Mifepristone detection study draws fire from Senate Democrats

Senate Democrats demanded answers Thursday from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin about an agency study to detect the abortion pill mifepristone in drinking water.

Led by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the entire Senate Democratic Conference signed a letter to Zeldin calling on him to remove mifepristone, misoprostol and their metabolites from the list of emerging contaminants targeted for surveillance.

“This action is a stark departure from past EPA practice and serves to further this administration’s attacks on reproductive health care and distracts from your agency’s critical role protecting Americans from known chemical pollutants in our water systems,” the Democrats wrote. “It is deeply alarming that this kind of radical, anti-science campaign might have an audience at the EPA.”

Medication has become the most common method of abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned, and limiting the availability of the pills — which women usually take at home in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy — has become a major focus of the anti-abortion movement.

Looking for traces of mifepristone and misoprostol in drinking water is something anti-abortion activists, attorneys general and lawmakers have been lobbying the agency to do for years.

The testing campaign is not part of the agency’s routine update to the Safe Drinking Water Act’s contaminant list, or any other established unregulated contaminant monitoring lists, so there is no regulation required.

There is no evidence that abortion pills are harming the water supply or are harmful to people. But scientists expect the study results will be used as part of the broader campaign to get mifepristone pulled from the market.

The senators pressed Zeldin for specifics about the review, including the “statutory, regulatory, and scientific basis” for it; the expected timeline; and a list of all meetings between EPA staff and outside organizations — including Students for Life of America — to discuss the potential surveillance or regulation of mifepristone.

Students for Life of America has been the primary organization on the front line of pushing EPA to investigate how mifepristone might be contaminating the water supply and to require utilities nationwide to monitor for the drugs.