As anti-abortion activists and politicians continue to attack access to reproductive healthcare, they’re testing a new pathway to criminalize abortion care: environmental law. In 2025 anti-abortion policymakers introduced nine bills in seven states using deceptive claims about water pollution to attack medication abortion like mifepristone.

To be clear: There’s no evidence that medication abortion is affecting U.S. water systems, including drinking water and aquatic wildlife. Meanwhile anti-abortion activists have ignored true environmental hazards to water, like pesticides, fertilizers, animal waste runoff, manufacturing waste, and industries that release untreated or partially treated wastewater into waterways.

To protect water, we need comprehensive strategies to improve water quality — not the politicization of specific medications. All medications, when excreted through the body, can leave trace amounts in wastewater — even over-the-counter medications like ibuprofen and lifesaving treatments like beta blockers. 

The Center is tracking this issue closely and pushing back against the anti-abortion movement’s disinformation campaign while we keep fighting the real threats to our waterways. Learn more about our freshwater protection work.

For more information on how anti-abortion activists are weaponizing environmental law, read this article in Ms. Magazine: "No, Abortion Pills Aren’t Polluting U.S. Waterways."

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