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