Viagra is Health Care?

 

We all know that cosmetic surgery is considered elective surgery, right? It is having a chosen surgical procedure which is not lifesaving in most cases. We are clear about ELECTIVE surgery, yet it is not regulated or focused on as an individual right in the way MEDICAL abortions are.

Women's health care has become a hot button topic. Defining what is and is not acceptable health care for women has been put up for public debate without a woman's voice having any more sway than any other voice.

Medical reasons which make it necessary to end a pregnancy are varied and the majority of the public are unaware of these reasons. A woman may be offered a termination for medical reasons (TFMR) if tests show that your baby is not developing as expected. This may be due to a serious genetic or structural condition. A woman may also be offered a TFMR if she has pregnancy complications that risks her life or to the baby’s life. 

The feelings a woman has when she needs to end a pregnancy for medical reasons are no less painful or valid than any other type of baby loss. Being told that you or your unborn baby are at risk is a painful and traumatic experience. Parents tell us that the guilt linked to making the decision can make it even harder. It is made even harder when the parents AREN'T allowed to make the decision.

The MOST common situation where a pregnant patient would need a procedure to terminate their pregnancy is a miscarriage. In medical terms, a miscarriage is called a spontaneous abortion, which can be confusing to patients. An estimated 10% to 20% of confirmed pregnancies in the US will end in miscarriage. The majority of these will complete without intervention; but some patients might require medication or surgical intervention, using the same procedure performed during an abortion.

The other large category of pregnancies where a physician might suggest or recommend an abortion is when the pregnant patient has a pre-existing disease that's associated with high maternal morbidity and mortality. This category includes a number of conditions, including cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease, Marfan syndrome, lupus nephritis, cardiomyopathy, and pulmonary hypertension. So just in that context, think of someone who has severe cardiac disease. By the time they make it to the third trimester and then at the time of delivery, they might not be able to survive delivery. 

Another key consideration when it comes to pregnancy and pre-existing disease is the use of teratogenic medications, such as medicines for Rheumatoid arthritis. These are medications that can cause birth defects or abnormalities in the embryo or fetus, and they include some of the most effective treatments across medicine. Unintended pregnancies occur even when someone is using highly effective birth control. And when physicians prescribe teratogenic medications to patients with reproductive potential, it is usually with the understanding that in case the patient became pregnant, abortion would be available to them as an option.

For some conditions, like lupus nephritis, there may not be any alternative, non-teratogenic therapies available. A disproportionate number of lupus patients are female, and lupus tends to manifest during childbearing years. And if they develop renal complications of lupus, which about 40% will, carrying a pregnancy to full term would be dangerous. The best evidence-based medications we have for that entity are both teratogenic, which harms the fetus.

With pregnancies indicating a clear need for medical intervention to end the pregnancy, the Republican party has decided that a pregnant woman and her doctor does not have the right to make those decisions.

Yet, when it comes to elective medical INTERVENTION to restore an ERECTION, only the man and his doctor has this delicate private discussion.

I know you're saying, "Wanting to have an erection after the biology of a man's body says its over is not equal to the death of a fetus," and you are right. But whether you believe the two are equal or not, what IF someone said WE DON'T CARE! We say no to YOUR medical need/desire/ What if your most FACT-based reasoning proves you, as a man, under a physician's care can still be told, sorry, WE will be making THIS decision for you.

As of June 2005, over 23 million men had been prescribed Viagra (sildenafil citrate) by more than 750,000 physicians worldwide. In 2022, ClinCalc DrugStats estimated that 1,127,720 patients in the United States were prescribed Viagra. Viagra is one of the most commonly prescribed and abused pharmaceuticals and is considered the most well-known treatment for erectile dysfunction (ED). it's abused! Isn't that a valid reason for it to be denied? Can you IMAGINE 23 million men's voices being ignored when it came to THEIR health care? Can you imagine 750,000 physicians being criminally charged for prescribing a medication? It IS crazy, right?

What makes the availability of certain types of health care for men be stamped as fine when LIFE THREATENING medical care is denied for women? Why isn't here an evaluation of ALL medical care to determine which should and should not be determined between a patient and a doctor? Let's put some more health care choices on the ballot.

Many feel justified in saying NO to select medical services offered to women. They say, "We are saving lives," with pride. But what are you DESTROYING in the process? The life you MAY be saving - you have NO investment in or future care of. IS THIS AN EGO TRIP by those who believe they are doing a good thing? What good have you done if a mother dies? 

The thing about health care is it BELONGS to an individual. I doubt any man, as he consults with his doctor, would want me there as he describes his erectile dysfunction, how long it has been a problem, and how he is suffering because of it. If there was another person in the doctor's office with men seeking Viagra, many would not do it. That is why there are so many Viagra commercials saying men can order the medication, without a doctor's prescription and it's mailed without a label so no one will know what they have ordered. Erectile dysfunction is as private as private can be.

The sad thing about this double standard of medical care is, there are millions of people who will fight for the right of MEN to have access to medical care THEY BELIEVE they need and are ENTITLED to.

It is hard to believe we live in a time of rampant cosmetic surgery just to get more likes online, and erectile dysfunction medication being mail order, and a woman can die or be criminalized for a medical abortion. But women have been here before.

An online magazine reached out to me years ago after reading a blog post I had made. This is that post they later printed in their magazine below.

My MoJo Online Submission in Issue 11

MEMOIR/SOCIAL COMMENTARY:

I NEVER THOUGHT I’D SEE THE DAY

By Dorothy Guyton

I think it was four-no five years ago I went to visit an elderly friend. Oh, that’s not a good description of this lady whose eyes and ears have seen and heard more things than most young minds could contain. She was a lady but was never ashamed of the hard labor she did with her dark palmed hands. These were hands that picked astonishing amounts of cotton and the same hands that slipped bail money in coffins from up North to Mississippi during Jim Crow for those imprisoned under made up charges with high set bail. Now, you get it. Now you know I was visiting a fountain of courage and wisdom who spoke in a paced, low alto, authoritative voice.

“Yes, Dorothy I would have loved to have more children, but I couldn’t. The doctor told me when I was in my thirties, I needed to have a hysterectomy, but my husband told the doctor no.”

Stunned for a moment, knowing I just misunderstood what had just been said; I asked the woman who spoke like spun silk to repeat what she just said. With a smile at my naive youth her skin color perked up and began to flush with undertones of renewed blood flow.

“Oh, yes Door-ah-they (I loved how she purred my name), a woman had to get her husband’s permission to have a hysterectomy back then even if her health was in jeopardy like mine was. It wasn’t until we divorced that I had the surgery. I think I suffer now for waiting so long.”

I left her presence haunted by the thought. I drove home swiftly with a new idea for a book swirling in my head aching to be released and jotted down on paper. I had grand plans for a four-part novelette.

It would begin with a slave woman and progress to the 1950’s, to 2009, and end in the year 2065, all dealing with the same core issue with different women linked to each other one way or another. 

(The story would begin) Aunt Addie was used to produce babies for her Master to sell. Her children all went for high prices, and each had an identifiable birthmark on them somewhere that looked like a star. Her prized off springs began to be known as a ‘Star Child’ and every slave owner wanted one. This was fine with Addie until she became pregnant by the love of her life who promised not to sell their love child, the master’s son.

Of course, the child was sold, love was lost, and it turned out she would never have another ‘Star Child.’ Years go by and the new Master (her old love) purchases a beautiful young girl who worked hard and now was the one counted on to birth the money children. When it comes time for the baby to be born old Aunt Addie was the midwife. The young girl pushed and pushed and then Aunt Addie saw it, the birthmark on the inside of the new young girl’s thigh in the shape of a star.

I can’t tell you the entire story, but not to be able to recognize or ever raise one of your children had to hit Old Aunt Addie hard. What had to hit even harder was that more ‘Star’ children were being birthed for market, with no say in the matter. Great little story of a past era we strive to leave in the past and move towards our future.

My, how time flies. The title of the book is going to be I Never Thought I’d See the Day. But I have lived to see the day. I live in a world where there is a debate whether a woman can have contraceptives, safe abortions, a place for breast exams, and procedures in a hospital that would save her life, but not if it endangered the unborn child’s life.

    Men are debating women’s issues without even asking for a woman’s advice. What a difference four or five years can make. I did not believe I would see a day, a time like this. My fictitious character, Aunt Addie, did not have any control or choice of her reproduction wishes, her own body. “How far have we come as women—or is the question —where are we headed as women?”

Say what you will, give reasonings as you will, but as long as Viagra is healthcare, so should medical abortions without interference from the public.

How To Spot A BAD Doctor

 

    I have had the pleasure in my life to have had good experiences going to a new doctor. My experiences of having a BAD doctor outnumber the experiences of having a GOOD doctor.

    I happen to have back problems and in my efforts to find help for the problem, I have encountered HORRIBLE doctors!

    My frustrastion and anger was off the charts. I felt so helpless in my health care desparation. I knew deep within me the DOCTOR did not seem as CONCERNED with my excrutiating back pain as I was. I was ready to give up. My doctor visits left me feeling EXHAUSTED. I felt like I was in a FIGHT just for the doctor to LISTEN to what MY health complaints were.

    After one very disappointing doctor visit to a new doctor, I know I got Covid the next day due to the stress and hopelessness of a doctor dismissing me and being condescending to me as he quickly entered and exited my patient room. My immune system had to be as low as I felt that day. Thus COVID!

    I had had enough! I thought back to the majority of my doctor visits to see if there was a common DENOMINATOR. There was. First, I will give several signs of a bad doctor according to my RESEARCH before I go on about my personal findings about my BAD experiences with doctors:

Your doctor has a bad bedside manner.

Your doctor is late.

You aren't called with test results.

Your doctor’s record is blemished.

Your doctor has trouble with boundaries.

Your doctor has poor diagnostic skills.

Your doctor asks personal questions.

Your doctor is narrow-minded about alternative therapies.

7 Signs of a Bad Doctor:

• The office staff is unprofessional.
• Your doctor isn't listening to you.
• You can't get in touch with them.
• You don't know what's going on.
• Your doctor is rude or condescending.
• Your doctor seems rushed.
• They don't offer helpful alternatives.

****MY advice for you to FLEE is a waiting room full of people waiting for HOURS to see the doctor. The doctor, his employees, his practice, does not RESPECT YOU from the get go. DO NOT pay or see a doctor who makes his patients WAIT forever in the waiting room. SIMPLE! 

    Now for my journey. The FIRST common denominator was, the majority of the doctors were WHITE MALES. And RACE does make a difference in the healthcare system. Nearly 64 percent of active physicians were White, 20.6 percent were Asian, 6.9 percent were Hispanic, and 5.7 percent were Black or African American, as of January 17, 2023. In 2018,Whites were 60% of the U.S. population and approximately 57% of physicians. Diversity knowledge is needed to be able to address many patient's needs as I will get into later.

     This is NOT the race card being played. It is just the facts of being ill and in need of treatment for your health concerns while being BLACK. I have always FELT a white man could not relate to the medical concerns of a BLACK WOMAN. I just felt it in my gut, but continued on. 

    SECOND, the AGE of a doctor makes a difference. In 2018, among White physicians, males were the vast majority of those age 65 years and over (79.3%) and of those ages 55-64 years (71.5%). A little more than half of White physicians age 34 and younger were females (50.6%). Among White physicians age 35 and over, males made up a larger percentage of the workforce than females. This percentage increased with age. New research published last week in the Journal of Modern Medicine, which analyzed a large number of physicians according to age, sex and race, showed that older white male doctors (age greater than 60) in a number of different specialties, overwhelmingly had BETTER patient outcomes and patient satisfaction, than any other demographic.

     Now let's look how race plays a role in healthcare since I am a minority.

    Racial and ethnic disparities vary by group: For about 40% of quality measures, Blacks (82 of 202) and American Indians and Alaska Natives (47 of 116) received worse care than Whites. For more than one-third of quality measures, Hispanics (61 of 177) received worse care than Whites, according to NHQDR. The annual National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report (NHQDR) is mandated by Congress to provide a comprehensive overview of the quality of healthcare received by the general U.S. population and disparities in care experienced by different racial and socioeconomic groups. ALL groups receive worse care than WHITE people.

     When you throw in a person's income, things can get even worse. For the most recent year, people in poor households had worse access to care than people in high-income households for 90% of access measures. Blacks had worse access to care than Whites for 48% of access measures. Asians had worse access to care than Whites for 32% of access measures. Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders (NPHIs) had worse access to care than Whites for 25% of access measures. American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) had worse access to care than Whites for 55% of access measures. Hispanics had worse access to care than non-Hispanic Whites for 65% of access measures.

    In 2017, Blacks (73.4%), Asians (70.1%), and AI/ANs (67.5%) were less likely than Whites (76.8%) to have a usual primary care provider. In 2017, Blacks (20.4%) and Asians (24.3%) who needed to see a SPECIALIST were more likely than Whites (14.2%) to report that they sometimes or NEVER found it easy to get the appointment. People of color can't even get appointments or referrals. It's not in our heads. 

    You know what else is not in OUR heads? Many doctors don't seem to care very much about their patients, are somewhat mean to their patients, and even seem as they may not know or understand what's going on with the patient. Our Spidey senses are RIGHT.

''There have been estimates that as many as 5 to 15 percent of doctors are not fully competent to practice medicine, either from a deficiency of medical skills or because of impairment from drugs, alcohol or mental illness,'' said Dr. Richard Jay Feinstein, former chairman of the Florida State Medical Board.Mar 24, 1985.

    The reason why doctors can be condescending is that they were probably jerks to begin with, rationalizing that getting into medical school is very competitive and that students are ranked according to test scores, not on how nice they are. Successful pre-meds are generally type A personalities with a fierce competitive nature, and what kind of person would sign up for a career where they are harassed, blamed, required to do endless paperwork of indeterminate usefulness, denied regular sleep, and endure hostility from staff, coworkers, family members, and error-prone colleagues? A person with a pretty thick skin and a high tolerance for sadism and/or masochism…also known as a jerk. YES. If you FEEL your doctor is a jerk than he probably is one.

    When I speak of racism in the medical field it is not doctors not wanting to treat you because of your color. It is something else on an entirely different level.

    Doctors tend to believe: BLACK PEOPLE HAVE A HIGH TOLERANCE FOR PAIN. No I don't. I'm just as delicate as the blonde blue eyed white woman!!

    When false ideas of pain tolerance based on RACE are present within people's minds, they lead to detrimental consequences even if those who believe in them have no explicitly prejudiced beliefs, as was discovered by researchers. In a study on racial bias in pain assessments, a demonstrated correlation between racial bias in pain assessment and subsequent pain treatment suggestions was found. It was also found that in both a significant number of laypersons and those with medical training, incorrect beliefs about differences between black and white people on a BIOLOGICAL level were held.

     Beliefs such as these can lead to the differential treatment of patients on the basis of their race. In a research paper which was written by Staton et al., doctors were shown to have a higher probability of UNDERESTIMATIN the pain INTENSITY that black patients were feeling. In the early 2000's multiple studies were able to demonstrate discrepancies in the PAIN TREATMENT of black patients as compared to the pain treatment of white patients. From children to adults, differences were as much as black patients only taking HALF of the amount of pain medications as white patients were taking.

    Diagnostic errors result in a staggering toll of harm and patient deaths with nearly one in twenty patients—or 12 million adults in the United States—experiencing a diagnostic error each year. WOMEN and Black patients are more likely to experience ADVERSE events during primary care. Overall, research suggests that some vulnerable social groups are more likely to be harmed by diagnosis error.

     Further, research has found that, when compared to White patients, ethnic minorities have a greater chance of experiencing harm and adverse consequences due to errors in the testing process, which includes ordering the test, implementing the test, performing the test, reporting results to the clinician, clinician responding to the results, notifying the patient of the results and following up.

     One study reviewed the association between the type of testing error and the occurrence of adverse outcomes and found an important association across racial and ethnic groups. This research revealed that ERRORS based on test implementation were almost DOUBLE within minority groups in comparison with non-Hispanic Whites (32% as opposed to 18%). Overall, the study found minority patients were more likely to experience an adverse event. The study revealed that minority patients are THREE times more likely to experience an adverse event due to the testing process than a White patient.

     OKAY. I'm Black. What else is working against me? Oh Yeah, I'm a woman. The THIRD thing that matters in healthcare is SEX.

    A study at Johns Hopkins University found that emergency room doctors commonly miss strokes among women, minorities, and patients under age forty-five. Unfortunately, each year “doctors overlook or discount the early signs of potentially disabling strokes in tens of thousands of Americans.” Of those overlooked, women, minorities, and younger patients are disproportionately sent home, despite complaints of dizziness or headaches. Additional research has found that WOMEN under the age of fifty-five were almost SEVEN times more likely than men in the same age group to be sent home from the hospital in the middle of experiencing certain heart problems. The results of these studies suggest that race and gender, whether implicitly or explicitly, may play a role in how physicians decide who to treat and who to send home. 

    Not only have doctors, scientists and researchers mostly been WHITE MEN, but most of the cells, animals, and humans studied in medical science have also been MALE: most of the advances we have seen in medicine have come from the study of MALE biology. Dr Janine Austin Clayton, an associate director for women’s health research at the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH), told the New York Times that the result is: “We literally know less about every aspect of FEMALE biology compared to male biology.” Diseases presenting DIFFERENTLY in women are often missed or misdiagnosed, and those affecting mainly women remain largely a mystery: understudied, undertreated and frequently misdiagnosed or undiagnosed.

    Historically, medical education and research have been MALE-focused, specifically on the WHITE gendered male. Within medicine there exists a foundation of research conducted on the White gendered male, with the assumption that this data could simply be extrapolated to women and other racial and ethnic minorities. Research has also found physicians and medical institutions fail to offer equitable, unbiased, appropriate medical care for women. One reason for this failure is the presumption that women are “overly emotional.” Within our culture, women have long suffered from unfair stereotypes and dismissal of their concerns as hysteria or emotion, according to MEDICAL ERROR AND VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES by PHOEBE JEAN-PIERRE.

    So it is not so much about BAD DOCTORS, it's about understanding you are ENTITLED to competent healthcare by professional competent doctors who treat you with decency. If you FEEL, BELIEVE you are not being listened to or dismissed, do not continue to see that particular doctor. I know when it is an emergency, whatever doctor is in the emergency room is who you are going to see. But, there is a patient advocate you can request to speak with if you believe you are being treated less than and you can request to be seen by another doctor. Shop around for a primary care provider who is not overloaded with patients and imforms you to YOUR satisfaction regarding your treatments.

    I have decided to ditch the WHITE MALE DOCTOR. They never give me pain medication, they rush in and out of the room, and do have a tendency to dismiss my symptoms or give referals to departments that MAY be able to clear up my concerns.

    I just got tired of it all and after being so upset after a doctor's visit that I 100% believe I got COVID. I had to make a change.

 

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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