Morocco’s National Judicial Police apprehended a woman allegedly affiliated with the Salafist movement and devoted to traditional “illegal pharmacopeia” in Errachidia in the south of Morocco on Friday for the possession of plants known for their supposed contraceptive or abortive properties, the use of which has been linked to significant maternal mortality and health repercussions.
The police executed a search warrant at the suspect’s residence, seizing a variety of natural and chemical-based products often used by traditional herbal practitioners, either separately or in combination with other substances at higher doses, to facilitate miscarriages in pregnant women.
Used as traditional abortion methods in Morocco where abortion is illegal, the herbs are administered without medical knowledge by practitioners who lack medical qualifications and work within informal networks.