Sage-femme Collective
Natural Liberty
Rediscovering Self-induced abortion Methods
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Praise for Sage-femme Collective’s Natural Liberty
“…providing access to this information makes a deeper statement about our right to bodily autonomy…understanding how pregnancy and abortion work helps make women full participants in our reproductive health, not passive recipients of aid…
I’m glad Sage-femme! is furthering this discussion.”
“Want reproductive freedom? Buy this amazing book; tell your friends about it; and read it carefully together. Do self-examination together; get to know how your cervices look through your menstrual cycles. Keep this book and your speculum in a safe place. Of course, you continue to fight for our rights, including legal abortion or better yet, the repeal of abortion laws. But, come what may, you know that if you ever face an unwanted pregnancy, whatever the political climate, you have the tools you need.
That, my sister, is reproductive freedom.”
Acknowledgements
Many have contributed to the creation of this work. We wish to acknowledge and express our gratitude to the many anonymous individuals who helped to make Natural Liberty a reality.
Introduction
Corinna is lying near death,
She sought to rid the contents of her womb, risked her life, and never said a word.
I should feel anger, but I fear so for her, conceived within, and by me.
Life is unsure, but this I know.
Goddess Isis, of Paraetonium, of joyous windswept fields of Canopus, of Memphis, and regal palms of Pharos, and delta Nile whose waters spread to the sea through seven sacred mouths,
I pray by your rattles: by the sacred image of Anubis, may your husband, Osiris, always love your rites. May the snake glide unhurried in your sacred temple, and the horned Apis honor your procession.
May your gaze be drawn this way, to bestow kindness on her, and save two by saving one. The life you grant to her returns to me my heart.
She always wore the laurel crown and is worthy of your blessing. attending all your special days.
Goddess Ilithyia, comforter of laboring women, easing the burden when contractions quake and strain, please look fondly on her, and hear my prayers.
I, myself, in robes of white, shall burn incense at your altar, and at your feet lay gifts, inscribed: Ovid, offers these in gratitude for saving Corinna.
And last, my love, may I be bold amidst my fear? Corinna, if you live, never again such danger, my dear!
From the beginning of recorded time, women and men have searched for safe effective abortion methods. It took civilization thousands of years to develop the professional clinical abortion services contemporary women utilize. People rarely pause to recall and appreciate these facts when discussing the issues surrounding abortion. During thousands of years of terrible agony and gross errors,[1] millions of women were marred permanently and millions more died from trying to end unwanted pregnancies. Even today the estimated number of women who die each year from unsafe abortion ranges from 70,000 to 200,000.[2] In addition, millions of women per year are believed to suffer temporary or permanent disability from unsafe abortion.[3] The modern world has the capacity to provide safe abortion services for our beloved daughters, girlfriends, mothers, sisters, and wives. Women and men should be rejoicing in the marvels of modern science and praising the wonderful modern world where, if desired, pregnancy termination can be nearly 100% safe for all women. Instead, the rights of women are held hostage, as politicians and sectarian zealots debate when abortion should be allowed, if at all.
For thousands of years, nearly every culture recognized abortion as a natural body function and necessity. According to Chinese folklore, 5000 years ago Emperor Shennong, who wrote the earliest Chinese pharmacopoeia and is believed to have been the father of Chinese medicine and acupuncture, recommended the use of mercury, a toxic metal, to induce abortion.[4] In China, between 500 and 515 BC, the number of abortions induced among the royal concubines is documented.[5] The Egyptians documented the use of agents to terminate pregnancy thousands of years ago. The first written documentation of an abortion technique is in the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus, dated to 1550 BC.[6] The Greeks and Romans further documented what abortifacients were deemed effective and which abortifacients were considered too dangerous. Aristotle recommended induced abortion to maintain the population at optimal size.[7]
Hippocrates forbade the use of abortive suppositories, which he deemed too dangerous to the woman; however, he recommended oral abortifacients as well as physical exertion which he believed caused abortion. Soranus, another Greek physician, in his written work, Gynecology, recommended a detailed abortifacient regime for the care and health of the woman. It included abortifacient herbs, baths, exercise, fasting, and bloodletting while discouraging the use of sharp instruments which could perforate the uterus. Soranus qualified Hippocrates’ categorical disapproval of pessaries and suppositories to cause abortion, warning that, “one should choose those which are not too pungent, that may not cause too great a sympathetic reaction and heat.”[8] The medical knowledge documented in the writings of ancient physicians indicates that the health of the woman was the primary focus of physicians. The woman’s need for abortive services was recognized, and the responsibility of the physician to secure the health of the woman during abortion was emphasized. The valuing of the woman's life and health above that of the unborn was constant throughout history. This vital priority remained until the 1600’s, when Roman Catholic thought hardened against induced abortion and equated the life of the mother as equal in importance to that of the unborn.
Today, 42,000,000 abortions take place around the world every year. Research indicates that the incidence of abortions is not reduced by restrictive laws. In fact, the opposite is true. According to a study by the Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization, abortion rates are highest in countries with the most restrictive abortion laws. The only factor that reduces the abortion rate is increased education combined with unlimited access to family planning services of contraception and abortion.[9]
All of society benefits when a woman’s natural liberty to abort as she deems necessary is recognized and supported. Positive effects of ensuring women’s natural liberty to safe and effective abortion services include: increased health of women, fewer unwanted children, reduced population, reduced crime rate, and increased economic prosperity.
Restricting access to safe abortion forces women to seek other options that may be more dangerous. Laws and restrictions on abortion affect the health of women and the rate of maternal mortality. In areas where abortion is restricted, maternal mortality increases.[10] A 1992 study at the Smt Sucheta Kriplani Hospital in Delhi, India found that 20% of maternal deaths were caused by illegally induced abortion.[11] A Bangladesh study correlated an annual 9% reduction in maternal mortality after 1990 as safer abortion methods became available.[12] A U.S. study in North Carolina of maternal mortality rates in the five years before and after Roe v. Wade, showed a 46% decline in maternal mortality in the five years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision to legalize abortion.[13] In areas where abortion is unrestricted, abortion related consequences are also reduced. For example, after Roe vs. Wade in 1973, all abortion-related complications dropped significantly.[14] Conversely, in Chile, where abortion is illegal, up to one-quarter of all obstetrical admissions to the hospital are related to illegally induced abortions.[15] Also, areas which experienced restrictive laws against abortion have shown a higher incidence of kidney failure in women, often related to substances taken to attempt to induce abortion.[16]
1
Alfred Swaine Taylor,
2
Jodi L. Jacobson, "The Global Politics of Abortion,"
3
World Health Organization,
5
F. Glenc, “Induced Abortion – a Historical Outline,”
6
Malcolm Potts and Martha Campbell, “History of Contraception,”
8
Soranus,
9
Susan A. Cohen, “New Data on Abortion Incidence, Safety Illuminate Key Aspects of Worldwide Abortion Debate,”
10
Laura Gil, “Assessing Maternal Mortality due to Induced Abortion: A Systematic Review of the Literature,”
11
M. Sood, Y. Juneja, and U. Goyal, “Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Associated with Clandestine Abortions,”
12
M.E. Chowdhury, R. Botlero, M. Koblinsky, S.K. Saha, G. Dieltiens, and C. Ronsmans, “Determinants of Reduction in Maternal Mortality in Matlab, Bangladesh: a 30-year cohort study,”
13
Robert E. Meyer and Paul A. Buescher, “Maternal Mortality Related to Induced Abortion in North Carolina: A Historical Study,”
14
Susan A. Cohen, “New Data on Abortion Incidence, Safety Illuminate Key Aspects of Worldwide Abortion Debate,”
15
John M. Paxman, Alberto Rizo, Laura Brown and Janie Benson, “The Clandestine Epidemic: The Practice of Unsafe Abortion in Latin America,”
16
D.S. Vladutiu, C. Spanu, I.M. Patiu, C. Neamtu, M. Gherman, and M. Manasia, “Abortion Prohibition and Acute Renal Failure: the Tragic Romanian Experience,”