Subject: Re: Herbal abortifacients other than the deadly pennroyal?

From: [email-masked] (Karen Stark)
Date: 21 Dec 1994 14:44:14 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Philosopher) wrote:

> 
> 
> 	Are there any herbs that will act as abortifacients without damn
> near killing the woman?
> It seems like this kind of info would spread like wildfire, especially these
> days. 
> 
> 								- Xochi
> 
>In the ancient world they used the seeds of a relative of the carrot as a "morning after" pill. The plant was so popular it became extinct by the middle ages. The rumor mill has it that wild carrot seed has some of the same qualities. I have a friend who has tried many times to help women abort with various emmenagogues and he says that he finds it generally uneffective, often unhealthy, and always psychically painful. I know another herbal practitioner who believes that the organism is meant to carry a h
ealthy fetus, and therefore any abortafacient is by definition unhealthy.

Xairein

---

From: [email-masked] (Robin and Ennien Ashbrook)
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 1994 09:40:04 GMT

[email-masked] (Philosopher) writes:
> near killing the woman? Pennroyal oil is deadly - that much is clear. But
> Varro Tyler in _The Honest Herbal_ claims that pennroyal itself is only
> effective as an abortifacient in near fatal doses... so that means pennroyal
> tea is out I suppose (the dosage would be _too_ low). And if there is an
> herb that can safely induce abortions, why don't more people know about it?

If there is, I haven't heard of it.  All of the abortifacient herbs I 
know are deadly, and often take the mother along with the fetus.  Tansy 
was used in the middle ages to determine whether the abortion was good in 
God's eyes:  If the woman lived, it was right.  The berries of mistletoe 
were used to procure abortion, along with heart attack.  Wild yam could 
abort a fetus, along with a liver.  Babies are socked into a woman's body 
pretty good; they have to be to come to term, considering what women go 
through during their pregnancies (particularly in the past, when women's 
tasks were very much more physically laborious).  If it's strong enough 
to kill a fetus, its strong enough to kill the mother as well.  
Also, most "abortifacient" herbs, don't procure abortion, per se (ie: 
expulsion of the fetus).  Rather, they kill the fetus, then emmenagogue 
herbs may be used to cause the uterus to birth the dead fetus.
Abortion is one area where allopathic medicine's methods are by far safer 
and more effective.
Cheers,
-==- Ennien

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Ennein & Robin Ashbrook               |                             |
| Internet: [email-masked]   |   " To each, their own. "   |
| UUCP: calgary!debug!galatia.9         |                             |

---

From: [email-masked] (allen lutins)
Date: 23 Dec 1994 08:22:30 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Robin and Ennien Ashbrook <[email-masked]> wrote:
>[...]  All of the abortifacient herbs I 

...a nice list, but you omitted one common medieval abortifacient--ergot
(Claviceps purpurae, a fungus which infests rye seeds)...ergot induces
labor, but is fraught with danger as well, primarily gangrene of the
extremeties...
							-allen
-- 
 "Is it not the rich who are exploiting you?  Are they not the ones
  who are dragging you into court?"              -- James 2:6 [NIV]
====================================================================
 allen `alley cat' lutins                  [email-masked]

---

From: [email-masked] (Philosopher)
Date: 21 Dec 1994 00:47:55 GMT

- Xochi

--
                              <------------------------------------->
|                             | "We should not act and speak as if  | 
|                             |  we were asleep." --- Heraclitus    | 
|                             |_____________________________________|

---

From: [email-masked] (Robin and Ennien Ashbrook)
Date: Sat, 24 Dec 1994 02:23:35 GMT

> ...a nice list, but you omitted one common medieval abortifacient--ergot

Like it was intended to be a complete listing of all abortifacient herbs 
known to humanity -- the word is "examples".
Cheers,
-==- Ennien