# Tell me about abortifacients and abortions in general please **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 8, 2015, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-abortifacients-and-abortions-in-general-please/709310 "2015-01-08T14:24:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![manila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@manila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manila)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-abortifacients-and-abortions-in-general-please/709310/1 "2015-01-08T14:24:37Z")
Please remember this is a GQ thread. I know about the morning after pill (Plan B One-Step, Next Choice) I also know a little about treatments such as RU-486 which is supposed to be an effective abortificient up to 8 weeks of pregnancy. I know a little also about the procedures to terminate an unwanted pregnancy up to 24 weeks. Please tell me ( fight my ignorance) considering early pregnancy if these remedies are OTC or available only by prescription in your jursidiction, I think I heard that there is a womans’s rights/ reproductive rights group on the web willing to provide assistance. Please tell me also how effective these medications are to terminate an undesired pregnancy, if you care to elaborate how else an unplanned / undesired gravid period could be terminated (legally of course) And what did women use effectively before modern safe abortifacients became available? Am a bit annoyed at myself because although this is a pure general question and I am not invested in any answer… I still feel I need to tip toe gently:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-abortifacients-and-abortions-in-general-please/709310/2 "2015-01-08T14:57:56Z")
Plan B and similar “morning-after” or “emergency contraception” pills do NOT work the same way as RU-486. The primary method that emergency contraception works is by suppressing ovulation, just the same as birth control pills. In fact, that’s all these pills are: higher doses of birth control pills. These pills are only effective if taken within a few days of unprotected sex, as in, before an egg is released to be fertilized. Some have speculated that there is the possibility that emergency contraception could impair implantation of a fertilized egg, but [recent studies](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_contraception#Mechanism_of_action) conclude that is not the case. Also, if a woman becomes pregnant, they do not induce miscarriage, so calling it an abortifacent is wrong. The FDA approved Plan B for over the counter use [about two years ago](http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm358082.htm) in the United States. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-abortifacients-and-abortions-in-general-please/709310/3 "2015-01-08T15:22:13Z")
The morning after pill (Plan B aka levo-norgestrel) is almost certainly not an abortifacient, though I’m surprised how widespread the misconception is. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-abortifacients-and-abortions-in-general-please/709310/4 "2015-01-08T16:12:43Z")
_“And what did women use effectively before modern safe abortifacients became available?”_ All sorts of things. Some effective, many not and frequently leading to pain, damage and even death of the woman. > [@](#): > > Thousands of women tried some sort of medicinal way of evacuating the uterus. Violent purgatives such as a pint of Epsom salts were used: gin and ginger; turpentine; raw spirit; aloes or sloes. None worked. Some less reputable newspapers advertised “cures for menstrual blockage” [pregnancies]. These were poisonous and sometimes fatal. Some even contained mercury, which is highly poisonous. If the woman did survive, she would still be pregnant, as you virtually have to kill the mother before you destroy the foetus. > **[A midwife responds to Mike Leigh's Vera Drake](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/jan/06/health.healthandwellbeing)** > > Vera Drake, Mike Leigh's film about backstreet abortions, may be well acted and directed. Just a shame it's so implausible, says former midwife Jennifer Worth. Since abortion was illegal, it was generally carried out in unhygienic conditions by unlicensed practitioners, often with little skill. The mostt common customers would be prostitutes. Of course the wealthy could persuade doctors to perform abortions for pseudo medical reasons, but the costs were beyond most. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-abortifacients-and-abortions-in-general-please/709310/5 "2015-01-08T16:13:34Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Some have speculated that there is the possibility that emergency contraception could impair implantation of a fertilized egg… Which, I’d like to point out, still is not an abortion. A woman is not considered pregnant until a fertilized egg implants in the uterus. Preventing that last bit from happening is called “birth control.” ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-abortifacients-and-abortions-in-general-please/709310/6 "2015-01-08T16:23:34Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Some have speculated that there is the possibility that emergency contraception could impair implantation of a fertilized egg, but [recent studies](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_contraception#Mechanism_of_action) conclude that is not the case. Also, if a woman becomes pregnant, they do not induce miscarriage, so calling it an abortifacent is wrong. Which is odd, because the PlanB.ca site still makes the claim of impaired fertilization. Plus, if the only function was to prevent ovulation I would expect it to be a lot less effective than it appears to be - anyone already in the process of ovulation between about the day before the “accident” and the time before the pill is in the bloodstream (often 12 hours or more later) would likely still become pregnant. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-abortifacients-and-abortions-in-general-please/709310/7 "2015-01-08T17:03:25Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > Which, I’d like to point out, still is not an abortion. A woman is not considered pregnant until a fertilized egg implants in the uterus. Preventing that last bit from happening is called “birth control.” If you define abortion as ‘interrupting a pregnancy’ rather than ‘terminating the life of a developing human’, then sure, that’s fair. For those of us who believe that life begins at conception, though, deliberately preventing implantation of a fertilized is still pretty morally problematic. It’s irrelevant though since that isn’t what levonorgestrel does. ---
**Author:** ![manila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@manila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manila)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-abortifacients-and-abortions-in-general-please/709310/8 "2015-01-08T17:27:30Z")
As far as as illegal methods go a super close friend of mine told me that her mama lost her life when she ( my friend) was less than 2 years old because her mama had decided to end her then pregnancy from an abusive partner and sought out a “helper” who administered strychnine. ( I can’t imagine the pain that she went through that resulted in not only the obvious end of her pregnancy but also the loss off her own life) ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-abortifacients-and-abortions-in-general-please/709310/9 "2015-01-08T17:28:02Z")
> [@manila](#): > > And what did women use effectively before modern safe abortifacients became available? what did women use _effectively_? Nothing. For the most part they crossed their fingers they killed the fetus and not themselves. There were a couple methods. One was mechanical removal by people trained to do so to varying degrees. Often resulting in infertility and/or death when it went awry. The other was self-injury such as by poison (ex: pennyroyal tea as well as others already listed) or stressing the body until miscarriage was induced, ie, hot baths, throwing yourself down the stairs, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-abortifacients-and-abortions-in-general-please/709310/10 "2015-01-08T18:48:27Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Plus, if the only function was to prevent ovulation I would expect it to be a lot less effective than it appears to be - anyone already in the process of ovulation between about the day before the “accident” and the time before the pill is in the bloodstream (often 12 hours or more later) would likely still become pregnant. Maybe you don’t understand how the statistics are calculated. As shown in the cite I linked to earlier, if 1,000 women had unprotected sex one time, usually about 80 would become pregnant. If EC is used, about 20 would become pregnant, therefore it is 75% effective in preventing a pregnancy. For those 20 women, it is virtually certain that they ovulated before the EC was administered. If you’re trying to imply that Plan B’s primary method of preventing pregnancy is to prevent implantation (and not prevent ovulation as the science says), you should come up with cites for that claim. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-abortifacients-and-abortions-in-general-please/709310/11 "2015-01-08T22:50:04Z")
No, I’m saying the manufacturer/distributor in Canada still makes the claim that preventing implantation is _one_ way that it works. Simple math - Pulling numbers out of the air that I’ve heard over the years… not my area of expertise or worry by any means… An egg can wait around maybe 24 hours before it dies. Sperm can wait around 3 or 4 days for the egg before it too dies. Therefore, there’s 5 days from 24 hours before a “fertilizing event” to 96 hours after. Assuming the “morning after” pill lives up to its name, it would most likely enter the bloodstream about 12 hours after the main event. So we have 1.5 days out of 5, or 30% of the time, where it’s too late to stop ovulation. Yet the manufacturer claims up to 89% effectiveness. (Statistic on WebMD) Even if you give more likelihood to fertilization “taking” around the time of the main event, that does not sound like it’s all about ovulation. Some of that 89% must be due to implantation prevention? ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-abortifacients-and-abortions-in-general-please/709310/12 "2015-01-09T00:10:32Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > Which, I’d like to point out, still is not an abortion. A woman is not considered pregnant until a fertilized egg implants in the uterus. Preventing that last bit from happening is called “birth control.” By whom? This being GQ, I think it’s fair to point out that those who object to abortion typically believe that the fertilized egg is the beginning of life, as opposed to the point at which the fertilized egg implants in the endometrium. When “pregnancy” exists is not a matter of scientific definition. ---
**Author:** ![manila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@manila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manila)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-abortifacients-and-abortions-in-general-please/709310/13 "2015-01-09T01:05:05Z")
I think it may be the beginning of an attempt at life but unless it implants successfully into the lining of the womb then its not a pregnancy. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-abortifacients-and-abortions-in-general-please/709310/14 "2015-01-09T01:14:53Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > No, I’m saying the manufacturer/distributor in Canada still makes the claim that preventing implantation is _one_ way that it works. > > Simple math - Pulling numbers out of the air that I’ve heard over the years… not my area of expertise or worry by any means… > An egg can wait around maybe 24 hours before it dies. > Sperm can wait around 3 or 4 days for the egg before it too dies. > > Therefore, there’s 5 days from 24 hours before a “fertilizing event” to 96 hours after. > Assuming the “morning after” pill lives up to its name, it would most likely enter the bloodstream about 12 hours after the main event. > > So we have 1.5 days out of 5, or 30% of the time, where it’s too late to stop ovulation. Yet the manufacturer claims up to 89% effectiveness. (Statistic on WebMD) Even if you give more likelihood to fertilization “taking” around the time of the main event, that does not sound like it’s all about ovulation. Some of that 89% must be due to implantation prevention? Your math is off. The sperm presumably take some time to travel toward the egg. Say 3 hours. Let’s say you have sex around midnight., and take the pill at 9 the next morning. that’s (9-3 = 6) hours in which it would be too late to stop pregnancy, out of a total window of (96) hours. So 6/96 = 6.3% chance of pregnancy, which is well below the 11% failure rate stated above. if you had sex at midnight and took the pill at 12 the next day, you’d have a window of 9 hours when it was too late, and thus a 9.5% chance, still below the actual realized failure rate. No need to invoke implantation failures. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-abortifacients-and-abortions-in-general-please/709310/15 "2015-01-09T01:26:01Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > No, I’m saying the manufacturer/distributor in Canada still makes the claim that preventing implantation is _one_ way that it works. > > Simple math - Pulling numbers out of the air that I’ve heard over the years… not my area of expertise or worry by any means… > An egg can wait around maybe 24 hours before it dies. > Sperm can wait around 3 or 4 days for the egg before it too dies. > > Therefore, there’s 5 days from 24 hours before a “fertilizing event” to 96 hours after. > Assuming the “morning after” pill lives up to its name, it would most likely enter the bloodstream about 12 hours after the main event. > > So we have 1.5 days out of 5, or 30% of the time, where it’s too late to stop ovulation. Yet the manufacturer claims up to 89% effectiveness. (Statistic on WebMD) Even if you give more likelihood to fertilization “taking” around the time of the main event, that does not sound like it’s all about ovulation. Some of that 89% must be due to implantation prevention? Your math is off. The sperm presumably take some time to travel toward the egg. Say 3 hours. Let’s say you have sex around midnight., and take the pill at 9 the next morning. that’s (9-3 = 6) hours in which it would be too late to stop pregnancy, out of a total window of (96) hours. So 6/96 = 6.3% chance of pregnancy, which is well below the 11% failure rate stated above. if you had sex at midnight and took the pill at 12 the next day, you’d have a window of 9 hours when it was too late, and thus a 9.5% chance, still below the actual realized failure rate. No need to invoke implantation failures. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-abortifacients-and-abortions-in-general-please/709310/16 "2015-01-09T02:51:10Z")
One point should be noted when wading into the abortion issue… A medicine must be demonstrated as safe and effective in order to receive approval from the FDA\*. The company applying for approval does not have to conclusive prove _how_ the medicine works. Typically an application for FDA approval will have data from animal and human trials and likely will contain statements about how the drug company thinks the drug works. In the case of _Ella_ the application submitted in support of approval of the drug as a a post-coital emergency contraception showed that in animal studies _Ella_ terminated established pregnancies at a rate comparable to RU-486. Whether the same result would occur is humans is not established, and does not have to be established for the drug to receive approval for its stated purpose. - Similar regulatory bodies exists in Europe. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-abortifacients-and-abortions-in-general-please/709310/17 "2015-01-09T03:12:04Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > No, I’m saying the manufacturer/distributor in Canada still makes the claim that preventing implantation is _one_ way that it works. > > Simple math - Pulling numbers out of the air that I’ve heard over the years… not my area of expertise or worry by any means… > An egg can wait around maybe 24 hours before it dies. > Sperm can wait around 3 or 4 days for the egg before it too dies. > > Therefore, there’s 5 days from 24 hours before a “fertilizing event” to 96 hours after. > Assuming the “morning after” pill lives up to its name, it would most likely enter the bloodstream about 12 hours after the main event. > > So we have 1.5 days out of 5, or 30% of the time, where it’s too late to stop ovulation. Yet the manufacturer claims up to 89% effectiveness. (Statistic on WebMD) Even if you give more likelihood to fertilization “taking” around the time of the main event, that does not sound like it’s all about ovulation. Some of that 89% must be due to implantation prevention? > **[How The Morning-After Pill Works](https://www.npr.org/2012/06/15/155110476/how-the-morning-after-pill-works)** > > Mitt Romney referred to morning after-pills as 'abortive pills.' The FDA-approved label on Plan B indicates it may prevent fertilized eggs from implanting in a woman's uterus. Dr. Kristina Gemzell-Danielsson, an obstetrics and gynecology professor at... Which do you believe: medical research or the math you “pulled out of the air?” ---
**Author:** ![manila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@manila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manila)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-abortifacients-and-abortions-in-general-please/709310/18 "2015-01-09T11:11:11Z")
Ah found it > **[Abortion Pill Access by Mail](https://www.womenonweb.org)** > > Women on Web provides safe abortion pill access by mail to the world. Request Mifepristone and Misoprostol abortion pills online. Very informative site, they wil also provide abortificients where not locally available