**DISCLAIMER: Over the course of history, people have used a range of different abortifacients, with varying degrees of safety and success. Herbs and other home remedies require a significant amount of knowledge, planning, and support. Abortion pills are the single safest and most effective way to end a pregnancy at home.**
I was a senior in high school in the late spring of 1981. I had a boyfriend that I was sneaking around with, because his parents didn’t approve of me, and my parents were devout Catholics who refused to let me have any social life outside of a few school related activities.
We had sex a few times and didn’t use protection. I became pregnant even though he pulled out. There were no tests back then that you could buy in the pharmacy. I missed my period, my breasts were swelling and I started getting bad morning sickness, throwing up, and bloating. I knew I was pregnant, I could feel it. Even my mother asked me if I was pregnant. Keep in mind, this was seven weeks past my missed period.
We came from a point of privilege. Myself and boyfriend had affluent parents. However, he refused to acknowledge what happened, so I was on my own. I had my own bank accounts with money, but I had no access as my father was custodian of my account and kept my bank books locked up. If I needed money for ANYTHING, I had to ask, and the answer was always no. There was no way I could get money for an abortion, and especially because of the Catholicism. They would have forced me to have that baby, then kick me out of the house for being a slut. Goodbye to college, and my own life.
So…I did it on my own. We had comprehensive sex-ed back in the schools in my day, and the female teachers made a point of teaching us what we should NOT ingest if pregnant, because it would cause miscarriage.
I ingested those things for several days that were readily available (not putting that here for legal reasons) and I was in a stupor/mind fog for three days, but it worked. I “miscarried” the worst period in my life. The bleeding, pain, and chunks of tissue were unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I bled this out in my home, and my parents were none the wiser. Nobody in my family ever knew about what I had done.
Because of this, I was able to go to college that September, and eventually grad school and become successful in my field. If I’d been forced to gestate and birth that baby, my life would have been ruined. You won’t ever get rid of abortion, you will only take away safe, legal abortion.
