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New Study Confirms High Levels of Abortion Drug Compounds in Drinking Water

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July 27, 2026
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New research has confirmed that harmful endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) that are present in the abortion drug mifepristone and last virtually forever once released into nature are contaminating the nation’s public water supply as the in-home use of abortion pills continues to skyrocket.

In a study published in the journal Issues in Law & Medicine last week, researchers Elise Rose and Dr. Michael Varveris tested water samples collected both upstream and downstream from water treatment facilities as well as municipal tap water in three cities. After analyzing nine water samples, “significant levels of mifepristone” were found in eight of the samples. As the researchers noted, “this contaminant could affect the physiology of aquatic animals; and human health, including fertility, pregnancy and fetal development.”

The peer-reviewed study adds to growing concerns over the environmental impact of the abortion pill, with groups like Liberty Counsel Action (LCA) releasing research last year pointing to how there is a “clear correlation between the increase in chemical abortions and increased rate of infertility” in the general population. A report released last May revealed that the global rate of infertility has mushroomed 84% between 1990 and 2021, which strikingly follows the timeline of when the abortion pill was first introduced in Europe in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s and in the U.S. in 2000.

Public officials are beginning to take notice as well. Last month, a group of 14 Republican state attorneys general sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), highlighting the growing number of chemical abortions occurring in the U.S. and encouraging the agency to conduct testing to determine the levels of harmful compounds resulting from mifepristone as well as birth control drugs that may be present in drinking water.

Pro-life groups like Students for Life of America (SFLA), whose public advocacy on the drinking water issue has led to increased public awareness, say that the latest peer reviewed study is the fruit of many years of work.

“I would say this is like a 10-year journey,” Kristi Hamrick, who serves as vice president of Media & Policy at SFLA, remarked during “Washington Watch” Friday. “When California first tried to force chemical abortion pills into publicly funded college and university health care centers as a mandate, we were like, ‘What’s this going to do?’ One way to keep it out was we raised environmental concerns.”

Hamrick further pointed out that it’s not just toxic EDCs that are flushed into the water supply during a chemical abortion.

“[It’s] going to be polluting the water and flushing human remains into the waterways, chemically tainted blood, placenta tissue, human remains, and feces — all of this going is going to go into the waterways. And there’s an environmental impact on that,” she emphasized. “… I think it’s important for people to understand that when Joe Biden deregulated chemical abortion pills in the name of COVID, saying that we had to send death by mail because … people could catch a cold if they came to an abortion vendor operation. At that point, there was a radical shift in policy. Hospitals and outpatient medical centers don’t flush pathological medical waste — blood, placenta, tissue, human remains down the drain. But you are now outsourcing this to homes and saying that now in America, with [as much as] eight in 10 abortions being committed with pills — that means every year, more than 50 tons of chemically tainted blood and placenta tissue and human remains is going into our waterways.”

Hamrick went on to observe that even by the former Biden administration’s safe drinking water standards, the latest study’s findings show that the amount of EDCs from mifepristone present in drinking water from three cities dwarfs safe levels. “[F]or safe drinking water regulation, the Biden administration said that forever chemicals — and mifepristone is a forever chemical — that the concentration of forever chemicals should not be more than four parts per trillion. We found mifepristone … in the water in some of the samples up to 41 parts per trillion.”

Elise Rose, the co-author of the study who holds a doctorate in Agronomy and Environmental Plant Physiology from Kansas State University, concluded that the results should concern everyone of all political backgrounds. “Because of the importance of progesterone for human and animal health, the presence of anti-progesterone in environmental and tap water poses potential health risks,” she underscored. “Everyone should be concerned that we are possibly being exposed to an endocrine-disrupting compound without our consent.”

Dan Hart
Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.


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