Abortion Pill Chemicals May Be Contaminating America’s Tap Water

by Meredith Godwin | June 24, 2025 | Culture Life

In addition to aborting babies and harming women, mifepristone (the abortion pill) is possibly contaminating America’s tap water.

In a recent letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Senator James Lankford and Congressman Josh Brecheen urged EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to investigate “the potential contaminant effects of this drug”:

We request that the EPA study the impact of the “byproducts” of mifepristone, such as the active metabolites that are entering our nation’s water system and threatening access to safe drinking water.

In 1996, the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) conducted an environmental evaluation for mifepristone, stating, “Mifepristone may enter the environment from excretion by patients, from disposal of pharmaceutical waste, or from emissions from manufacturing sites.”

Ultimately, the CDER concluded that mifepristone posed no major threats, and could be “used and disposed of without any expected adverse environmental effects.”

However, this brief investigation occurred long before the popularization of at-home chemical abortions.

Today, medication abortions (mifepristone is the most popular abortion pill on the market) account for over 60% of known US abortions – an estimated 648,500 at-home abortions in 2023 alone.

The drug functions as a progesterone blocker, inducing abortion by disrupting a pregnant woman’s hormones.

Since the CDER’s 1996 assessment, at least one study has shown these harmful byproducts in mifepristone remain active even after passing through the human body.

In their letter, Lankford and Brecheen express concern that,

If residual amounts of the drug and its metabolites persist in wastewater, prolonged exposure could potentially interfere with a person’s fertility, regardless of sex.
We believe it is reckless to allow a known progesterone blocker to be flushed into America’s drinking water without knowing definitively if it impacts fertility rates.

In a pro-life campaign earlier this year, Students for Life of America claimed:

As women increasingly use the pills at home to end pregnancies and flush the expelled tissue, trace amounts of the medication make their way into rivers and streams, where they can harm endangered species and livestock.

After conducting their own testing, the group also claimed that mifepristone is “contaminating tap water and could be threatening human fertility.”

Zac Kester, an advising attorney with Students for Life, stated:

We know it’s synthetic. We know it’s potent. We know it’s designed to end pregnancy, to stop biological processes. So we’re hoping that this prompts local governments and other bodies to pursue more testing and research.

It seems Students for Life’s efforts have done just that. In their letter to the EPA, Lankford and Brecheen, along with three other senators and 20 additional representatives, demanded a serious study of mifepristone byproducts by August 2025:

Scientific research on the health effects of water sources where there are trace amounts of a chemical that is designed to end the life of a child in the womb should not be controversial.
The American people deserve to know what contaminants might be present in their drinking water and their potential impacts on public health.

Related Articles and Resources:

Pro-Life: Focus on the Family

New Insights on the Dangers of the Abortion Pill

The Abortion Pill: How Does It Work?

Woman Nearly Dies from Abortion Pill, Story Reflects Disturbing EPPC Data

New Abortion Pill Study Confirms Danger to Mothers

Here’s the Secret Pro-Abortion Activists Won’t Tell You About the Abortion Pill: It’s Dangerous

Shield Laws Enable Chemical Abortions in Pro-Life States