mifepristone

Abortion Pill Chemicals May Be Contaminating America’s Tap Water

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

Four Things to Know and Do About New Abortion Pill Study

A new study confirms what many have been warning about for years. The abortion pill doesn’t just take the life of innocent preborn babies but also injures and puts mother’s lives in jeopardy.

“The Abortion Pill Harms Women,” the largest ever examination of its kind, found that nearly 11% of all women who abort their child with mifepristone suffer from life-threatening conditions, including sepsis, infection or hemorrhaging.

Focus on the Family president Jim Daly stated this new report “calls out the chilling dangers of the abortion pill.” 

He added:

“For more than half-a-century, the radical abortion industry has been diminishing and discounting the health risks to unsuspecting women whenever preborn life is taken. All those who claim to be advocates for women should be alarmed and convicted by this new research.

“This 5-year study found that women are 22 times more likely to be harmed than previously suggested by the Food and Drug Administration. In the interest of the health of mothers alone, they should be calling for the FDA to investigate the use of these deadly and dangerous drugs. Millions of lives are at stake.

What can you about it?

  1. Call your elected representatives and request that the FDA reevaluate their assessment of the pill’s so-called safe use.

  2.  Volunteer for your local pregnancy center. The Lord can use you to help change the heart and mind of an abortion-minded woman. 

  3. Learn more about the severe and dangerous consequences of the abortion pill, as well as the abortion pill reversal process.

  4. Pray that the eyes of radical abortion activists will be opened and that their hardened hearts will be softened.

Your voice matters. Your hands can help make a difference. 

“We know the abortion kills the girl or boy on the inside, and now research makes clear it also harms the woman on the outside,” warned Jim Daly.

It is time to pray and time to act.