Women Resort to Over-the-Counter Remedies to End Pregnancies in WaHi
December 20, 2011 3:07pm | By Carla Zanoni, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
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Natural remedies are a norm in the Dominican culture. (DNAinfo/Carla Zanoni)
WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — News of a 20-year-old woman who was arrested after telling police she drank an over-the-counter herbal tea to induce an abortion, then tossed her fetus in the garbage, shed light on a naturopathic "remedy" commonly known and relied upon across upper Manhattan.
The tea — which goes by the name hierba de ruda, or just ruda — is made from a batch of strong-smelling, leafy green plant stalks, which cost approximately $3 at botanicas, or traditional Latino apothecaries found throughout Washington Heights and Inwood and staffed by by santeras, or Caribbean Santería priestesses.
And it's as common and easily available as a bottle of ibuprofen, as Yaribely Almonte, 20, allegedly found before her arrest. The Washington Heights woman told police that she drank the tea on Nov. 29, then delivered a stillborn fetus which she placed in an alley behind her apartment building on 191st Street, according to Deputy Inspector Barry Buzzetti, the Commanding Officer of the 34 precinct.
Women can purchase Humphreys #11, a homeopathic medicine intended to remedy "delayed menses," throughout Washington Heights. (Humphreys USA)
The tea is made from a non-edible plant, called ruta graveolens, that'
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