U.S. Senator presses EPA to scientifically justify recommendation that water supplies be monitored for abortion and contraceptive medications

CG has been following the efforts of some anti-abortion groups and lawmakers to leverage environmental regulations to monitor and potentially restrict medication abortion across the U.S. The efforts have focused on testing water for drugs such as mifepristone and misoprostol — two drugs that can be used to end a pregnancy — despite a lack of scientific evidence that the use of such medications has any meaningful impact if and when excreted and flushed water supplies. 

In early April, CG noted that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it would move for the first time to designate microplastics and pharmaceuticals as drinking water contaminants, adding them to its draft Contaminant Candidate List, on which the public may comment. The anti-abortion group Students for Life meanwhile announced a "national comment collection campaign" to urge the agency to include mifepristone on the list.

In the meantime, it appears that the EPA has moved to include some related medications that can be used in abortion and contraception care on a list of hundreds of Food and Drug Administration-approved pharmaceuticals that it suggests local governments should monitor in water supplies. 

The agency notes that the list — titled "2026 Human Health Benchmarks for Pharmaceuticals" — is "non-regulatory and non-enforceable" and that it is "intended to provide information to help states, Tribes, and water systems better characterize potential health risks." But some people are concerned about what the list may spur. "For example," the EPA goes on to suggest, "if a pharmaceutical occurs in drinking water at levels higher than the benchmark, additional water monitoring or research could be conducted to help ensure protection of Americans' drinking water."

According to the Huffington Post, the list does not currently include mifepristone, "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."

In response, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden issued a letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin in late April, pressing the agency to "[detail] the scientific, peer-reviewed justification for including contraceptives and abortion medications" on the benchmark list. 

"We expect a response by May 5, 2026," Wyden wrote, also calling on Zeldin to provide a "full accounting" of the agency's communications with anti-abortion groups about the matter.