‘Without a copay?!?!’: Pro-choice women film themselves guzzling water after right-wing group claims drinking supply spiked with abortion pills
A pro-choice organization has the internet cracking up over an anti-choice group's false and bizarre claim that America's drinking water is contaminated with abortion pills.
The anti-choice Students for Life of America is on a mission to end reproductive freedom. The group has recently taken its battle to an unprecedented front: tap water.
In a TikTok posted last month, Student for Life claimed that the abortion pill is "poisoning America's water." It complained that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hasn't done a water study to see if the ingredients in abortion pills are contaminating the water supply.
"If you care about the environment, like at all, it's time to tell the FDA, do the study and remove these drugs from the market," Students for Life asserted in the TikTok.
PolitiFact reports that there is no evidence that abortion pills are getting into the water supply. It's also noteworthy that the Environmental Protection Agency and local water utilities test the nation's drinking water, not the FDA.
When it posted the TikTok, Students for Life got a little bit of blowback from people who called it a "stretch" and accused the group of fear-mongering. But engagement was relatively low until Abortion Access Front got a hold of the video.
Over the weekend, the pro-choice group posted a TikTok featuring a montage of people satirizing the claim about abortion pills in the water.
One woman in the TikTok chugs water from a hose. Turning to the camera with water running down her face and chest, she says, "Don't judge me, the condom broke."
This is followed by Abortion Access Front founder Lizz Winstead cleaning her teeth with a water flosser. Winnstead gazes into the mirror and says to herself soothingly, "Nooo fetuses."
Winstead, who also cohosts the pro-choice woman organization's weekly podcast, Feminist Buzzkills Live!, later poses as a restaurant worker. "Can I start you out with some still, sparkling, or abortion water?" she says, facing the camera.
"Do you have sparkling abortion water?" she replies, playing the role of the customer.
Another woman tells the camera, "That's why I drink L'Abortion. From the harbors of Cold Spring with just a hint of abortion," smiling widely before taking a sip of a can with a fake label that reads "L'Abortion" and "mifepristone," the name of one of the drugs used for medication abortions.
@abortionfront Don’t worry, there are no ab0rtion pills in the WATER SUPPLY! #abortion #abortionrights #fyp #reproductivejustice #reprorights #activism ♬ original sound - Abortion Access Front
Abortion Access Front's TikTok concludes with a message: "Don't worry, there are no abortion pills in your tap water. Just liars on your phone."
The TikTok quickly went viral. As of this writing, it's been viewed over 1.6 million times. People think it's hilarious.
Many commenters made jokes of their own, such as that it would be a lot more affordable if you could simply drink tap water to terminate a pregnancy.
"Without a copay?!?!" wrote one.
Another quipped, "I was extremely dehydrated anyway."
Abortion Access Front's post also inspired a comment party on Students for Life's TikTok.
"Damn, tap water never helped yeet my three or the one I had surgically removed," wrote one. "Darn."
Winstead, who founded Abortion Access Front under the name Lady Parts Justice nearly a decade ago, said that making people laugh helps spread the message. (Abortion Access Front changed its name to be more inclusive.) Winstead believes that using humor to discuss abortion rights, which can be depressing in an era when reproductive freedom is under assault, keeps people engaged.
"I co-created The Daily Show and I watched how you take topics on and expose hypocrisy through humor. If you do it well and you hold no prisoners, you become a super reliable narrator," Winstead told the Daily Dot on Wednesday.
"If you’re laughing, you’re not giving up hope," she added.
In addition to TikToks, comedy shows, and the podcast, Abortion Access Front provides information and resources on how people can advocate for abortion rights. Its website, where it now sells "L'Abortion" shirts, also notes that abortion clinics often sound the alarm about assaults on reproductive rights.
"We take a lot of the stress off of the clinics: we sound the alarm; we correct the science and shut down lies; and we make sure that the clinics receive support as they provide the care to patients.
Winstead pointed to Texas legislation that would require companies to label food that contains fetal tissue.
There is no food on the market in America that contains human tissue—fetal or otherwise—but the false claim persists.
"America no longer runs on Dunkin, it runs on the uterine linings of people from abortion clinics," Winstead joked of the conspiracy theory.
While the anti-choice side provides plenty of fodder for comedy, fighting for abortion rights is a serious business.
"We want people to stay engaged and stay informed and not burn out, because the other side is counting on our apathy and I would like to leave them wildly disappointed," Winstead said.
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