Health Care

Lawmakers revive strategy to restrict abortion access through water contamination claims

The approach has divided abortion-rights opponents.
Bottles of the drug misoprostol sit on a table at the West Alabama Women’s Center on Tuesday, March 15, 2022 in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

Lawmakers seeking to restrict access to abortion medication are reviving a strategy that has so far failed to gain traction in the states: holding drug manufacturers liable for alleged contamination of public water systems.

A bill introduced in Wisconsin in December and legislation expected soon in West Virginia argue that traces of abortion drugs in wastewater pose an environmental and public health threat. The approach, promoted by a national anti-abortion group, has divided abortion-rights opponents, and similar bills have repeatedly stalled amid questions about science, cost and enforcement.

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