“This is a tremendous victory for clean water, public health, and common sense,” said Liberty Counsel Action President John Stemberger. “For more than a year, we have been asking a simple question that the federal government had largely ignored: What happens to these powerful abortion drugs after hundreds of thousands of chemical abortions take place in homes every year and the drugs, their metabolites, and abortion-related waste enter our wastewater systems?”

“Now, for the first time, the EPA is undertaking the kind of broad drinking water testing we have been urging,” Stemberger continued. “We are grateful to Administrator Lee Zeldin and the Trump administration for taking these concerns seriously and following the science wherever it leads.”

Since launching its Abortion in Our Water initiative in 2025, LCA has undertaken a sustained campaign to bring the issue before federal policymakers. LCA representatives have met with EPA officials, the former FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary and senior FDA staff, White House officials and Members of Congress to urge federal investigation of the environmental and public-health consequences associated with the dramatic growth of at-home chemical abortions. This request is all consistent with Trump’s promise to have crystal clean drinking water and to use gold standard research.

In April, LCA met directly with former FDA Commissioner Makary and urged the FDA to study abortion-pill metabolites in U.S. water sources and drinking water, examine their possible effects on human health and fertility, and coordinate with the EPA on mifepristone monitoring in our water.

In June, LCA also presented testimony and written comments to the EPA Science Advisory Board’s Drinking Water Committee, specifically urging the agency to place mifepristone on the Sixth Contaminant Candidate List for monitoring and evaluation under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

LCA’s Abortion in Our Water special report has raised concerns about the environmental consequences of approximately 700,000 chemical abortions annually and the resulting entry of active pharmaceutical compounds and abortion-related biological waste into municipal wastewater systems.

Among the questions requiring rigorous scientific investigation is whether long-term exposure to progesterone-blocking compounds in our water could affect fertility, pregnancy, miscarriage rates, fetal development, wildlife, or aquatic species.

“The important point is that we should not have to guess,” Stemberger said. “The government approved and dramatically expanded access to these powerfully lethal drugs without adequately answering what happens when their compounds enter the environment on a massive scale. If there is no danger, comprehensive scientific testing should demonstrate that. If there is a danger, the American people have a right to know.”

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in announcing the study that Americans have expressed concern about “potential unknown pollutants lurking in their drinking water” and that the agency is committed to determining what is actually present so Americans can have confidence in the safety of their water.

The new EPA research will use non-targeted analysis, a sophisticated screening technique that allows researchers to scan samples for thousands of potential pollutants rather than testing only for a small number of predetermined chemicals. The agency says the findings will help determine what contaminants warrant additional research or future regulatory action.

EPA has separately made pharmaceuticals a priority contaminant group for the first time under its draft Sixth Contaminant Candidate List.

Liberty Counsel Action will continue urging the EPA and FDA to conduct comprehensive testing, evaluate the environmental fate and biological activity of mifepristone and its active metabolites, determine the effectiveness of conventional wastewater and drinking-water treatment processes in removing these compounds, and assess any potential effects on wildlife and human fertility and reproductive health.

For more information about Liberty Counsel Action’s Abortion in Our Water initiative and its special report, click here.

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