12/13/2013
Abortion & Birth Control
The ancient Egyptians also practiced birth control. Abortion is one of the oldest medical practices, evidence of which dates back to ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Abortion techniques used by Egyptian pharaohs were documented in the ancient Ebers Papyrus around 1550 B.C.
Abortion is never explicitly mentioned in the Bible, but we know that the ancient Egyptians, Persians, and Romans, among others, would have practiced it during their respective eras. The earliest known description of abortion can be derived from the Ebers Papyrus belonging to somewhere around 1550 BCE. This was an ancient Egyptian medical text.
This Ebers Papyrus suggested that an abortion could be induced with the use of a plant-fiber tampon coated with a compound that included honey and crushed dates. Subsequent herbal abortifacients included the long-extinct silphium. This silphium was the most prized medicinal plant of the ancient world, along with pennyroyal, which is still sometimes used to induce abortions. However, it not safe since it is highly toxic.
According to this papyrus document, unspecified amounts of acacia gum, dates, and an unidentified plant were mixed with plant fiber and honey and formed into a peccary (vaginal suppository).
Modern researchers have found acacias to be spermicidal. Scarring and pitting of bones in the pelvic region provided the scholars further clues to the number of full-term pregnancies amongst skeletal remains from prehistoric times. Demographic research, laboratory studies, and scrutiny of ancient texts have given them new hints concerning the efficacy of ancient 'family planning.'
The Egyptians recognized some of the procreative relationships among the te**es, phallus, semen, and pregnancy. They regarded the man's contribution as a 'seed' that he planted in the fertile ground provided by the uterus. Semen was believed to originate in the spinal cord--a belief derived from veterinary medicine. This lowest extension of the vertebral column was called the sacrum because it was believed to be a sacred bone.
Abortion induced by herbs or manipulation was used as a form of birth control in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome and probably earlier. It was only in the 19th century that opinion about abortion underwent a change.