House Republicans on Wednesday introduced a bill that would require every pregnant person using abortion pills to use “catch kits” when ending their pregnancy.

The Clean Water For All Life Act, introduced by Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.), would make it illegal to flush abortion or miscarriage remains down a toilet “to protect both human dignity and America’s water systems,” according to a press release from Miller. The bill is the first of its kind to gain any national traction, though it’s unlikely to pass.

“The murder-for-profit abortion industry is not only ending innocent life, but is also polluting our water, endangering women and operating with virtually no accountability,” Miller said during a Wednesday press conference.

“The fact is, the abortion pill ingredients used to starve a pre-born child remain active and unfiltered in our water treatments,” she continued. “That means families across the nation may be unknowingly ingesting abortion-related chemicals in their drinking water, exposing them to potential health risks like infertility and cancer.”

The bill would also ban telehealth abortion care, or the ability to prescribe abortion pills via mail, and force women to use catch kits ― which stop any fetal remains from going down the toilet after ending a pregnancy ― and bring the medical waste to their physician. The penalties include a $50,000 fine and up to five years in prison.

The federal bill uses environmental protection language to push an anti-abortion agenda ― putting pressure on the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency to take action. Supporters of the bill claim that abortion medications, including mifepristone and misoprostol, are contaminating public drinking water after people flush abortion remains.

“Babies deserve better, and many of us are being exposed to abortion water pollution in our drinking water,” Kristan Hawkins, president of anti-abortion organization Students for Life of America, said in Miller’s press release.

Trace amounts of all medications, including over-the-counter drugs like ibuprofen, can be found in wastewater, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a national reproductive health research organization. But there is no scientific evidence to back up the claim that abortion pills are polluting drinking water or harming the environment.

“Federal policymakers are advancing yet another bad-faith attempt to restrict medication abortion, this time by repackaging anti-abortion misinformation as false concern about water pollutants,” Anna Bernstein, principal federal policy adviser at the Guttmacher Institute, said in a statement this week.

“There is no evidence to support the claim that medication abortion impacts U.S. waterways and drinking water,” Bernstein continued. “Rather than addressing well-documented sources of water contamination, this bill relies on false and misleading claims to further stigmatize abortion and undermine access.”

This is the most recent in a long line of attacks on abortion pills from Republicans. Since the fall of federal abortion protections in 2022, rates of abortion care have actually increased in large part because pregnant people are able to access abortion pills by mail, rather than going to a brick-and-mortar clinic.

Just last week, anti-abortion advocate Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced a bill to ban mifepristone for abortion use across the country. Once again, Hawley cited a junk science report that’s often used in right-wing circles to spread misinformation about the purported dangers of the abortion pill.

President Donald Trump has endorsed Miller multiple times, including most recently for the 2026 midterm elections. But the far-right anti-abortion arm of the Republican Party has recently fractured away from Trump. The administration is reportedly slow-walking the FDA’s review of mifepristone until after the midterm — infuriating far-right anti-abortion advocates who have called for the head of the FDA to step down. Abortion opponents are also angry with Trump after the administration moved earlier this month to dismiss multiple federal lawsuits against the abortion pill.

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