Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.) is demanding answers from the Environmental Protection Agency following an extreme move that could hinder access to abortion and birth control pills.

The Trump administration’s EPA recommended earlier this month that states begin testing drinking water for certain forms of abortion pills and contraceptives — a worrisome move that comes after a yearslong pressure campaign from anti-abortion organizations weaponizing environmental regulations to further undermine access to care.

“While you claim these benchmarks are merely to ‘empower local decision makers,’ your own statements suggest a darker reality: this is laying the groundwork for sweeping state and federal restrictions on reproductive health care,” Wyden wrote in the Monday letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.

“While it is critical that the federal government work to monitor and assess the risk of pharmaceuticals in drinking water,” he continued, “the inclusion of these reproductive health medications is clearly a coordinated, politically motivated attempt to restrict women’s freedom under the guise of ‘drinking water safety.’”

The guidance for testing drinking water is a “backdoor attempt to strip access to reproductive health care,” Wyden wrote, adding that it “amounts to ‘uterus surveillance.’”

Earlier this month, the EPA released a list of 374 drugs that states and counties should monitor. The agency also advised local governments to create “human health benchmarks,” which would dictate how much of a medication can exist in water systems before it is defined as a contaminant. The list does not include mifepristone — the main abortion pill that has been at the center of abortion debates — but it does include misoprostol and methotrexate, two drugs used for medication abortions and other health issues, as well as several forms of daily birth control pills and the NuvaRing.

The list is not meant to lead to an all-out ban on any medications, the EPA said, but the agency acknowledged it could pave the way for restrictions.

“The human health benchmarks for pharmaceuticals are not regulations and are not enforceable on their own, but they are a vital resource, empowering local decision-makers to evaluate risks and protect their communities when pharmaceutical contamination is detected at concerning levels,” the EPA said in an April 2 statement.

Trace amounts of all medications, including over-the-counter drugs like ibuprofen, can be found in wastewater, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a national reproductive health research organization. But there is no scientific evidence to back up the claim that abortion pills or birth control are polluting drinking water or harming the environment.

The EPA has historically released a benchmark list for pesticides, but this is the first time the department has developed a list of pharmaceutical drugs.

The EPA opened a 60-day comment period, during which the public can send in questions and concerns that could inform the EPA’s decision-making. Wyden argued in his letter to Zeldin that this is a bold-faced attempt to allow anti-abortion extremists to target mifepristone and get it added to the regulatory process.

“We see exactly what your goal is with regard to the 60-day public comment period on drinking water contaminants, despite the fact that this is not formal rulemaking,” Wyden wrote. “By opening the door for extremists to flood the agency with demands to target mifepristone, the EPA is actively conspiring to do what right-wing fanatics have repeatedly failed to do in the courts, the FDA, and the halls of Congress: strip away access to the medication used in more than two thirds of abortions nationwide.”

Wyden gave the EPA until May 5 to respond with the scientific justification for including abortion medications and birth control pills on its human health benchmarks list.

The EPA’s decision to include certain abortion pills and contraceptives on this list is one of the first real material wins for national anti-abortion groups utilizing environmental laws to further restrict abortion access. Anti-abortion organizations have used this strategy for years, but it recently gained steam when Students for Life, one of the largest anti-abortion organizations in the country, championed the issue and aligned it with the Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.

Students for Life and other anti-abortion groups have gone even further than suggesting abortion pills possibly contaminate drinking water. Student for Life’s head of policy Kristi Hamrick told Politico last year that “people need to understand that they are likely drinking other people’s abortions,” claiming that medication abortion waste, such as placental tissue and fetal remains, can be found in drinking water.

The controversial claims are unsubstantiated and rife with anti-abortion misinformation. And yet, the campaign has been so successful that House Republicans introduced a bill last month to require every pregnant person using abortion pills to use toilet “catch kits” when ending a pregnancy to ensure no medical waste is flushed.

“The fact is, the abortion pill ingredients used to starve a pre-born child remain active and unfiltered in our water treatments,” Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) said after introducing the Clean Water For All Life Act. “That means families across the nation may be unknowingly ingesting abortion-related chemicals in their drinking water, exposing them to potential health risks like infertility and cancer.” Although the bill is unlikely to pass, it currently has 18 co-sponsors in the House.

By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.