The Trump administration has been accused of “weaponising” environmental policy in its latest attempt to stymie medical abortion. Can mifepristone in water supplies harm health, as anti-abortion activists claim? Carolyn Brown reports.
On 9 September the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it will begin testing water supplies for mifepristone and misoprostol, the drugs used for medical abortion, among more than 1400 pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and other chemicals.
The testing is to “improve the agency’s understanding of what pollutants may be present in drinking water,” the EPA stated, implying that the listed substances are pollutants or contaminants.
The testing is separate from water testing for unregulated contaminants under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Screening will also include hormones and reproductive health drugs such as testosterone, progesterone, and levonorgestrel. Levonorgestrel is used in contraceptives, including in emergency contraception such as Plan B.
Anti-abortion activists are calling the testing “a victory for common sense,” claiming that the drugs’ excretion in water can affect human health and the environment.
“Abusers and pill pushers, an emerging abortion cartel, love the quick sale of deadly pills, but the fallout may go even further as women trying to get pregnant and endangered species suffer from endocrine disruptors in our drinking water,” said Kristi Hamrick, president of Students for Life of America (SFLA), in a statement.
SFLA has lobbied the Environmental Protection Agency for more than a year to investigate …(continues for those with a paid subscription)
SOURCE: BMJ 2026; 395 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2026-101177 (Published 04 November 2026) Cite this as: BMJ 2026;395:e101177.
PS. Who said Donald Trump graciously acknowledged he had lost the elections this week???