Hidden pipeline

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: a new pro-life strategy.

This story contains some possibly disturbing details, so we’ll give you a moment before we continue.

On Wednesday, U.S. Congresswoman Mary Miller introduced a bill called the Safe Water Act. It’s not your typical environmental bill.

MILLER: The murder for profit abortion industry is not only ending innocent life, but is also polluting our water.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: The bill aims to require distributors of abortion pills to take responsibility for the way they handle the remains of aborted babies. 

It’s the first time this kind of legislation has been introduced in Washington after lawmakers in four states introduced similar legislation.

How might it both clean up chemical abortion and American water systems?

WORLD’s Lauren Canterberry has the story.

LAUREN CANTERBERRY: Chemical abortions are now the most common way unborn babies are killed in this country. And abortion groups often tell women who take the drugs at home to flush the remains of their child down the toilet.

Executive Vice President of Students for Life of America Tina Whittington, says that poses a public safety problem.

WHITTINGTON: A lot of medication, when you take it, it is no longer active. It goes through your body, flushes out.

She says the government has failed to monitor water systems for traces of mifepristone, leaving Americans in the dark about what chemicals they may be consuming.

WHITTINGTON: Mifepristone is an anti-progesterone. It blocks progesterone when it enters your body, it continues, it is active, the three active metabolites in it are still active when it’s out through your body into our wastewater system.

SFLA and the pro-life group Liberty Counsel Action estimate that anywhere from 30 to 50 tons of human tissue and blood are flushed into the water system each year due to abortion.

The last environmental study on mifepristone’s contamination of water took place in 1996, when a nonprofit research group told the FDA the effects would be minimal. 

But since then, the rate of chemical abortions has risen dramatically, and pro-life groups say it is alarming that no further studies have been conducted.

WHITTINGTON: We reached out to about 25 different companies in the U.S. who test water. They all said “No, we pass. We don’t want the job.”

After contracting with a European company, Whittington said tests found anywhere from one to 11 parts per trillion of mifepristone’s metabolites in samples collected. That’s nearly three times the limit for forever chemicals set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Kristi Hamrick is Vice President of Media and Policy at Students for Life.

HAMRICK: This is a generation of people that doesn't want to drink out of a plastic water bottle. So they're not really wanting their water to micro dose them with the progesterone blocker.

Hamrick says the EPA has rules for disposing of human tissue and medical waste that should also apply to abortion pills.

HAMRICK: Even if you sold insulin drugs you have to talk to people about how to handle your sharps. There's just rules for all this… Because again, the government caused the problem, the government should seek the solution. They allow for this distribution.

Lawmakers in Wisconsin, Maine, West Virginia, and Wyoming have all tried to propose similar legislation to the federal bill introduced this week. So far, none have advanced.

Representative Miller’s bill would require abortionists to include medical waste collection kits with every dose of mifepristone they distribute. It would also reinstate in-person visit requirements for women to be prescribed the drug.

MILLER: Our water systems were never designed to filter these toxic substances.

So far, 14 legislators have co-sponsored Miller’s bill and pro-life groups and individuals have asked the EPA and the FDA to do their own research on the drug’s potential harms.

MILLER: When women are fully informed of the harms of chemical abortion pills, I believe they are far more likely to choose life, sparing not only the life of their unborn child, but also preserving the health of our population.

Hamrick says the bill is good policy, but she recognizes it faces long odds to pass Congress.

She’s also concerned about the Trump Administration’s attempts to delay legal action in several state-level cases until HHS completes a safety review of Mifepristone. A safety review that is nowhere to be seen. 

HAMRICK: I think the bigger picture is the failure of the EPA and the FDA and HHS, which is their boss, to demand that we are evaluating these things.

Regardless of how the Trump administration responds, pro-lifers have made it clear that they will continue calling for more common-sense studies and protections around abortion drugs.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lauren Canterberry, with additional reporting from Harrison Watters.

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