Students for Life of America has urged the Environmental Protection Agency to add the abortion medication mifepristone to a federal list of drinking water contaminants that public utilities are required to monitor, according to Politico.
"People need to understand that they are likely drinking other people's abortions," Students for Life's head of policy Kristi Hamrick told the news outlet. "Do you really need a test to determine that it's a bad idea to flush placenta, tissue, blood and human remains into our waterways?"
Hamrick said the group met with EPA officials last month to ask the agency to begin tracking mifepristone as part of its routine contaminant-monitoring efforts.
"We found them to be very interested in what we were talking about and informed," she said, adding that Students for Life hopes to meet with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin in January.
EPA press secretary Brigit Hirsch confirmed the Office of Water meeting and said the agency "takes the issue of pharmaceuticals in our water systems seriously and employs a rigorous, science-based approach to protect human health and the environment."
She added, "As always, EPA encourages all stakeholders invested in clean and safe drinking water to review the proposals and submit comments."
The request targets a process governed by the Safe Drinking Water Act, which requires EPA to periodically order public water systems to test for certain unregulated contaminants to help the agency decide whether future rules are warranted.
The current monitoring cycle, known as UCMR 5, runs from 2023 through 2025 and focuses largely on PFAS chemicals and lithium.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, mifepristone is used with misoprostol in the most common medication abortion regimen and is also used in clinical care for early pregnancy loss.
Medication abortion has become the dominant method of abortion in the U.S. healthcare system, accounting for 63% of clinician-provided abortions in 2023, according to Guttmacher Institute research.
Students for Life has argued in multiple venues that environmental laws should play a larger role in regulating abortion pills.
The FDA previously rejected a 2023 petition tied to Students for Life arguments about mifepristone and waterways, writing that it "offers only conjecture" about "unknown harm to citizens and animals alike" and "provides no evidence" that bodily fluids from patients who have used mifepristone are harming the aquatic environment.
"All I want for Christmas is for millions of Americans to let the Trump administration know that we want assurances that the 'Make America Healthy Again' agenda includes clean water for all life," said Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins.
Former EPA Office of Water scientist Betsy Southerland criticized the push, warning it could distract regulators from contaminants with clearer evidence of harm.
"You can't just do a bait and switch," Southerland said.
"We have such a huge queue of emerging contaminants that we know are toxic, and we know are in our drinking water and in our fisheries," she added. "You would be replacing a known toxic chemical for a hypothetical one."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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