How to abort a child at home
Can I use herbs to have an abortion at home?
By Kendall @ Planned Parenthood | Aug. 26, 2022, 4:28 a.m.
Category: Abortion
Someone asked us: What herbs can I use to give myself an abortion?
Throughout history and across different cultures, people have used plants and herbs to try to cause an abortion. Some of these plants and herbs include wormwood, rue, salvia, licorice root, mint pennyroyal, and calendula.
Doctors usually recommend that pregnant people avoid these herbs because there’s a chance they can cause a miscarriage. But there is also not enough scientific evidence to show that these plants and herbs work to cause an abortion, or are safe to use to end a pregnancy. And using herbs, plants, or other untested chemicals can put you at risk for things like poisoning, an allergic reaction, or an incomplete abortion. It's also not a good idea to try and hurt yourself to end a pregnancy, because it may cause you serious harm and may not work. If you have complications that are not treated in time by a doctor or nurse, it could lead to a serious infection or even death.
But there are ways to safely have an abortion at home. You can use abortion pills (AKA medication abortion) up to 11 weeks after the first day of your last period to safely end your pregnancy. This is sometimes called "at-home abortion."
You can get abortion pills from many abortion providers, including some Planned Parenthood health centers. Depending on what state you live in, you may be able to have a video or phone visit with a doctor or nurse for the abortion pill and then have the pills mailed to you.
Abortion laws vary by state, and some states have banned abortion or made it very difficult to get. So some people may choose to have self-managed abortion — this is when you find and take abortion pills to end a pregnancy without the help of a doctor or nurse.
Research shows that self-managing an abortion with abortion pills (mifepristone and/or misoprostol) can be safe and effective — especially if you:
- Usually have regular periods, know the first day of your last period, and it’s been less than 10 weeks from the first day of your last period
- Have good information about how to take abortion pills
- Don’t have medical reasons why you shouldn’t use abortion pills (like inherited bleeding disorders, heart or kidney disease, still have an IUD in place, or think you have an ectopic pregnancy)
- Could get urgent medical care if you need it
There may be legal risks to buying and using abortion pills outside of the health care system. Repro Legal Helpline* has more information about this.
Plan C* has more information about the difference between self-managed abortion and getting an abortion from a doctor or nurse, including legal considerations.
After taking abortion pills, it’s normal to have fever, chills, nausea, strong cramping, and heavy bleeding for a day.
But go to an emergency room if you have other symptoms that worry you, like:
- soaking more than 2 maxi pads an hour for more than 2 hours in a row
- heavy bleeding for several days
- dizziness, chills, and/or fever lasting more than 24 hours
Emergency doctors and nurses can care for you whether or not they know about a self-managed abortion. In fact, the symptoms after taking abortion pills are the same as a miscarriage, and the medications in abortion pills don’t show up in blood tests.
If you have any concerns about your health, including any symptoms you’re experiencing during or after an abortion, Planned Parenthood is here to help (even if we didn’t provide your abortion).
*Note: Planned Parenthood is not responsible for nor does it endorse any legal, medical, or other advice or information provided by any of the entities identified or referenced herein or by any other third parties, whether referenced herein or not.
Tags: Abortion, abortion pill, telemedicine, medication abortion
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Abortion at home and its consequences
One could still understand the women who decided to terminate a pregnancy at home, in those years when abortion was prohibited by law. But, alas, there are many cases when this happens today.
Someone, thus, wants to keep a “delicate problem” a secret, and someone just wants to save money. Unfortunately, such savings can be very expensive: from lifelong infertility to death.
Methods used by women during an abortion at home
- Surgical - the woman finds a "specialist" who is ready to terminate the pregnancy at home. As a rule, it is not necessary to talk about what tools he uses for this and, moreover, about their sterility. Consequences - inflammatory diseases of the uterus and appendages, bleeding, perforation of the uterus, peritonitis, sepsis.
The risk of death is very high. Often ends with the removal of the uterus. - Introduction into the uterus with a syringe or catheter of various solutions (soap, soda, etc.). Someone does it on their own, and someone - with the help, again, of "specialists". It is fraught with - from inflammatory changes in the uterus and appendages, which can lead to peritonitis and sepsis, to the death of a woman from a pulmonary embolism or cerebral vessels. Of the survivors, many remain infertile.
These barbaric methods are now, fortunately, not used so often. However, women are still trying to terminate a pregnancy with pseudo-folk remedies. Such as:
- Mustard Powder Hot Bath. It may not have an effect, and if the pregnancy is interrupted, it will entail severe bleeding, which, without timely medical assistance, may result in death from blood loss.
- Taking a decoction of tansy. Due to the large amount of toxic substances contained in it, the fetus dies, but at the same time it does not leave the uterus and begins to decompose.
A focus of infection is formed, again, it can end, at best, in the loss of the uterus. And, if not lucky, then death from peritonitis or sepsis. - Decoction of herb "highlander meat-like". Yes, this herb will cause miscarriage. But the woman herself is at great risk of dying with her child, because this herb dramatically increases blood clotting, leading to thrombosis, which is very life-threatening.
These are not all pseudo-folk methods, but the main ones. Probably, after reading it, it becomes obvious that trying to terminate an unwanted pregnancy in such ways is not worth it.
Abortion pills
Another group of methods - and women ignorantly consider it the least dangerous - is the self-administration of "aborting" drugs - that is, those prescribed by a gynecologist for medical abortion (mifegin, misoprostol, etc.)
But the doctor is also a doctor to know everything about dosages, side effects and contraindications. And by prescribing these drugs to a woman, he tells her to immediately call an ambulance if something goes wrong!
Taking such drugs on their own, often in an inadequate dose or by those women to whom these drugs are contraindicated, can lead to very sad consequences (severe bleeding, severe hormonal disruptions, thrombosis, kidney failure, etc.
)
Summarizing all of the above - there are no safe ways to terminate a pregnancy at home, all of them entail dire consequences - from the loss of the opportunity to ever know the happiness of motherhood - and to the deprivation of life itself.
This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute scientific material or professional medical advice.
Self-administered medical abortion versus provider-led medical abortion (review)
Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods ►
Survey question
The purpose of this review was to compare whether self-administered abortion medication without the supervision of a healthcare professional can be as effective and safe as taking these medications in the presence of trained healthcare professionals.
Relevance
Medical abortion to terminate pregnancy has been shown to be successful and safe when women have access to the necessary information and resources.
In a provider-led medical abortion, medications are taken in the presence of trained health professionals. Medical abortion drugs became more widely available, allowing women to self-administer the drugs and giving them more control over the abortion procedure. In a self-administered medical abortion, the woman takes the drug(s) without the supervision of a healthcare professional after receiving the necessary information and resources. This is the first review of published evidence on whether self-administration of medical abortion drugs is a safe and successful way to terminate a pregnancy. We compared the success and safety of self-administered medical abortion versus provider-led medical abortion.
Study profile
We included 18 studies (two randomized controlled trials and 16 prospective cohort studies) involving 11,043 women who had medical abortion in early pregnancy (before nine weeks of pregnancy) in 10 countries. These studies compared self-administered medical abortion with provider-led medical abortion.
In both cases, the abortion was performed after the initial visit to the clinic. Most of the studies (16) were conducted in low- or moderate-resource settings, and two studies were conducted in high-resource settings. The evidence described in this review comes from studies published up to 10 July 2019.of the year.
Main results
In both low-to-moderate and high-resource settings, women self-administering medical abortion drugs in early pregnancy (before nine weeks of pregnancy) had abortion success rates similar to those seen in women undergoing an abortion procedure under the guidance of a medical professional. The evidence for safety is uncertain.
Quality of evidence
The evidence for the success of self-administered medical abortion versus provider-led medical abortion was moderate (moderate) certainty, due to low certainty in studies. The evidence for the safety of these interventions was very weak due to the low degree of certainty in the studies.
