Tear gas has unknown effects on the reproductive system, but some have linked it to miscarriages.
On May 31, a Black pregnant woman in Austin said she was shot by police in the abdomen with rubber bullets. That same day, the Colorado Doula Project shared a post on Instagram about other potential dangers to pregnant protesters. “Tear gas is an abortifacient,” the post read, explaining that the chemical has been linked to higher rates of miscarriage and stillbirth. Rodriguez’s post quickly made its way onto Twitter, where protesters like Stewart began sharing the reproductive health impacts that they had felt after exposure to tear gas. Some tweeted about breakthrough bleeding despite their use of IUDs; other trans people shared that despite taking testosterone, they were having periods as well.
Since the Black Lives Matter protests began, police have deployed tear gas in 100 American cities. Watchdog groups, activists, and public officials have raised concerns about the safety of tear gas, a compound banned for use in wartime by the Geneva Convention, especially as the United States grapples with the effects of a respiratory pandemic. Although research is limited, some have suggested that tear gas may also be linked to higher rates of miscarriage, and anecdotal evidence has suggested it may induce cause changes in menstruation, though there’s not enough research to definitively prove that. For many Black protesters on the frontlines of demonstrations, the use of chemical weapons is not only a reminder of the police violence they are protesting against, but of a long legacy of state violence in their reproductive lives.
Public health researchers have been studying the reproductive health impacts of tear gas since at least the 1980s. In 1987, Physicians for Human Rights raised concerns about the unknown impact of tear gas on fertility in South Korea and in 1988, a United Nations spokesperson said that Israeli use of tear gas, sold by the United States, had caused several Palestinian women to miscarry. Most recently, in 2012, Physicians for Human Rights documented cases of miscarriage that were potentially linked to tear gas exposure in Bahrain.
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