Two Virginia women charged over homespun herbal abortion

[cynatnite]

Two Virginia women are being charged with inducing an abortion using herbs they purchased at a local supplement store, according to Norfolk-based WTKR-TV.

The women are Jessica Carpenter, 20, and Rachel Lowe, 27. Court documents allege that Lowe, a former employee of the Tidewater Women’s Clinic in Norfolk, helped Carpenter induce a miscarriage at six months into her pregnancy using a combination of herbs.

Lea Smith, one of their mutual friends, told WTKR-TV that she heard them discussing an induced miscarriage. She contacted police when the infant died after being born prematurely.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/22/two-virginia-women-charged-over-homespun-herbal-abortion/

This is why we need to do more to prevent unwanted pregnancies and to make sure that women don't feel that doing this sort of thing is their only option. Virginia is on track to close every abortion provider in the state.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/12/virginia-health-board-adopts-regulations-likely-to-shut-down-abortion-clinics/

[Quantess]

1. Home abortions are always a bad idea!

A young woman died from (painful) internal hemorrhaging after ingesting abortion-inducing herbs, just a few years ago. Maybe other recent cases, as well.

[uppityperson]

2. Aw damn. Glad she survived, 6 months is a ways along. Lea Smith needs to keep her nose out of

other people's business. Or, contact women's clinic, not police.

[sufrommich]

3. We will be seeing more and more of these stories

as long as republicans are successful in closing clinics that provide abortions. These stories were common in the dark ages before women had a right to choose and will become more common now.Until young women start to see real life consequences to their rights being taken away,nothing will stop the republicans.

[redqueen]

5. +1

this and worse

[Brickbat]

4. Oof, six months is tough for an abortion induced by chemicals.

[Ninga]

6. Sickens me. Primal fear and anxiety driven by the overwhelming need

to not be pregnant is real.

This story is a mess no matter which way you look at it.....I wonder if the turncoat "friend" is feeling like a godly self riotous whistle blower. So very very sad.

[cynatnite]

7. I don't fault the friend at all...

The fault lies with the repukes who have done everything they could to legislate a woman's uterus by keeping birth control out of their hands and by shutting down clinics that would keep a woman safe.

This is indeed very sad.

[cali]

10. we don't really know who to fault without more information

in general, you're right about repukes, but why this young woman didn't obtain a legal abortion is something we just don't know at this point. Was the cost too much? Was the process too onerous? Did she intend to have the baby and change her mind? did she not know she was pregnant until she was 6 months along?

Lots of things we just don't know.

[another_liberal]

12. Hardly what I would call a "Friend."

She is, however, a front-runner to win the much coveted Busybody-Weasel-Snitch award for May, 2013.

[Myrina]

15. ... and I suspect her 'type' will become more common ...

... if the "Jaysus-hates-abortionist-libruls" whackjobs have their way & continue to brainwash the sheeple into narking on their neighbors at every possible turn.

[another_liberal]

21. In far too many instances . . .

Right Wing Conservatives seem determined to make women the enemy. Though mostly it is progressive, liberal-leaning women who are the direct targets of this strategy, the rights and freedoms of all women are affected. In far too many instances, it is poor and powerless women who suffer the most from efforts to force them into the constraints of a male-dominated, conservative lifestyle.

[Ilsa]

17. I agree. She took a bad situation and made it worse.

That would be the end of my friendship with her. Friends don't judge.

People need to look really hard at why this has happened. Why did she want an abortion? Why couldn't she get it sooner? Did she have access to contraception? To an early termination? These are all problems created by limiting access to women's healthcare.

[Puzzledtraveller]

18. I agree

Contraception aside, I wonder how much the actual cost of a abortion procedure factors into stories like this.

[SheilaT]

8. This is what it was like before Roe v Wade.

I'm old enough to remember those days, and I remember plenty of stories like this.

The people who want to ban abortion seem to think that then no women will get abortions. No. They'll still get them, but at far greater risk to their own lives and ultimate ability to have a wanted baby.

I once read that half of the maternity ward beds in hospitals in Brazil actually serve women recovering from abortions. Abortions are illegal in Brazil.

[bvar22]

20. EXACTLY!!!

Roe v Wade was to STOP the Bloody Carnage,
and senseless deaths of our daughters, nieces, and friends.
I also remember,
and almost every extended family in America was touched by the carnage.

Most of the daughters of the RICH were able to go to Europe for a vacation,
but daughters of the Working Class & Poor wound up in dying Alleys and Back Rooms.

Some of the daughters of the RICH were too frightened to tell their parents,
and they too died bloody & in unimaginable pain in the alleys.
THAT is WHY something was done.

If this is reversed,
the bloody, senseless deaths WILL return also.

Abortion should be kept safe, legal,...and rare.
ALL women are entitled to that RIGHT to choose.

[gollygee]

9. You can read recipes for how to do this right in the Bible

If it's in the Bible, it must be OK, right?

[riqster]

11. Got the verse and such?

Interesting

[gollygee]

13. I don't, but

here's Betty Bowers talking about it

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/05/01/bible-abortion/

[tomm2thumbs]

14. located this link

http://canterburyatheists.blogspot.com/2008/11/one-of-worlds-oldest-known-abortion.html

not sure if this is what they are referencing

[cynzke]

16. Pro Choice,

but this is very disturbing to me.

[marions ghost]

19. If women are charged for this

then we are already here: