(LifeSiteNews) — Americans could be drinking abortion drugs without knowing it, according to a new peer-reviewed study.
“Anti-Progesterone in Environmental Water” may be the first study to provide evidence for growing concerns about how abortion drugs could be contaminating the water supply. The two-year study included water samples from several municipal water sources and testing by an unaffiliated lab.
The presence of these drugs is particularly concerning given ongoing fertility problems among the American population and the rapid growth in the use of abortion pills since the reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Published July 20 in the Issues of Law & Medicine, the study found “significant levels of mifepristone (up to 0.041 μgram/l) in the water of all but one of the nine sampling classes.”
“Because of the plethora of effects of progesterone, this contaminant could affect the physiology of aquatic animals; and human health, including fertility, pregnancy and fetal development,” the study’s authors warned. Elise Rose, who holds a doctorate in agronomy, oversaw the study. She is a researcher at the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
Critics will likely try to undermine the study by pointing out it was conducted by pro-life researchers with funding by Charitable Allies, the attorneys for Students for Life of America. But the researchers submitted their samples “blind (without source identification)” to a lab in the Netherlands.
Students for Life also argues this shows there is a test for mifepristone, which could facilitate its efforts, backed by Republican congressmen and attorneys general, to get the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to monitor the drug.
“We were told we had to prove mifepristone was in the water in the U.S. to get anyone to care,” executive vice president Tina Whittington stated in a news release.
She added:
On our own we started to reach out to water testing companies only to have our business declined. Our frustration became inspiration for this group to find the path to test our drinking water and while we have been vindicated, I hope the larger response is urgency to clean up our water. The harm to endangered species and potentially the human harm is incalculable.
Students for Life pointed to significant political pressure on the Trump administration to step in and regulate abortion drugs in the water. So far, thousands of people asked the EPA to monitor the water supplies for abortion drugs, which they point out should be considered a “forever chemical.”
“One concern about an endocrine blocker in the water is whether it’s a factor in the infertility crisis impacting America,” the national pro-life group noted.
The study may soon make its way up to high-ranking political officials. Politico reported that it has been submitted to the EPA for consideration.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said the onus is now on pro-abortion activists to test the water and disprove what the study found.
Funny how the Left wants to complain about how our twice peer-reviewed study proving mifepristone is in our drinking water was completed.
We showed you our work, now show us yours.
Oh that’s right, you’ve never done any environmental testing.
— Kristan Hawkins (@KristanHawkins) July 26, 2026
“Funny how the Left wants to complain about how our twice peer-reviewed study proving mifepristone is in our drinking water was completed,” she wrote on X. “We showed you our work, now show us yours.”
“Oh, that’s right, you’ve never done any environmental testing.”