Before anyone dives down my throat about this, i'll say straight out that i'm not in any way attempting this - i'm just gathering people's opinions and thoughts on the subject.
But anyway, the term 'herbal abortion' is pretty self-explanatory, is it not? I had read about this last summer and I found it intriguing in a sadistic sort of way. Basically, a woman ingests certain herbal supplements on a very constant regular basis for a certain time period in order to end her pregnancy (no longer than 2 weeks, because it can cause major problems in the woman's body and threaten her health). It is said that the woman should do this within the first 8 weeks of pregnancy, because after that point, herbs will not cause miscarriage and can cause birth defects as well as physical and mental problems in the unborn child; women need to begin taking herbs or herbal supplements the week before or the week of their period because it's when implantation usually occurs. Herbal abortion isn't entirely effective - it has about a 45% success rate if it's done correctly, but most women who attempt this end up needing a clinical abortion before infection sets in.
Herbs that are used for the purpose of inducing miscarriage are:
dong quai - stimulates the uterus to cause contractions
black cohosh - helps the cervix to relax and open (this is used by some midwives to prepare for childbirth)
cotton root bark - messes up progesterone levels and causes uterine contractions
rue/rutin - stimulates adrenaline (this herb has also been used as an emergency contraceptive)
vitamin c - really messes up progesterone levels
i have read tales of women who have used these herbs and successfully ended their pregnancies, but they needed to take lots and lots of supplements. To keep the herbs fresh and continuous in their bodies, women need to take 100-300 mg of certain herbs every 1-2 hours, even waking up at night to take them. True enough, this is definitely pretty morbid, but it's not a new technique - people have used said herbs for centuries to end pregnancies all around the world.
Other things are done along with using herbs, such as wearing very tight clothes, traveling, and having sex - any of those can contribute to varying degrees to making miscarriage occur with the ingestion of herbs. There's quite a few risks that accompany this, such as the herbs not working, hemorrage, incomplete abortion, allergic reactions, poisoning/overdose, or ectopic pregnancy.
Thoughts? Success or failure stories? Bring it all here. I'm not taking any sides on this issue - I simply wanted to share this information and see what everyone's opinions are.