Abortion is ancient history: Long before Roe, women terminated pregnancies

By Katie Hunt, CNN
Fri June 23, 2023

Abortion today, at least in the United States, is a political, legal and moral powder keg. But for long stretches of history, terminating an unwanted pregnancy, especially in the early stages, was a relatively uncontroversial fact of life, historians say.

Egyptian papyrus, Greek plays, Roman coins, the medieval biographies of saints, medical and midwifery manuals, and Victorian newspaper and pamphlets reveal that abortion was more common in premodern times than people might think.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/23/health/abortion-is-ancient-history-and-that-matters-today-scn/index.html

How to Give Yourself an Abortion

How to Give Yourself an Abortion

January 9, 2020
Posted by Arielle Swernoff
Illustrated by Matt Lubchansky

For as long as people have gotten pregnant, people have given themselves abortions. Historically, these methods have varied from the brutal to the toxic to the bizarre.

But history hasn’t always gotten it wrong. From the Bronze Age until the 1st or 2nd century BCE, silphium, a plant native to Libya, was used as a safe and effective contraceptive and abortifacient. It’s said the plant was so popular that it was harvested to extinction. More recently, enslaved black people in the American South devised numerous herbal treatments to terminate unwanted pregnancies, some of which are still used today.

Continued: https://jewishcurrents.org/how-to-give-yourself-an-abortion/

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Abortion And Were Too Afraid To Ask. Especially in Tasmania.

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Abortion And Were Too Afraid To Ask. Especially in Tasmania.

By Bonnie Mary Liston
on April 10, 2019

Abortion never really used to be a ‘thing’. Then the Catholic Church came along. Bonnie Mary Liston explores the history, particularly in Tasmania, where it’s legal, but not practiced.

You may have seen protests about abortion in the news lately – both for and against. Tasmania has no currently active surgical abortion clinics and some people believe there should be even less. It can be a bit confusing. What does that mean? Is abortion legal or not? Why is everybody so upset all the time?

Continued: https://newmatilda.com/2019/04/10/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-abortion-and-were-too-afraid-to-ask-especially-in-tasmania/