Yes, abortion pills are harmful to women and unborn children. We're pro-life. But when you take an honest look at the evidence, there is no evidence that abortion pills are poisoning our wastewater.
This episode includes a visual slideshow, and can be viewed at our YouTube channel here:
https://youtu.be/i5pSzvfwE5U
Content warning: If you have experienced pregnancy loss, this may not be the episode for you. There’s an inherent graphic nature to the kinds of claims we’re offering factual and philosophical arguments against. While we kept the conversation as tame as possible, we know this is a very difficult subject for people who have lost one or more children, so please take care and pay attention to your body if you choose to listen to this episode.
Secular Pro-Life’s Monica Snyder joins Josh, Emily, and Rebecca to discuss the relatively recent argument from certain pro-life organizations that abortion pills and/or embryonic remains are poisoning our wastewater. We consider and respond to the strongest arguments for this claim and address the real harm this can have on people who have experienced miscarriage.
Related Links:
Secular Pro-Life: Are abortion pills harming the environment?
https://secularprolife.org/2025/07/are-abortion-pills-harming-the-environment
Secular Pro-Life’s proposed miscarriage remains protocol:
https://secularprolife.org/disposition-protocol
FDA letter calculating risk of mifepristone:
The fish study:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0166445X19305004?via%3Dihub
Chapters:
0:00: Welcome Monica Snyder from Secular Pro-Life
1:08: Introducing today's topic: abortion pills, the environment, and our wastewater
3:57: The strongest arguments that abortion pills are harmful to the environment
23:50: Responding to embryonic/fetal remains going into our wastewater
35:18: Responding to Mifepristone going into our wastewater
43:12: The FDA/EPA's letter
49:11: How does this conversation affect people who have experienced miscarriage?
Hosts: Josh Brahm, Emily Geiger, Rebecca Carlson
Guest: Monica Snyder
Audio/Video Editors: Josh Brahm, Joshua Head
Publisher: Ellen Campbell
