ASKING FOR JANE

AT-HOME, HERBAL ABORTIONS IN AMERICA

By Meagan Johnson and Marissa McCollum

On a winter morning, Anna* walked the aisles of an herbal-medicine store, picked up a bottle each of blue cohosh and black cohosh, along with a plastic bag of pennyroyal tea, and drove to the topless bar on the edge of town where she worked. There, she met Jules*, another dancer. The women, both in their 20s, then drove to the Motel 6 where Jules lived and entered her dim room on the second floor, which smelled of grape cigars. Anna pulled out the tinctures and tea and explained the plan. She was going to help Jules try to have an abortion. Anna had found the herbal recipe online. She’d read other tips as well: frequent hot baths, vigorous exercise, lots of gin. Women have relied on herbal abortion for thousands of years, and though specific regimens were hard to come by, anecdotal accounts littered the internet. Anna didn’t know how long it would take, so she moved in with Jules at the motel, dancing at the club each night. She set an alarm every four hours, keeping Jules to a schedule of 20 tincture droplets under the tongue and a cup of brewed tea. She drew baths for Jules, listened as she ran the stairs, and watched as she gulped Tanqueray. Anna repeatedly took her temperature and handed her glasses of water.

Given the recent and controversial abortion ban in Texas, it is now harder for women to receive an abortion than it was in 1650 Puritan New England. In fact, Texas’six-week abortion ban is a stark constrast to early abortion law in the 1600s, which dictated the legality of the procedure until “quickening”—the first time the mother feels the fetus kick, which can happen anywhere between fourteen and twenty-six weeks into pregnancy. If a woman living in 17th and 18th century New England wanted an abortion, there were no religious, legal, or social constraints placed on her. By 1860, abortion until “quickening” became illegal after the first official abortion laws were put on the books in 1821. Unfortunately, today, even if a women has the legal right to abortion in her state, she is often faced with a sea of hostile protesters outside of abor- tion clinics. Already making one of the most private and sensitive decisions of their lives, women are burdened by death threats, guilt, and moral judgements. In fact, national anti-abortion organizations such as the National Right to Life have spun an incorrect narrative to suggest that legal abortion is a historical anomaly, a direct reflection of America’s increasingly loose moral standards and strong Biblical adherence. Meanwhile, Americans United for Life have an affinity for misquoting the infamous Thomas Jefferson quote as a maxim for anti-abortion sentiment: “The care for human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate form of government.” In reality, the first waves of anti-abortion arguments were based on economics and gender-inequality. Given that homeopaths and midwives had the ability to perform safe and successful abortions, American physicans felt the need to reinforce the authority and legitimacy of the male-dominated field of medicine. White physicians were also concerned that low-birth rates among White women would lead to racial inferiority and immigrants from overrunning the country. By the turn of the 19th century, women’s choices over their bodies were incredibly limited; it wasn’t until Roe v. Wade in 1973 that America saw a reversal in female autonomy.

However, since the 70s, abortion has become synonymous with sexual promisciousity, poor contraceptive choices (despite an uneven access to birth control), and anti-Christian practices. An unwillingness to reframe abortion as an act of feminist science and a right to one’s body has caused a rise in at-home, herbal abortions over the last two decades.

With the accessibility of Google, links to herbal recipes that can evacuate a fetus from the womb can be found in about 1.8 seconds. Suction devices, such as a Del-Em, only require a mason jar, tube, and syringe—all of which can be purchased at a local drugstore. At-home abortions are placing scientific knowlege and procedures back in the hands of women, but a secret coalitaton of abortionists have taken this one step further: at-home, herbal abortions are viewed to be more comfortable and personable than most abortion clinics throughout the U.S. Anna*, a stripper and at-home abortionist, is a part of this secret society For her, it all started when after finding herself pregnant by an abusive partner and unable to afford the cost of a clinic procedure, she stumbled upon an online posting that suggested that consuming 10,000 mg of Vitamin C every day could induce a miscarriage. On the second day, she started vomiting and ran a fever. Not knowing what to do, she relented and went into a clinic. She vividly remembers her physicians walking into the poorly-lit room wearing acid-washed jeans, without uttering a word. The procedure lasted thirty minutes, after which she was ushered into a univiting observational room, surrounded by women hysterically crying or staring off blankly at the sterile walls.

A few months after the procedure, still strapped for cash, Anna began work at a local topless bar. Quickly, she found a niche community among the group of strippers and soon turned the dressing room into a forum for the women to speak freely about family planning. Often, these women complained about receiving poor sexual education during their school years, an inability to receive birth control, the dread they would feel if someone recognized them at a clinic, and the coldness felt while recieving a clinic procedure Outside of work, Anna filled her reading anatomy textbooks and participating in online chatrooms within herbal abortion and midwife communities. By March of 2015, Anna found herself in a unassuming suburban home, which served as a meeting place for secret society members (who refer to themselves as Jane Collective) to take workshop classes—this included watching a pregnant women receive an abortion with a Del-Em, how to mix herbal teas, and how to make the patient feel at ease with their decision. Most importantly, Anna learned how to dose Misoprostol—a hormone typically used to treat stomach ulcers, also known as the “abortion pill.”

Anna found a community in the Jane Collective, who mostly consisted of low-income individuals like herself frustrated by their experiences with family planning. Many are doulas or midwives. Some have had only a few months of training. Despite these statistics, the Jane Collective has reported their success rate somewhere between 80 and 85 percent with minimal risk. Numbers amongst the Jane Collective have increased from 45 to over 2,000 women over the last few years. As of today, there are only 1,671 licensed abortion clinics in the U.S. In recent years, there has been a global trend to expand abortion access by training midwives and community health workers; in the U.S. this has been restricted by dozens of laws. The women of the Jane Collective are risking their lives and families to improve abortion access, often committing crimes that, if prosecuted, could carry life sentences. These women are breaking roughly 40 national and state laws, which include: unauthorized mailing of abortion pills, practicing medicine without a license, and abuse of a corpse (by burying fetuses). Members of the Jane Collective are acting in place of physicians and take this role seriously. In order to practice, members must be well-versed in monitoring blood-flow, prescribing medication regimens, and monitoring blood pressure. To protect their anonymity, the Jane Collective has not produced any official reporting on the number of women serviced, exact success rates, an accurate member count, nor the demographics of its patients. With the rise of organizations such as the Jane Collective, it is worth questioning the future of abortion clinics. Even if we soon see a direct reversal of Roe v. Wade, women around the United States will continue to perform these practices without extensive medical knowledge.

Misoprostol is safe and affordable and miscarriage-inducing teas carry an out of pocket cost of around $35. Jane Collective hopes to revolutionize abortion as a procedure “for women, by women.”They hope to support, guide, and encourage marganalized women who face structural barriers (both economic and social) to abortion clinics. The organization is a metaphor for the need to embrace female-centered care and represents the lengths women will happily go to express their bodily freedoms. The Jane Collective is an honest and progressive place to to speak about abortion and birth control, but also challenges a plethora of issues with our current health care system.

Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently began allowing abortion pills to be sent by mail, stipulations made by lawmakers require these pills to be administered by telemedicine. In over nineteen conservative states hoping to limit the access of abortion pills, administration through telemedicine has been banned. Although women living within these states are not required to visit the clinic to receive telemedicine, these women are often forced to drive to more liberal states, sit in a parking lot, and log on to their virtual appointments. These meetings are impersonal and require the need for an inconvenient car or bus ride to the nearest state allowing telemedicine access, creating medical service deserts. Despite the Jane Collective directly addressing these disparities, some providers may feel this is not the safest or most effective step towards patient-centered care. But given America’s increasingly polarized political climate, remedies to ensure female autonomy may rely on less conventional means. Lawmakers, elected to uphold constitutional and human rights laws for all, may have to deal with the “necessary evil” organizations like the Jane Collective bring to the abortion conversation. Although work remains, we must not forget these conversations are finally being had— finally, being voiced loudly by the previously voiceless.

After some time, Anna decided to have a child with her boyfriend, whom she’d moved in with. He saw how little she liked stripping and how absorbed she was helping women with their abortions, so he of ered to cover more of the bills if she chose to leave the club. She did, and she provided home abortions throughout her pregnancy Anna knew the optics might be hard for clients, so she talked about it in their initial phone calls. “I’m pregnant. This is a wanted pregnancy, a planned pregnancy, and just as much as I support and respect people’s right to have children, I also respect people’s right to not have children,” she told them. “Just because it’s my time doesn’t mean it’s yours.”

Presser, Lizzie. “‘Whatever’s Your Darkest Question, You Can Ask Me.” .” The California Sunday Magazine, 28 Mar. 2018, https://story.californiasunday.com/ abortion-providers/.

Dine, Ranana. “Scarlet Letters: Getting the History of Abortion and ...” American Progress, 8 Aug. 2013, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/ scarlet-letters-getting-the-history-of-abortion-and-contraception-right/.

Preidt, Robert, and Robin Foster. “FDAAllows Abortion Pill to Stay Available by Mail.” WebMD, WebMD, 17 Dec.

2021,https://www.webmd.com/baby/