Republicans have called for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to launch an investigation into whether the use of abortion pills infiltrates the nation’s water supply.
Senator James Lankford and Representative Josh Brecheen, both Oklahoma Republicans, have requested that the agency conduct public health assessments on the pill’s presence in water.
“[W]e write to express our concerns regarding mifepristone and its potential contaminant effects on our nation’s waters. In 2023, medication abortions accounted for more than 60% of all clinician-provided abortions that took place within the US health care system—totaling roughly 648,500 medication abortions,” the letter says. “These numbers do not reflect the unrecorded number of at-home medication abortions that were performed without the oversight of a clinician. It is imperative that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers evaluating the potential contaminant effects of this drug as the agency develops the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule 6 (UCMR 6).”
The letter urges the EPA to “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,” adding that lawmakers “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.”
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary confirmed earlier this month that he will review the safety of the abortion drug mifepristone after a study revealed troubling adverse health outcomes exceeding the risks reported on its label.
“As the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, I am committed to conducting a review of mifepristone and working with the professional career scientists at the Agency who review this data,” Makary wrote to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) following the senator’s urge to assess the matter.
