Most of the scientific community, as well as in a sector of international Law, when referring to the unborn embryo, pregnancy must be defined as the period extending from implantation to natural birth. This implies some novelty, such as the redefinition of abortion as the elimination of the embryo only within this period, and the extension of contraception to any means that impedes the union of...

Recently, there has been a growing controversy, especially among evangelicals, over whether the birth control pill might have an abortifacient mechanism that sometimes causes early chemical abortions. An understanding of this controversy necessitates a clear definition of abortion, abortifacient, pregnancy, implantation, and especially personhood. If a zygote (fertilized egg) is not a person, t...

In this article, 26 folKlore claims on Antifertility, Abortifacient and Fertility - promoting drugs gathered from the tribals of Dandakaranya during the Medico-Ethno-Botanical explorations undertaken by the authors are presented. suggesting scientific screening of these claims for establishing their validity and acceptability so as to make use of them, with modifications if any, in the National...

The needles of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Laws.) were reported to induce abortions when fed to late-term pregnant beef cows in North America. An in vivo study of pregnant cows suggested that isocupressic acid (IA) was the main abortifacient isolated from needles and bark of the pine. However, the mechanism of abortifacient activity of IA is not clear yet. In a pregnant cow, the corpus lute...

Consumption of needles from Pinus ponderosa (PN) during late pregnancy causes cattle, but not sheep, to abort. This differential response may be caused by differences in ruminal microflora or postabsorptive metabolism. Pine needles were fed (2 kg.cow-1.d-1 or .4 kg.ewe-1.d-1) mixed with corn silage. In Exp. 1, cows were assigned at 250 d of pregnancy to feed treatments (T): 1) silage, 2) PN+sil...

The abortifacient effect of antiplacental sera was confirmed with the use of goat and rabbit anti-Rhesus monkey placental globulin (IgG). To induce abortion, a total of 600-1000 mg IgG (from goats and rabbits treated to produce antiplacental sera) was injected intravenously over 3 days into 9 monkeys at 39-54 days of gestation. As a control a similar dose of normal goat globulin was injected ...

Abortifacients of vegetable origin are commonly used in rural areas for termination of pregnancy and inducing uterine contractions during postpartum period. Preliminary studies on five plants which are the ingredients of a commonly used herbal decoction, Dashmool, have alreadybeen reported from this laboratory (3 and 1). The present work embodies detailed observations on the pharmacological act...

because it was thought that frequently repeated pregnancies were likely to endanger her health. Her doctor undertook to do the operation by using one of the abortifacient pastes (Aeratus), which he believed to be safe. After the preparation of the patient, the paste was injected very slowly between the membranes and the uterine wall. There was slight bleeding and suddenly the patient had a seve...