A Woman's Book of Choices:
Abortion, Menstrual Extraction, RU-486

Written By Rebecca Chalker and Carol Downer, 1992. Published by (and available at) Seven Stories

Published right before the 1992 elections, this book is the only place where Menstrual Extraction is explained in detail, complete with a list of components for the easy-to-make Del-M device.

Chapters cover:
Why this Book is Necessary,
Finding an Abortion Provider,
The Best Available Abortion Care,
Back to the Good Old Days,
The Development of Menstrual Extraction,
Friendship Groups,
Two Menstrual Extractions,
The Legality of Menstrual Extraction,
Herbs and Other Traditional Methods of Fertility Control,
Folk Remedies that are Dangerous and Don't Work,
Is RU-486 the Wave of the Future?,
What Practitioners Need to Know About Abortion Complications,
Del-Em.

Barbara Ehrenreich said "A Woman's Book of Choices is the most important book on reproductive rights that has ever been written. Other books will tell you about the history of abortion rights and the struggle to preserve them. This book tells you how to get them."

Excerpt from Chapter One, Why This Book Is Necessary... "Women today are faced with two contradictory facts of life. One is that the United States Supreme Court is but one vote away from overturning Roe v Wade, the historic 1973 decision that legalized abortion. The second is that women have always gotten abortions by any means necessary, and will no doubt continue to do so, regardless of cultural standards, religious prohibitions, regressive social movements, or the law."

Excerpt from Chapter Eleven, Is RU-486 the Wave of the Future?... "The French abortifacient drug, RU-486 (mifepristone) is the first in a new category of drugs called anti-progestins, which among other actions, interfere with the production of progesterone, the hormone that supports and nurtures pregnancy. RU-486 blocks the production of progesterone in the uterus by competing with progesterone for receptor sites in cells in the uterine wall. Because there is more RU-486 than progesterone available (if you have taken the recommended dosage of 600 mgs.), it will fill a large number of the receptor sites, somewhat like a key fitting into a lock. Deprived of progesterone, the placenta will wither and disintegrate. If a pregnancy has recently been implanted on the uterine wall, it too will separate from the uterine wall and be expelled. In order to be effective, RU-486 must be taken when a woman is 5-7 weeks pregnant (7-9 weeks from last normal period)."

Available from both Powell's Books and Amazon.com.

In the USA, the mortality rate for legal abortions is half that for tonsillectomies.

Feminist Women's Health Center