“You don’t have to be pro-life to want clean drinking water,” said SFLA’s Kristan Hawkins. “Neglecting abortion water pollution to protect the Democrats’ favorite donors, Planned Parenthood & Chemical Abortion Pill pushers, represents a national crisis. In light of the more than 50 tons of human remains and tissue dumped in our waterways each year, we are calling on the Trump Administration to do the work that’s never been done: Test the Water, Go back to the Drawing Board, and Enforce the Comstock Act to stop the at-home dumping of human remains into our waterways nationwide. We’re allowing cemeteries in our sewers, a tragedy and a public health crisis all in one.”

WASHINGTON D.C. (07-23-2025) – As agency officials at Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) say that a review of Chemical Abortion Pill policy is underway, Students for Life of America (SFLA) President Kristan Hawkins called for an immediate response to a new report, indicating significant increases in Abortion Water Pollution as a result of Chemical Abortion Pill policy. 

Hawkins observed, “Other than the abortion industry, can you name another business allowed to dump its waste, including pathological medical waste, into our waterways with the lazy assurance that if someone else can prove it’s a problem, they might stop. We are asking the Trump Administration to courageously go where no Democratic Party President has gone before – back to the drawing board for a real, scientific inquiry.”

Since 2018, SFLA has been first in calling attention to the horrors of abortion water pollution, made possible by the No-Test, Online Distribution of Chemical Abortion Pills. SFLA’s Five Citizen Petitions to the FDA address the negligence of the policy, developed to make it easier for Chemical Abortion Pill pushers to sell their deadly “product.”

LEARN MORE: Students for Life Action Calls on FDA Commissioner Nominee to Address the Weaponized Agency that Pushed Chemical Abortion Pills over Patient Safety – both Mother & Preborn Child

“Students for Life will soon release a peer-reviewed study of what is in the water,” noted Hawkins. “But the question must be asked, why did we need to do it in the first place? Our federal government did not seek ‘Gold-Standard Science’ when they allowed human remains to be treated as garbage to be flushed away. When you consider that we’re told to not flush goldfish, flushing human beings can be seen as the horror it is. Hospitals and brick-and-mortar abortion vendors can’t dump their medical waste in this way. And yet, the No-Test, Online Distribution of Chemical Abortion Pills gives a de facto permission to abortion vendors to do what no other medical vendor can – dump chemically tainted blood, placenta tissue, and human remains into our waterways. This new data shows why so many state legislators, as well as members of Congress, are creatively addressing the horrors of Chemical Abortion Pills.” 

THE REPORT: Abortion Water Pollution Measured in TONS

BACKGROUND: When Chemical Abortion Pills were first brought on the market by President Clinton’s manipulation and pressure, the FDA accepted a 1996 Environmental Assessment from the Population Council, the group that stood to profit from the drugs. The way the pills were monitored and distributed was very different when it was first approved by the FDA in 2000, and the abortion profiteer asserted that the only real environmental issue to consider was littering of the packaging. Five times since then, as the health and safety standards were adjusted, the FDA has ignored its responsibility to prove that a change in policy does not hurt the environment.

SFLA has raised those issues in our five Citizen Petitions to the FDA, pointing out the negligence of those fast-tracking Chemical Abortion Pills, but we’ve gone even further. Though the federal government SHOULD be doing water testing, we are doing it for them.

A peer-reviewed study will be released later in 2025, as Students for Life has done the work that three Democratic Presidents failed to do. Our study of a few key cities will be the first of its kind, and the reason for that is clear when you understand more about the bulk of the chemically tainted blood, placenta tissue, and human remains flushed into our waterways. 

THE MATH ON CHEMICALLY TAINTED PLACENTA + BABY REMAINS IN THE WATER EACH YEAR:
DEATH MEASURED IN TONS

Women are usually able to gain access to Chemical Abortion Pills up to 10 to 12 weeks into pregnancy, but we know the pills are sometimes used much later in pregnancy, putting our new reported number at the conservative end of estimates.  

A baby at 12 weeks is approximately half an ounce in weight, up to 2.25 inches in length.  The placenta at this stage is around 2 ounces. Chemical abortionists advise women to be near a toilet when they have taken the pill and made the decision to end the baby’s life.  Unfortunately, 642,700 mothers made this choice in one year, according to Planned Parenthood in 2025. 

That means (2.5 ounces x 642,700 =) an estimated 1,606,750 ounces of fetal remains were flushed into our drinking water. Converting ounces to tons, the total equals 50.21 tons of placenta tissue and human remains. 

Think about that: The abortion industry’s favorite think tank says more than 50.21 TONS of placenta tissue and broken bodies are flushed into our waterways.

For a point of comparison, the average car weighs 1.4 tons. But when it comes to the inhumane flushing of human beings, we would argue that 50+ tons is a conservative estimate, as babies are aborted later in pregnancy. 

In addition, the number of Chemical Abortion Pill deaths is a LOW estimate when you look at other countries. While America lacks a national abortion reporting law, nations that do track Chemical Abortion Pill deaths say that 7 in 10 or 8 in 10 abortions are committed with the deadly drugs. In Finland, Sweden, and Norway, for example, more than 9 in 10 precious lives deliberately ended in the womb are destroyed with Chemical Abortion Pills. 

SFLA’s estimate is that at least 8 in 10 abortions in the U.S. are likely committed with Chemical Abortion Pills. In 2024, the Planned Parenthood-founded Guttmacher Institute estimated that 1,048,710 abortions took place. If 80% of those were committed with pills, that would be more than 838,968 abortions, which would mean that a more accurate assessment of the tons of pathological medical waste in the water is more than 65.5 tons. 

As SFLA/SFLAction have raised this obvious problem, so-called experts have tried to argue that it’s not a problem. Our response: you show us your study, we’ll show you ours. Our federal government has so far failed to conduct the required testing.

In fact, the left-leaning PolitiFact tried to take us on to debunk our concerns and walked away with platitudes about abortion.

In our response to PolitiFact’s article in 2023, Hawkins noted: “The lack of U.S. evidence that we flagged as a problem from day one of this project isn’t absolution; it’s the sign of failure by the FDA … While the article jumps wildly in its discussion from topic to topic, their basic finding was that Americans don’t need to worry about environmental harms because we have no U.S. tests to consult. So, let’s get that testing done. Lack of evidence is the problem, not the excuse for more government-sanctioned dumping of pathological medical waste.”

For  interviews, email: [email protected]

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The Pro-Life Generation (PLG) is an umbrella organization encompassing the most-cutting edge engagement opportunities for a Vote Pro-Life First Community. PLG includes Students for Life Action (SFLAction), a 501c4, along with its 501c3 sister organization, Students for Life of America (SFLA), that together make up the nation’s largest, pro-life youth organization, managing a grassroots political and policy operation engaging Americans of all ages but with a special emphasis on the largest segment of voters — the Youth Vote. Headquartered in Fredericksburg, VA, PLG/SFLA/SFLAction serves more than 1,500 groups on middle, high school, college, medical, and law school campuses in all 50 states. Our team has more conversations with this generation targeted by the abortion lobby than any other pro-life operation in the world, each week reaching more than 4 million across social media platforms and averaging 1.3 million video views. In addition to SFLA/SFLAction, PLG leads multiple initiatives to lead and serve the future of the pro-life movement including the Campaign for Abortion Free Cities, Standing With You, and the Demetree Institute for Pro-Life.