The EPA is launching a wide screening of city water supplies for contaminants, a worrying development for anyone relying on tap water.

• The agency will test water in multiple metro areas against a list of more than 1,400 possible contaminants, including pesticides, forever chemicals, and hundreds of drugs.
• Two of those are the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol, which an outside medical journal study already reported finding in upstream, downstream, and tap water samples.
• The likely route is ordinary: most abortions are now done with pills taken at home, and the drugs leave the body in waste or get flushed when unused instead of being treated as hazardous waste.
• These drugs interfere with hormones, raising concerns about fertility and miscarriage risk for people who never took them — though there is no long-term research on low-level exposure.
• Water treatment plants say they handle it, but independent testing keeps finding leftover chemicals, and home filters good enough to remove them cost more than most families can pay.

Outlook: Expect pressure on local and state water authorities to expand testing and disposal rules, with real answers on health effects still years away.