Women in the US turn to TikTok's viral herbal abortion remedies as a desperate measure

TikTok, a short-format video hosting service, was initially launched as a platform for sharing byte-sized content like makeup tutorials, cooking recipes, dances etc. However, after the rollback of Roe v. Wade, there are reports of potentially dangerous abortion-related information running on the platform. Following the Roe v. Wade ruling last Friday, that would make abortion illegal in America, prompting protests by women and reproductive rights advocates across the country, people seem to have taken the matter into their own hands.

A text that flashes on the social media platform reads: "If you’re a female in America worried about your future, just know there is an herb for every'situation'," followed by a list of herbs including pennyroyal, blue cohosh, and mugwort. A new wave of discussion is currently going on on TikTok that focuses on herbs that can cause abortions. After the ruling, people on TikTok are offering grassroots solutions to those who seek abortion facilities.

Meanwhile, medical professionals are concerned about this increasing trend of TikTok creatorspromoting these herbal abortifacients. These herbs can also have catastrophic effects on a woman’s health. Mary Jane Minkin, MD, a gynaecologist and clinical professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the Yale University School of Medicine, on knowing about the trends said, "I’m horrified. They’re going to kill people. She also stated that performing abortions at home can turn fatal and result in sepsis or death. "It’s terrifying because 49 years ago, that’s how women died," she said.

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One of the most commonly mentioned abortifacients on TikTok is a minty, sweet-smelling plant called pennyroyal, which is also used in essential oils and insect repellents, reported the Rolling Stone. However, according to Josh Trebach, a medical toxicologist and emergency medicine physician in Lowa City, the herb contains pulegone, which gets metabolised in the body and produces toxins that might result in liver necrosis, causing indigestion-related side effects like nausea, vomiting, and pain in the abdomen as well as seizures, comas, liver failure, and even death.

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Another herb cited on TikTok is called Blue Cohosh, which contains a compound called methylcytosine. If used in large doses, it can cause vomiting, abdominal pain, profuse drooling, heart rhythms, muscle weakness, seizures, coma, and even death.

Trebach said, "People may, at the end of the day, perceive these to be potential solutions because they have no other options. As a toxicologist that really scares me." He further added that due to a lack of research on these herbs, even medical experts don’t know whether these herbs work well to cause abortions. "But we do know it can get people really, really sick," he stated.

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On TikTok, there is an abundance of misinformation about these dangerous herbal abortifacients. One of the hashtags, # pennyroyaltea, has received approximately 1.1 million views and advocates the use of an abortifacient. Another hashtag for mugwort has over 157 million views. With that hashtag, the most popular video has more than 350,000 views and says, "This is caution not to drink mugwort tea while pregnant because it may simulate your menstrual cycle resulting in losing [sic] the fetus. Once again, please don’t do this." Despite the fact that the video's caption reads, "Life hack # roevwade # womensrights."

Trabach noted that he came across posts relating to herbal abortifacients such as pennyroyal and mugwort last month, shortly after the news about the impending Roe v. Wade decision was leaked. Searches for "pennyroyal," "blue cohosh", and "mugwort" have shot up in the past month. As per recent Google Trends data, searches for "pennyroyal abortion" have increased by 40 per cent, and searches for "blue cohosh pregnancy" grew by 70 percent over the past week.

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Though the rise in herbal abortifacients advocacy has emerged because of the rollback of the abortion rights law, they have remained available in the underground market, through herbalists and midwives, leading to those who seek such options for abortion.

There are several blogs and Reddit threads that include step-by-step information on how to self-perform an abortion, and with the speed with which the misinformation is spreading, it can become threatening to lives. "Fifty years ago we didn’t have TikTok. There was some filtration in information. But now anyone can publish anything anywhere and it gets out to billions of people. It just terrifies me," says a medical expert.

In the United States, the herbal supplement market is unregulated. Therefore, people can buy anything that is sold to them as herbal, and it may not be. A study by integrative medicine and women’s health specialist Fredi Kronenberg mentions that three out of 11 products that were marketed as black cohosh had no black cohosh in them. Black cohosh is used to provide relief from menopausal effects.

Due to the strict content guidelines of TikTok, several videos indirectly try to share messages about how these are effective and safe alternatives to causing abortion under the disguise of keywords. Experts believe that those who are trying to provide alternatives to people in need are helping them, but these home remedies cannot replace medical treatment.

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TikTok has not yet responded to the spread of misinformation on its platform, and it is not the first time that the platform has received criticism for letting videos containing wrong and harmful information regarding health. Rolling Stone reported that last year, TikTok came under fire for pushing the use of ivermectin medicine as a cure for the COVID disease. Ivermectin is a horse deworming medication.

Meanwhile, experts said that TikTok should take control over the spread of such hazardous information on its platform.

Currently, in the US, websites such as Plan C and Safe2Choose are operational that can connect with people seeking abortions at home and provide solutions like abortion pills, a much safer and more reliable option. People without any age limit can order mifepristone and misoprostol from Aid Access, which ships drugs anywhere in the US and around the world.

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