Over a dozen Republican attorneys general from primarily red states are urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to classify the abortion drug mifepristone as a drinking water contaminant. The 14 state officials wrote in a Friday letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin that increased access to mifepristone is “resulting in tons of chemically tainted medical waste being flushed into American waterways.”
Anti-Abortion Claims About Water Pollution
The letter supports a growing idea on the anti-abortion right that drinking water is being tainted because people using abortion pills are flushing drug remnants and fetal remains down the toilet. “More than 50 tons of chemically tainted blood, placenta tissue, and human remains go into our waterways every year. With infertility on the rise, we need to know: what is the extent of the damage?” Kristan Hawkins, president of anti-abortion group Students For Life, said in a statement commending the Republicans’ message.
“The letter out from 14 Attorneys General making the commonsense request that mifepristone be tracked shows there is a growing coalition of those who don’t want to drink abortions,” Hawkins added.
Lack of Scientific Evidence
Trace amounts of all medications, including over-the-counter drugs like ibuprofen, can be found in wastewater, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a national reproductive health research organization. But there is no scientific evidence to back up the claim that abortion pills are polluting drinking water or harming the environment.
“There’s no evidence that medication abortion is affecting U.S. water systems, including drinking water and aquatic wildlife,” the Center for Biological Diversity states on its website. “Meanwhile anti-abortion activists have ignored true environmental hazards to water, like pesticides, fertilizers, animal waste runoff, manufacturing waste, and industries that release untreated or partially treated wastewater into waterways.”
“To protect water, we need comprehensive strategies to improve water quality — not the politicization of specific medications,” the environmental protection group added.
Growing Mainstream Support for Far-Right Belief
Nearly 20 members of Congress wrote a letter earlier this month to Zeldin also urging the EPA to classify mifepristone as a water contaminant. While this is still a small number within the Republican Party, it reveals that a once extreme far-right belief is becoming more mainstream. In March, House Republicans introduced a bill that would require every pregnant person using abortion pills to use toilet seat “catch kits” when ending their pregnancy. The bill ― which is unlikely to pass with 17 co-sponsors ― would make it illegal to flush abortion or miscarriage remains down a toilet.
“The fact is, the abortion pill ingredients used to starve a pre-born child remain active and unfiltered in our water treatments,” Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.), sponsor of the Clean Water For All Life Act, said in March. “That means families across the nation may be unknowingly ingesting abortion-related chemicals in their drinking water, exposing them to potential health risks like infertility and cancer.”
Continued Attacks on Mifepristone
Anti-abortion lawmakers and advocates have been attacking mifepristone at a steady pace since the Supreme Court repealed federal abortion protections in 2022. Most recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the start of a safety review of mifepristone despite the drug’s safe use by millions since the FDA first approved it in 2000. Abortion rights groups believe the safety review is the first step in restricting access to mifepristone — particularly access to abortion pills by mail, which have been a lifeline for people living in states where abortion is currently banned.
