Name: Erika
Did you have a pregnancy test? yes
How was the pregnancy ended? Drug induced abortion
Is this your first pregnancy? No
Do you cycle regularly or irregularly? The last few months I've become more regular, I used to be very irregular.
For how many days were the herbs used (total)? 2
What was the date the pregnancy was terminated? 8/20/2005
Were you using birth control? No
Did you experience any symptoms or signs of pregnancy? Every possible sign of pregnancy; morning sickness (that lasted all day), tender breasts, dizziness, cramping, you name it I had it!
Please include a summary of dosage information.
Side effects. Vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, chills
How did the herbs make you feel physically? Very weak, because I couldn't hold anything down for several days.
How did being pregnant make you feel physically? I have two other kids, I never knew what morning sickness was, with this pregnancy, I was constantly sick. I took it to be a sign that maybe this baby didn't belong inside my body.
On July 25th, I stared feeling “funny” I just had a feeling I was pregnant. I took a pregnancy test and it had a very light little line on the positive part of the test. The next day I took another one and again a very light line. Well, I still wasn't convinced so the next day I did another one, and again positive. My husband had been sick for most of July, so I knew that it couldn't be his baby.
We talked about it and we decided that, because we don’t believe in abortion, and because it wasn't the baby’s fault we were going to keep it. A few weeks into the pregnancy, we sat down and talked and decided that neither one of us could take the stress of constantly thinking of the rape. This baby was a constant reminder of that terrible night! We prayed A LOT and asked the Lord for guidance and we came to the decision to terminate the pregnancy. We live in a small town where 90% of the population is against abortion, and everybody knows everybody. Aside from the fact that there are no abortion clinics in the area, even if there was we couldn't go here because it wouldn't be a private thing, you might as well put it on the front page of the newspaper.
We found a clinic 2½ hours away. We tried to call and couldn't get through to anybody, so we drove over there. When we got there, the receptionist stared at us like we were stupid, because we asked for information about abortion, and if front of a waiting room full of patients she asked for a lot of personal details pertaining to the pregnancy. After all of this she said "Oh well, if you want an abortion, you need to call this number then they'll set up an appointment for you." I felt humiliated.
When we got home, I found your website, and went out and bought the herbs. I started taking them, I really wanted them to work, because I knew that there really was no other answer, and that is why I think I overdid it taking too many of them. The two days that I took them I searched and searched for an abortion clinic that I could call and the only other one that I could find was about 6 hours away! Now a 6 hour drive to the clinic, 6 hours back, and to have to do this three times for the three visits that they required, which means both my husband and myself were going to have to miss work, plus the $450 that it was going to cost to have the abortion, quite honestly, we couldn't afford it. When the herbs didn't work, I felt like a failure. I told myself that I could take them another few day, but my husband didn't let me because I had become so sick.
I finally turned to my last resort. I don’t suggest that ANYBODY do this if they have access to an abortion clinic, but this is what I did. I went to Mexico which is only about an hour away from where I live, and I bought a drug there that is used in conjunction with another drug to induce an abortion. One of the drugs you cannot get in Mexico, but the other one is readily available, because it is used to treat ulcers. I bought them on 8/19/2005 and after taking them for only a few hours I began to bleed. I will not go into detail about the dosing schedule for this particular drug, because I don’t want to make it seem like I’m condoning the use of this drug.
Submitted: August 20, 2005
Age: 22
Weight:145
Height: 5'3"
Do you smoke tobacco? no
Where are you from? What country? US
When was it taken? 7/25/05, 7/26/2005, 7/27/2005
What was the result. Positive
If more than one test was taken please include info for each one. I took three tests because I thought the first and the second were wrong. After the third one I figured they couldn't all be wrong!
Were you successful in using the herbs? no
Would you try herbs again, or recommend them to a friend in the same situation? Yes, but with somebody’s guidance on exactly how much to take and when. I became very sick the second day of the herbs. I threw up for about three days and I had terrible diarrhea, for days.
What was the date when the herbs were started? 8/13/2005
How many weeks pregnant were you when the herbs were started? 6 weeks {Note: she was 4 weeks by my calculations - 4 weeks from conception - which would be 6 weeks LMP (last menstrual period, which is what clinics go by) - Sz).
If you were not using birth control, please share why not.
My husband and I didn't mind having another baby. The reason we decided to terminate this pregnancy is because I was raped. We first said that we would keep the baby, because it was MY baby after all. A few weeks into the pregnancy, I realized that I couldn't go through with the pregnancy. Every morning that I woke up with morning sickness it reminded me of the rape! I realized that I couldn't give this baby the love that he/she deserved.
When did they start? Around 7/28/2005
I took Dong Quai, Blue Cohosh, Rutin, and Vitamin C. I will put the amount of each that I took, but I know it was WAY too much! Please I don’t suggest that anybody try taking this much of any of these! I became very sick for several days!
How did the herbs affect you? They made me feel VERY sick!
Any positive effects? None, but I think I took too much of everything!
Where there any negative effects? Just the sick feeling
Do you have any health problems or issues? No
Your Story -
It started on a girls’ night out, on July 13th 2005. My husband stayed home and I went out with my girlfriends. At around 3 a.m. he became worried because I hadn't called him in several hours, so he went to the bar where I had told him I was going to be. When he arrived there he found me alone in my car, with my pants down, and very disoriented. He wanted to take me to the hospital, and to call the police, but I did what I always criticized other women of doing - I told him no because I was embarrassed! That was stupid! We tried to forget about it, it was hard, but we were working through it.
