Historical perspective on induced abortion through the ages and its links with maternal mortality.

Abortion is mentioned in ancient medical texts but the effectiveness of the methods described is doubtful. Attitudes varied from apparent disapproval by Hippocrates to open approval in Ancient Rome. In mediaeval times abortion was practised by women in secret and this continued during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Despite being illegal in England induced abortion became more common in Victorian times as the population grew. At the same time the link between criminal abortion and maternal mortality became increasingly clear, and if a woman died after a procedure the abortionist (sometimes a midwife) could be sentenced to death. The law was more tolerant of abortions performed by registered doctors. In the 20th century pressure grew for its legalisation. At the time of the 1967 Abortion Act, abortion was the leading cause of maternal death in the UK but within fifteen years death from illegal abortion had been abolished.

Abortion in late Imperial China: routine birth control or crisis intervention?

In late imperial China, a number of purported methods of abortion were known; but who actually attempted abortion and under what circumstances? Some historians have suggested that abortion was used for routine birth control, which presupposes that known methods were safe, reliable, and readily available. This paper challenges the qualitative evidence on which those historians have relied, and presents new evidence from Qing legal sources and modern medical reports to argue that traditional methods of abortion (the most common being abortifacient drugs) were dangerous, unreliable, and often cost a great deal of money. Therefore, abortion in practice was an emergency intervention in a crisis: either a medical crisis, in which pregnancy threatened a woman's health, or a social crisis, in which pregnancy threatened to expose a woman's extramarital sexual relations. Moreover, abortion was not necessarily available even to women who wanted one.

An historical overview of second trimester abortion methods.

The methods used for abortion in the second trimester have changed considerably in recent years. The surgical procedure dilatation and evacuation (D&E) has replaced hysterotomy. Instead of injecting different compounds, such as hypertonic saline, prostaglandin analogues are administered by non-invasive routes. The most effective medical method is combining a prostaglandin analogue with mifepristone. The consequence of these developments is that abortion in the second trimester can be be performed significantly more effectively and that the currently recommended methods being used are associated with fewer side effects and complications.

Birth control in antiquity.

The question of birth rate control in Antiquity clashes against problems in the sense that the majority of ancient authors when discussing this matter expressed themselves in a very unclear way; they did not distinguish exactly between contraceptives and abortifacients and sometimes even interchanged them mutually. The ancient Greek doctors studied long and precisely this area of gynaecology and especially Hippocrates and his school contributed a lot to study of abortions and abortifacients. Contraceptive theories and methods proclaimed by Greek and Roman doctors meant a significant progress in development of medical science. The opinions of doctors of Hippocrates group, Sorano of Efes and others, confirm their importance for medical practice by their wide and frequent occurrence in medical writings. Some methods of contraception defended by Greek and Roman doctors were very effective and many pieces of information became basis for modern contraceptive means, others certainly did not achieve the desired effects.

Medical abortion regimens: historical context and overview.

Medical abortion offers an important alternative to surgical abortion for women with early pregnancies who wish to avoid a surgical procedure. More than 3 million women worldwide have had medical abortions in the past decade alone. The best-studied regimens include mifepristone orally followed 36 to 48 hours later by a prostaglandin analog administered either orally or intravaginally. Because of political and social restrictions related to mifepristone, however, researchers have investigated alternative regimens, most notably methotrexate and misoprostol. Mifepristone regimens are approximately 95% effective for abortion at

Abortifacients: toxidromes, ancient to modern--a case series and review of the literature.

Between 1998 and 1999, four women presented to an emergency department after having attempted a nonmedical abortion. All four reported turning to pharmacologically induced abortion because their access to health care was limited by lack of insurance and resources. These cases serve as a reminder that self-induced abortion remains a significant health problem for women, a problem that emergency physicians as toxicologists should be aware of.

[Concerning a chapter of "Ephodia": abortion and Greek physicians]. / A propos d'un chapitre des "Ephodia": l'avortement chez les médecins grecs.

In reference to the presence of a list of abortifacients in a Greek manual of therapeutics or Arab origins (the Ephodia), the author reexamines the Oath of Hippocrates and its statement on abortion and abortifacients in the Hippocratic tradition as they were employed in Greek, Roman, Arab, and Byzantine cultures.