Self-induced Abortion: Menstrual Extraction

What is menstrual extraction? It’s history, its present and its future.

Hello my name is Carolina Atonal and on today’s podcast we will be taking a look at menstrual extraction. 

There are many forms of abortion one of them being self-induced abortion. Self-induced abortion is an abortion performed by the pregnant person themselves or with the help of other non-medical assistance. One form of self-induced abortion is menstrual extraction which we will be taking a look at today. But before introducing menstrual extraction and its history we must first understand the history of women’s reproductive rights.

In the 19th century there was a ban on abortion and contraception. The American Medical Association led by Horatio Storer, campaigned to make abortion illegal in the United States and by 1873 the Comstock Act was passed by Congress making it a federal crime to sell or distribute contraception through mail or across state lines¹. 

In 1916, Margaret Sanger opened up the first birth control clinic in the United States which later merged to form Planned Parenthood. By 1936 it became legal for doctors to distribute contraceptives across state lines which paved the way for new advances in contraception such as “The Pill” which was FDA approved in 1960. Eight years later the IUD was granted similar approval. This allowed for women to have more control over their birth control methods.

 In the 1970s states started to legalize abortion opening doors for Roe v. Wade to get established. The supreme court ruled 7-2 that women’s rights to abortion are protected under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment. This allowed for women to have full rights to an abortion in the first trimester, that states can regulate the procedure in the second trimester and that states can ban abortion in the third trimester after fetal viability or when a woman’s health is in danger².

 Unfortunately in the 2000s there were more state restrictions on abortions and on June 24, 2022 Roe v. Wade was overturned. The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade leaving abortion laws up to the states.

But before Roe v. Wade was passed women developed ways to help themselves and others get the care that they needed.

 In 1971 feminists started to learn and use a technique called “menstrual extraction.” On a baseline menstrual extraction is the use of a syringe, flexible plastic tubing and a mason jar to extract the contents of the uterus ³.

This procedure would be much less painful than the procedure that doctors who provided medically necessary abortions would use. Doctors would conduct a procedure called D&C, dilation and curettage, which involved scraping the wall of the uterus with a metal instrument.

Although it was effective it was still very painful for women. For a while D&C was the procedure that women chose until menstrual extraction came along and became popularized.

 In an interview with Ms. Magazine, Carol Downer talked about her experience with introducing women to menstrual extraction. She spoke about her contribution to menstrual extraction and about Lorraine Rothman who designed the menstrual extraction device called Del-Em. Del-Em would make it easier for women to perform menstrual extractions. 

The Del-Em consisted of a jar with two clear plastic tubes. One tube led to a four-millimeter flexible straw-like plastic cannula with holes notched near its tip that would be inserted into the uterus to aspirate out the contents. The other longer tube led to a plastic syringe which would be pumped to create the suction. Along the tube that came out of the syringe, a one-way valve was inserted. This prevented the direction of the suction reversing causing air to go to the uterus⁴.

The Del-Em still went through modifications but once it was perfected it was accessible for women to use. 

However, there was one issue, in order to be good at doing a menstrual extraction one had to know how to estimate uterine size to determine how far along a pregnancy is. Menstrual extractions are recommended to be done when a woman is six weeks pregnant but in some cases it can go up to 10 weeks. Complications from menstrual extractions can be remedied by a re-aspiration with the Del-Em or other vacuum aspiration abortion devices.To get better and perform a safe menstrual extraction women would have to practice on each other. 

When practicing the procedure of a menstrual extraction, “One woman would have to guide the cannula, Another woman would pump the syringe. And another woman holds a mirror for the woman having the procedure”, said Downer in her interview. Overall, menstrual extractions are very safe, and being able to practice helped other women be able to show other women how to perform a menstrual extraction. 

These procedures would be conducted in self-help groups. The important thing about self-help groups is that the women receiving the procedures are accessible. This means that they aren’t coming from other states because the first week is a critical time. Being in a closenite community makes it easier for women to follow up if something goes wrong. 

Not only was it important to be close to the self-help group incase of complications but it was also important because they needed to feel comfortable working with one another. They also needed to be able to trust each other when it came to conducting the procedure. However, in most cases the people conducting the procedure were friends who the person trusted. 

Lorraine and Carol traveled around the country teaching other people how to perform menstrual extractions which allowed more people to form different self-help groups across the country.

One famous group being the Jane Collective. The Jane Collective was an underground abortion group in Chicago. They helped about 11,000 women with unwanted pregnancies and provided low-cost and free illegal abortions. 

There was also another group called the National Women’s Health Network which explained what menstrual extraction was to people who asked. I have provided images with some of their information on it below. 

When I went to the Smith College Archives I came across a “Do it Yourself Abortion” zine which gave an overview on menstrual extraction, how to execute one and diagrams to help demonstrate how to do a menstrual extraction. This form of exposure to menstrual extraction is important because it’s able to reach people who wouldn’t be able to attend a self-help group. 

Menstrual extractions are still being performed today and having the internet at a person’s disposal helps people reach different self-help groups or even buy their own menstrual extraction kits. Some kits are being sold on websites such as ebay for a reasonable price. 

Especially now it’s important for younger generations to learn and understand about self-induced abortions and different forms of contraception. Our future is at risk and we might be discouraged that we have no control but in reality we do. Women before us paved the way for us. As Downer said, “If we don’t learn about our bodies,  somebody else is going to be in charge of what happens to us.” So please go out and learn about different forms of abortion and learn to protect your body. 

Thank you for listening, and hope you learned something new today. 

Baker, Carrie N. “Abortion How-to: The Ms. Q&A on Menstrual Extraction with Carol Downer.” Ms. Magazine, July 14, 2022. https://msmagazine.com/2022/07/14/abortion-how-to-carol-downer-menstrual-extraction/. 

Do It Yourself Abortion, 1992, Box 24, Sophia Smith Collection zines collection, Sophia Smith Collection zines collection (SSC-MS-00434)

Kennedy, Lesley. “Reproductive Rights in the US: Timeline.” History.com, May 2, 2024. https://www.history.com/news/reproductive-rights-timeline. 

“Menstrual Extraction.” Women’s Health Specialists, September 1, 2016. https://www.womenshealthspecialists.org/self-help/menstrual-extraction/. National Women’s Health Network, 2000, Sophia Smith Collection of Women’s History, Reproductive Rights National Network records ( SSC-MS-00576)