Republican AGs Demand EPA Protect Women From (Non-Existent) Abortion Water Danger
This again!
A group of 15 attorneys general from various red states are (once again) asking the EPA to classify mifepristone, one of the most commonly used and safest abortion drugs, as a water contaminant, not because it actually is a contaminant, but because they do not want people to take mifepristone in the first place.
In a letter issued last Friday, the group claimed that the drug is “a growing threat to the country’s waterways,” an assessment that has been rejected by actual scientists who rely on knowledge and tests to determine such things, but embraced by random anti-abortion freaks who rely on their gut feelings.
You may be thinking “Oh Christ, not this shit again. How many times do we have to tell them that this is not a thing?” But just look at how professional and sciencey they sound!
When mifepristone was first approved, back in 2000, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—recognizing the inherent danger posed by the drug—promulgated a regimen and risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (REMS). Over the last decade, however, the FDA has eliminated many of the protections that minimized the health risks posed by mifepristone and its approved generics, including the in-person dispensing and check-up requirements that kept medical staff involved in the process.
Mifepristone is, in fact, a very safe drug, with less than one percent of those who take it suffering any serious complications. It has been used for over two decades here and three decades in Europe, so there is no mystery there. That is why the FDA changed the rules. It is even safer to take than penicillin or Viagra, neither of which requires any of those safety precautions.
Crazily enough, not liking a drug doesn’t mean it’s not safe for other people to take.
Not only were the FDA’s changes to the REMS unlawful and unsafe, but the loosened regulations have also increased the number of chemical abortions occurring in the home, resulting in tons of chemically tainted medical waste being flushed into American waterways. According to the Guttmacher Institute, chemical abortions accounted for 63 percent of all US abortions in the formal health care system as of 2023, compared to 31 percent in 2014 and 14 percent in 2005. These numbers do not include self-managed chemical abortions that occur when abortion providers mail mifepristone in violation of state law, which the Guttmacher Institute notes is also increasing.
Well, then perhaps they shouldn’t have outlawed abortion in their states. Perhaps they shouldn’t bother people when they are trying to visit a Planned Parenthood.
Unless, you know, that’s the whole reason they want to require in-person dispensing. Because they want a chance to shoot their shot with abortion patients before they go through with it.
The upsurge in home-setting chemical abortions has serious implications for the Safe Drinking Water Act. The metabolites in mifepristone and its approved generics remain active post-excretion, meaning they “retain [their] considerable affinity toward the human progesterone and glucocorticoid receptors” after disposal. On top of this, conventional wastewater treatment is not designed to remove these type of contaminants, so there is strong reason to conclude that the compounds persist in both the environment and the water supply.
There is not. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, there is “no evidence that medication abortion is affecting U.S. water systems, including drinking water and aquatic wildlife.”
By design, mifepristone harms an existing pregnancy by “competitively inhibit[ing] the actions of progesterone at progesterone-receptor sites” and by “promot[ing] uterine contractions and softening of the cervix.” It follows that if mifepristone reaches sufficient concentration, pregnant women who unintentionally ingest the drug through the public water supply could be at greater risk of health complications than the general population.
It does not. First, our water treatment plants filter out the vast majority of traces of pharmaceuticals. Second, an EPA study found that it would take months to decades of a person drinking two liters of raw, untreated sewage a day to get anything close to an actual dose of any of the most commonly prescribed drugs.
Now, I would be the last to suggest that these Republican attorneys general are not drinking two liters of raw sewage a day — frankly, it would explain a lot — but if they drink enough of it to have an abortion, that seems more like a “them” problem. And they’ve probably got some others they might want to contend with first.
One of the letter’s signatories is Indiana AG Todd Rokita, who even went so far as to issue his own press release on the subject that is somehow more ignorant than the letter.
“Drug-induced abortions occurring outside of the legal, direct and personal care of a properly licensed physician are causing pain and suffering to women,” Rokita said. “Obviously, this starts with the individuals persuaded by Planned Parenthood and Big Pharma to use mifepristone to abort their pregnancies, but increasingly it extends to other women who might ingest the drug from their local water supplies.”
Literally none of that is a thing.
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There is a deep cynicism at the heart of this. The reason these people feel so comfortable with this pitch is that they think we make up concerns about the environment — like global warming, pollution, the dangers of fracking, etc. — just to hurt their feelings. So they actually believe that they are doing “turnabout is fair play.” It doesn’t matter to them that there is no scientific proof of their claims, because they don’t believe the scientific proof of ours. As far as they are concerned, we are evenly matched. They basically think that scientists make things up to hurt them so we can “get our way” on things and therefore do not see why they cannot make up their own science to hurt us and get their way on things.
But, unlike issues like global warming, pollution and fracking, there is no evidence whatsoever that any harm could possibly be caused by traces of mifepristone in water, beyond “vibes” felt by those who feel there must be. And to those people, we say just go buy a fucking Brita pitcher and call it a day, will you?
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
Very fucking related...I just submitted some photos of my car to the security people at the hotel in Las Vegas where we stayed last weekend. Seems some jagoff took exception to the anti-Trump stickers I have on my car and smashed the driver's side mirror in.
I am told that Vegas hotels have lots of cameras around, so we might catch the asshole who did this shit. Here's hoping...
wtf am I actually reading right now