TOPEKA — Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach called for the classification of mifepristone, an abortion medication, as a water contaminant in a June 5 letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency despite his past efforts to decrease water contaminant regulation.
Mifepristone is a part of a two-drug prescription regimen to terminate a pregnancy through 10 weeks. It is safe, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The letter, signed by 14 Republican state attorneys general, including Kobach, said after mifepristone is ingested and processed through women’s bodies, the drug’s chemical compounds contaminate the water supply.
Kansas Reflector talked to Kobach’s spokeswoman by phone and followed up by text but did not receive a comment.
Zack Pistora, the director of environmental organization Kansas Sierra Club, said Kobach’s interest in water safety is unusual.
“It’s curious to see this concern pop up,” Pistora said, “as we have felt and seen that our attorney general and the EPA have largely been ignoring the more pressing concerns in water and protecting public health, and been calling for reducing regulations and safeguards.”
In February 2024, Kobach led a coalition joined by 14 Republican state attorneys general to oppose an EPA regulation to replace lead pipes to reduce lead contamination in drinking water.
The coalition was unsuccessful. The EPA under the Biden administration required replacement of lead pipes within 10 years and announced $27.7 million in funding for Kansas to do so in October 2024. The EPA made another announcement for $53 million in May.
Pistora said the Kansas Sierra Club has not heard of mifepristone as a water safety issue from the scientific or public health communities. He is mainly concerned with nitrates from agricultural pollution and depleting water in western Kansas.
Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said the letter is not about water safety but restricting abortion.
“Kansans deserve better than politicians manufacturing new excuses to interfere in private medical decisions just because they oppose access to abortion and refuse to respect people’s ability to make their own healthcare decisions,” she said in an email.
Mackenzie Ayers, a spokeswoman for anti-abortion organization Kansans for Life, agreed with Kobach’s concerns.
“Everyone who drinks water should expect and demand full governmental review and transparency about potential dangers abortion chemicals pose to the environment and all of us,” she said in an email.
Experts have said there is no evidence that mifepristone harms water or the environment.