standing nine feet tall in full bloom, with brilliant red and yellow blossoms. But it’s more than beautiful; it’s an abortifacient, too. One of the most striking records of the plant comes from German-born botanical illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian who, in her 1705 book Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam, recounts “The Indians, who are not treated well by their Dutch masters, use the seeds [of this plant] to abort their children, so that their children will not become slaves like they are.” Two other naturalists had also discovered the peacock flower’s use as an abortifacient in the West Indies. Michel Descourtilz, a Frenchman, had observed its same use in Haiti, writing with disdain of the “ill intentions of the ‘negress’ who aborted their offspring.” Another remarked on the “guilty practice of preventing pregnancy by use of herbs” and was surprised that slave women used them effectively, that the “drinks did not destroy health.”

Commonly accepted abortifacients and emmenagogic herbs include (but are not limited to) tansy, thuja, safflower, scotch broom, rue, angelica, mugwort, wormwood, yarrow, and essential oil of pennyroyal. “Black Cohosh Root (Cimicifuga racemosa) is a relaxant and normalizer of female reproductive system. Eases painful and delayed menses, ovarian cramps, or womb cramps.” It’s best for, among other things — aborting a baby.

It took me only five minutes to find this history of herbal plants used to abort pregnancies throughout history. If I were in need of terminating a pregnancy the amount of information about the chemicals and their combinations and actions on the body could easily be found and researched. Access to materials such as medication, herbs, and chemical compounds is easier to obtain in our consumer economy. 

Of course, there is always danger in self medicating any health condition and we witnessed that first-hand with people turning to unsafe ingestion of medicine and herbs in an effort to fight off or prevent Covid-19 (Coronavirus) infection. But, nevertheless, people do turn to home remedies, herbs, and what is considered hollistic treatments. 

The internet has become a resource rich enviroment for almost anything a person has a desire to research and learn. There will be great sources of information and misinformation found on the internet. We will not know in which direction this wind of change regarding abortion will blow women when it comes to unwanted pregnancies. Only time will tell. Below was another online site I found that goes into detail on using herbs to abort a pregnancy with doses and pros and cons on using each herb. Notice it is a D.I.Y. (do it yourself) guide. How many women will be turning to such care? Have women been left to "Do It Yourself" in this area of medical health? A major reason Roe v Wade was inacted into law was to keep desparate women wanting to end a pregancy safe from dying trying to end an unwanted pregnancy. 

Herbal Abortion
a woman’s d.i.y. guide by Annwen

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/annwen-herbal-abortion

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When Will We Learn Childhood Is Key?

Research is in and what happens to children as they grow and develop has a major influence on the adult they will become. Safety, security, and guidance matters to the developing human. We must put an end to exposing our children to "come what may" without ensuring an opportunity for healing. 

We have dealt with killings in various forms in our society throughout time. We were once fascinated by serial killers and are now shocked by mass shooters. But, where did these killers in our society originate?

Many serial killers are survivors of early CHILDHOOD trauma of some kind – physical or sexual abuse, FAMILY dysfunction, and emotionally distant or absent PARENTS. TRAUMA is the single recurring theme in the biographies of most KILLERS. The number one trait of a killer or psychopath is a lack of empathy. Other traits are a tendency to lie, a need for thrills. Psychopaths become bored very quickly – and have a tendency towards narcissism. But the lack of empathy is the biggest thing for killers.

One common explanation is that psychopaths experience some kind of trauma in early CHILDHOOD – perhaps as early as their infant state – and as a consequence suppress their emotional response. They never learn the appropriate responses to trauma, and never develop other emotions, which is why they find it difficult to empathize with others. Science Daily “Psychology may help explain why male and female serial killers differ” March 20, 2019,

Now we are facing an onslaught of mass shooters and research regarding the reasons for these mass shooting is still being evaluated and researched but data is being compiled. Two professors, Jillian Peterson, an associate professor of criminology at Hamline University, and James Densley, a professor of criminal justice at Metro State University, discovered there’s a consistent pathway leading to mass shooters. Early CHILDHOOD trauma seems to be the foundation, whether violence in the home, sexual assault, parental suicides, or extreme bullying. Then you see the build toward hopelessness, despair, isolation, self-loathing, and oftentimes rejection from peers that turns into an identifiable crisis point where they’re acting differently. Sometimes mass shooters have previous suicide attempts. Their self-hate can turn into hate of a grouping of people resulting in mass shooting.

Suicidality was found to be a strong predictor of perpetration of mass shootings. Of all mass shooters in the The Violence Project database, 30% were suicidal prior to the shooting. An additional 39% were suicidal during the shooting. Those numbers were significantly higher for YOUNGER shooters, with K-12 students who engaged in mass shootings found to be suicidal in 92% of instances and college/university students who engaged in mass shooting suicidal 100% of the time.

In terms of past trauma, 31% of persons who perpetrated mass shootings were found to have experiences of severe CHILDHOOD trauma, and over 80% were in crisis.

Trauma was a common element of the backgrounds of those committing mass shooting, both in the database and the qualitative studies. Nearly half of individuals who engaged in mass shootings (48%) leaked their plans in advance to others, including family members, friends, and colleagues, as well as strangers and law enforcement officers. Legacy tokens, such as manifestos, were left behind by 23.4% of those who committed mass shootings. About 70% of individuals who perpetrated mass shooting knew at least some of their victims.

A new Department of Justice-funded study of all mass shootings — killings of four or more people in a public place — since 1966 found that the shooters typically have an experience with CHILDHOOD trauma, a personal crisis or specific grievance, and a “script” or examples that validate their feelings or provide a roadmap. And then there’s the fourth thing: access to a firearm.

Another pattern of mass shooters is becoming evident and in time I am sure will also be linked to CHILDHOOD trauma. Based on case documents, media reports, and interviews with mental health and law enforcement experts, found that in at least 22 mass shootings since 2011—more than a third of the public attacks over the past eight years—the perpetrators had a history of domestic violence, which specifically targeted WOMEN, or had stalked and harassed women. These cases included the large-scale massacres at an Orlando nightclub in 2016 and a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in 2017. In total, they account for 175 victims killed and 158 others injured. Two of the shooters bore the hallmarks of so-called “incels”—a subculture of virulent misogynists who self-identify as “involuntarily celibate” and voiced their rage and revenge fantasies against women online. A man who recently planned to carry out a mass shooting in Utah and another who opened fire outside a courthouse in Dallas also appeared to be influenced by incel ideas.

Among the 22 cases analyzed, 86% has a history of domestic violence, 32% had a history of stalking and harassment, and 50% specifically targeted women. The trail of violent misogyny and abusive behavior in many shooters’ cases dovetails with a key finding from research published by the FBI in 2018: Not only do most shooters give off multiple behavioral warning signs that are observable to people around them, a majority do so starting months and even years before their attacks. The shooters in Tallahassee, Chicago, Orlando, Sutherland Springs, and elsewhere BRUTALIZED women long before their gun rampages. Mother Jones, “Armed and Misogynist: How Toxic Masculinity Fuels Mass Shootings”, Mark Follman.

A Harvard University study showed convicted physically abusive men were found to, when compared to the average American man, commit more crimes as well as:

• Have lower levels of education and IQ; be less clear-thinking
• Be more neurotic, anxious, nervous and defensive
• Be less agreeable, optimistic, content and more irritable
• Be less extraverted, conscientious and open
• Be less self-confident
• Be more excitable, moody, hasty and self-centered
• Be more authoritarian

Men who commit domestic violence may be found among a larger pool of men with poor problem-solving skills, but in addition they appear to have borderline-antisocial personality traits, certain types of hostility, and histories of abuse as CHILDREN that may predispose them to become violent with their female companions. Here are some of the reasons a person is abusive:

1. They have a disorder: A small number of the population is anti-social personality disorder (sociopath or psychopath) and sadistic. These disorders gain pleasure from seeing others in pain and even more pleasure when they are the ones inflicting the agony. For them, abuse is a means to an end. They abuse others to gain personal pleasure.
2. They were abused: Some abusers act out their dysfunctional behavior on others because it was done to them. In a subconscious effort to resolve their own abuse, they do the same to another person. This type of abusive behavior is identical, meaning it matches almost exactly to their childhood experience.
3. They were abused, part two: Just like in the previous explanation, they abuse because it was done to them. However, in this case the victim is the opposite. For instance, a boy who is sexually abused by a man might grow up to sexually abuse girls as evidence that they are not homosexual. The reverse can be true as well.
4. They watched something: With the advances in technology comes additional exposure at a young age to glorified abuse. Some movies, songs, TV shows, and videos minimize abuse by making fun of it or making it seem normal. A typical example is verbally attacking on another person by name calling or belittling.
5. They have anger issues: Uncontrolled and unmanaged rage frequently produces abusive behavior. The source of this anger varies but it is usually tied to a traumatic event. Unresolved trauma sparks anger when triggered by a person, circumstance, or place. Because this anger comes out of nowhere, it that much harder to control and manifests abusively.
6. They grew up with an addict: An addict blames others for the reason they engage in their destructive behavior. While the victims are often forced to remain silent and acceptant of their behavior. The end result is a lot of pent-up anger and abusive behavior. As an adult, the victim subconsciously seeks out others to blame for their actions.
7. They have control issues: Some people like to be in charge. In an effort to gain or remain in control of others, they utilize inefficient means of dominance such as bullying or intimidation. While forced control can be quickly executed, it does not have lasting qualities. True leadership is void of abusive techniques.
8. They don’t understand boundaries: Abusive people tend to lack the understanding of where they end and another person begins. They see their spouse/child/friend as an extension of themselves and therefore that person is not entitled to have any boundaries. The lack of distance means a person is subject to whatever the abuser decides.
9. They are afraid: People who do and say things out of fear tend to use their emotions as justification for why another person needs to do what is demanded. It is as if the fear is so important or powerful that nothing else matters except what is needed to subdue it.

10.         10. They lack empathy: It is far easier to abuse others when there is no empathy for how the victim            might feel. Some types of head trauma, personality disorders, and environmental traumas can               cause a person to lack the ability to express empathy.

11. They have a personality disorder: Just because a person has a personality disorder does not mean that they will be abusive. However, the lack of an accurate perception of reality greatly contributes to abusive behavior. If a person is unable to see their behavior as abusive, then they will keep doing it.
12. They are exhausted: When a person reaches the end of rope, it is not uncommon for them to lash out at whoever is conveniently close. Think of it as a mental breakdown where all the things stuffed inside come pouring out usually in a destructive rather than constructive manner.
13. They are defensive: Defense mechanisms such as denial, projection, regression, and suppression are utilized when a person is backed into a corner. Instead of taking space, they come out swinging and retaliate in an abusive manner.

An abusive person may have some or all of these qualities depending on the circumstances. Remember, this is not about justifying their behavior; rather it is about helping victims to understand why a person might be abusive. We must begin to take note of the way and enviroment in which our future adults are being raised. CHILDHOOD MATTERS.