Anti-abortion activists, attorneys general, and lawmakers have been lobbying for the agency to carry the study for years

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it is launching a drinking water quality study to look for traces of abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol for the first time.

Anti-abortion activists, attorneys general, and lawmakers have been lobbying for the agency to carry the study for years.

Researchers at the agency will collect water samples “from several locations in different metropolitan areas” and test them for thousands of drugs, pesticides and synthetic chemicals, including mifepristone, misoprostol, and multiple types of “forever chemicals,” according to a description of the study.

  • velma@sh.itjust.worksOP
    6·
    22 hours ago

    The group has been advocating for the Trump administration to restrict access to the drug. It has alleged that as women increasingly use the abortion pills at home to terminate pregnancies, flushing the expelled tissue, traces of the pill make their way to water supply, contaminating it. The group conducted its own testing in three U.S. cities. It further has claimed that the drug is also contaminating tap water and threatening human fertility.

    While water contamination from all pharmaceuticals is a growing concern, there is no evidence that abortion pills are harming the water supply or are harmful to people.

    “I think what’s concerning here is that there’s already a culture of criminalization around abortion, especially since Dobbs [v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization], and the potential to use this as justification for further surveillance could create more fear for abortion seekers, for providers at a time when folks are already being criminalized and for their pregnancy outcomes, including abortion,” Anna Bernstein, principal federal policy adviser for the Guttmacher Institute, told The Hill.

    This is another way to target women who have abortions. I consider that pretty controversial for a government to do.

    • TrollAccount69@lemmy.mlBanned from community
      16·
      21 hours ago

      I will not claim to be a medical professional, but testing to see if prescription drugs are in the drinking water supply seems like a good thing.

      If the anti abortion people call for testing drinking water for prescription drugs and none are found then that’s that. If traces are found then that deserves scrutiny and possible remediation.

        • TrollAccount69@lemmy.mlBanned from community
          13·
          21 hours ago

          Yes. An anti abortion group which has advocated for testing drinking water for the presence of birth control drugs was quoted. It’s something they’ve been advocating for for a long time. Many years ago it was considered a kooky conspiracy talking point.

          The article describes the study as testing for thousands of chemicals. The article lists two birth control drugs among them.

          It would be good to know if those chemicals are in drinking water.

          • velma@sh.itjust.worksOP
            2·
            21 hours ago

            While water contamination from all pharmaceuticals is a growing concern, there is no evidence that abortion pills are harming the water supply or are harmful to people.

            Nathan Donley, the environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity, told the outlet mifepristone is not one of the known contaminants on the EPA’s list to regulate.

            “There are major water contaminants that need to be regulated, and testing for those things can be good as long as regulation happens. And then on the other hand, if we’re wasting time on a witch hunt for… those things like mifepristone, then that’s time and resources we take away from regulating and studying things that that are actually a problem,” Donley said.

            • TrollAccount69@lemmy.mlBanned from community
              12·
              21 hours ago

              A careful reader will notice that in those quotes no one is saying there isn’t presence or contamination, only that it’s nothing to worry about, is not harmful to people and isn’t on the official list of stuff the epa looks out for.

              I genuinely don’t see the big deal. Crazy people have been right about stuff before. You figure out if they’re right by investigating that stuff rather than dismissing it out of hand. Including the crazy people claims in the big water study looking for a thousand other things is a good way to save money on lab costs.

              • velma@sh.itjust.worksOP
                2·
                21 hours ago

                It’s a dangerous precedent to allow these kinds of decisions to be driven by anti-abortion and anti-women’s rights activists.

                • TrollAccount69@lemmy.mlBanned from community
                  1·
                  21 hours ago

                  On the other hand, and bear in mind I am not a medical professional:

                  These compounds are present in effluvia. The wastewater treatment system (I’m generalizing here) tries to follow the most basic downstream and upstream procedures but can still end up with significant amounts of stuff from effluent in its clean source. If we know that stuff that ought to go through the out pipe makes its way to the in pipe already, and we know of a specific chemical present in the out pipe, it seems reasonable to test for that chemical in the in pipe.

                  Alternately: I don’t think finally testing something people have been saying for twenty years is a bad precedent.

                  • velma@sh.itjust.worksOP
                    2·
                    21 hours ago

                    Yeah I’m going to go ahead and trust medical and wastewater professionals over you here.

                    Acquiescing to anti-women rights activists should never be an option in a fair and equal society.