Politico: 'Using the devil's own tools against them': Abortion opponents turn to environmental laws

[Dennis Donovan]

Politico - ‘Using the devil’s own tools against them': Abortion opponents turn to environmental laws

Several states are trying to curtail abortion medication by claiming mifepristone could contaminate drinking water.

By Ariel Wittenberg and Alice Miranda Ollstein

01/30/2025 06:00 AM EST



A cadre of red and purple states is introducing bills this week to impose restrictions on abortion pills over claims that the drugs could be contaminating drinking water.

The new legislation in Arizona, Idaho, Maine, West Virginia and Wyoming — which would require doctors who prescribe abortion pills to make their patients collect and return their expelled fetuses in medical waste bags for disposal — is the latest development in anti-abortion groups’ yearslong campaign to wield environmental laws to cut off access to the drugs.

The group leading the push, Students for Life of America, is also preparing lawsuits, federal bills and a pressure campaign aimed squarely at the environmental inclinations of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who could soon lead the health agencies that regulate access to the pills.

“This is not because the environment was my first weapon of choice — it’s because it’s the one we have now,” Kristi Hamrick, the vice president of Students for Life of America, said at the group’s annual conference on Saturday. She added that after decades of pushing for new restrictions on abortion by approaching state and federal lawmakers saying, “Please, please pass this law to help us. Pretty please with sugar on top?” she and her fellow abortion opponents landed on this strategy.

“Environmental law has teeth. It already exists,” she stressed. “And, frankly, I’m for using the devil’s own tools against them.”

/snip

[SheltieLover]

1. These freaks need to mind their own damned business!

[Timeflyer]

2. But once those fetuses are birthed, they're on their own as far as chemicals in environment. MAGA hates gov't regulation

unless it controls women's bodies.

[2naSalit]

3. That could only happen if...

Sewage is being used for drinking water.

Fucking idiots. Reminds me of that Congresscritter who was under the impression that the uterus can be accessed orally.

[Mountainguy]

5. Every drop

Of water you've ever drank was sewage at some point.

[2naSalit]

6. I question that..

Concept. If you mean that we have a closed hydrologic system on the planet that recycles itself, I would say that's partially true but not so for many of the places from which I acquired my drinking water.

[Mountainguy]

7. Its both

As you said, we have a closed system. There isn't any new water. Beyond that, there is a reason that things like antibiotics can be found in most water samples taken. Sewage is treated and recycled into surface water that filters to groundwater. Both are used for drinking.

[2naSalit]

8. Except when...

You live in the mountains and have water coming out of a volcano or has an underground lifespan of 10,000 years like that in the SRP aquifer. Just a couple examples of non-surface groundwater. But there aren't that many of us who have that available.

[Mountainguy]

9. And 500 million years

Of pee.

It was all excreted at some point.

[2naSalit]

10. Doesn't really...

Matter at that point.

[RJ-MacReady]

4. nonsense

Any and all restrictions placed on the pill MUST be outright ignored by blue states. Not only ignored but ignored openly.