A group of House Republicans aims to use environmental restrictions to curb the use of the abortion pill mifepristone, which anti-abortion advocates say contaminates the water supply with human remains from at-home abortions.
Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) introduced a new bill Wednesday with nine GOP cosponsors that would do away with telehealth access to abortion medications and require in-person screening before a doctor could dispense the pills.
The bill would also require patients undergoing a medication abortion at home to use a catch-kit to collect the fetal remains and other pregnancy tissue, including the placenta and blood clots, to be disposed of as medical waste by the prescribing medical team.
Miller’s bill, the “Clean Water for All Life Act,” is being championed by the anti-abortion advocacy group Students for Life of America, which has advanced the argument that the proliferation of medication abortion in recent years has tainted the drinking water supply with human fetal remains and endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
Students for Life president Kristan Hawkins told the Washington Examiner ahead of an event on Capitol Hill introducing the legislation that she has been sounding the alarm about the environmental health harms of mifepristone since before the COVID-19 pandemic, when abortion pill medications started to be dispensed on certain college campuses.
That was before mifepristone became a flashpoint in the abortion policy debate, before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and the Food and Drug Administration removed in-person dispensing safety regulations initially required under the drug’s approval in 2000.
The number of abortions in the U.S. has increased steadily since the overturning of Roe, including in states that have banned abortion, because of the proliferation of telehealth sales of abortion medications. Roughly two-thirds of the over one million abortions each year involve mifepristone.
Hawkins told the Washington Examiner that leveraging the environmental concerns of contaminated wastewater is “a creative response, an out-of-the-box response to a problem that the entire pro-life movement recognizes.”
Mifepristone is a synthetic hormone that blocks the reception of progesterone, the hormone necessary to sustain pregnancy.
Taking mifepristone, as the first step in the medication abortion process, effectively prevents the fetus from receiving nutrients, resulting in death. The second medication, misoprostol, is taken 24 to 48 hours after mifepristone to induce contractions to expel the pregnancy tissue.
Students for Life has filed five citizen petitions with the FDA since 2022, asking the agency to require catch-kits for medical waste along with mifepristone to prevent wastewater contamination. But only two of the 17 studies cited in the group’s citizen petitions referenced mifepristone directly, and those studies did not sufficiently mimic real-life conditions for testing mifepristone byproducts in treated drinking water.
A spokesperson for Danco Laboratories, the makers of the brand-name drug Mifeprex, previously told the Washington Examiner that the company had not engaged in any post-market Environmental Impact Studies since the initial Environmental Assessment in 1996, more than two decades before the drug was cleared for use at home via remote medical care.
Hawkins said that her group has conducted a study of wastewater pre- and post-treatment that indicates there are high levels of progesterone-disrupting chemicals in the water supply, which could only come from at-home abortions involving mifepristone.
Hawkins said the data has not yet been released because it is currently going through the publication process with a scientific journal, but she declined to provide more specifics on the publication’s timeline.
Hawkins said that requiring a catch-kit for the byproducts of a medication abortion would follow the same protocols as other home-based medical procedures that involve medical waste.
“If your midwife comes to your house and you deliver a baby in your house, I’m sure there’s probably some rules about what can or cannot be flushed down the toilet or down the bathtub,” Hawkins said. “The rules don’t change just because the ‘healthcare’ is being administered at home.”
Anti-abortion advocacy groups have sponsored other, more aggressive legislation restricting mifepristone, including a bill from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) that would completely withdraw FDA approval of the medication.
But Hawkins says using the environmental approach appeals to common sense and can garner more support than an outright ban on the drug.
The Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement conducted a January survey that found 9 in 10 Gen-Z and millennial voters ages 18 to 45 supported conducting wastewater and environmental impact studies on mifepristone.
“We’re trying to limit chemical abortions in a tactically smart way, using a different approach, using environmental law, because nothing else has seemed to work so far,” Hawkins said.
Miller said in a press release that the bill is intended to act as a check on the abortion industry.
“The murder-for-profit abortion industry has completely ignored the dangerous and unethical disposal of pre-born baby remains and toxic chemical waste produced by abortion pills,” Miller said. “I introduced the ‘Clean Water for All Life Act’ to put an end to their reckless and inhumane practices.”
Early bill sponsors include Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-TN), Rep. Sheri Biggs (R-SC), Rep. John McGuire (R-VA), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-NC), Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX), Rep. Paul Gosar (AZ), Rep. Peter Steube (R-FL), and Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN).
Harsbarger said in a press release ahead of the event at the Capitol on Wednesday that she is proud to be “fighting to protect life, safeguard public health, and hold the abortion industry accountable.
“Chemical abortion drugs are ending the lives of unborn children while their toxic byproducts are being flushed into our water systems with virtually no oversight,” Harshbarger said. “As a pro-life advocate and a pharmacist who spent decades caring for patients before coming to Congress, I believe we have a duty to protect women, defend innocent life, and ensure powerful drugs and medical waste are handled responsibly.”
