How Water Became the Next Front in the Battle over Abortion

In the U.S., El Niño can lead to increased tornados in the Midwest and East, while the Northwest and northern Rockies could be drier. In other parts of the world, there could be drought in the Amazon, Australia, and Indonesia, and shifting rainfall patterns in India and the tropics.

For ocean ecosystems, marine heat waves driven by El Niño can severely impact coral reefs and seagrass meadows, as well as create dangerous algal blooms and lead to mammal strandings. Dillon Amaya, a scientist with NOAA, writes in The Conversation, citing a study from 2023, that heat waves can make fish feel like they’re running a marathon. They increase their metabolism to the point they burn energy faster than they can consume it and die.

The impacts are also felt on the seafloor of coastal areas, putting much stress on species like crabs, scallops, and lobster. These heat waves at the bottom can linger months after sea surface temperatures have cooled.

Scientists at NOAA are saying that there is a 63 percent chance that this year’s El Niño will exceed the 3.6 F mark and become what some call a “super" El Niño. There is no evidence that climate change increases the frequency or intensity of El Niños, but they do release extra heat into the atmosphere, leading to more global heating.

Now, a group of Republicans is taking a different tactic to end access to this drug by alleging it harms water. Attorneys general from 14 states and 19 Republicans in Congress are asking the EPA to classify Mifepristone as a water contaminant. The two groups sent letters to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, claiming that metabolites in the drug stay active after they are excreted, persist in the water supply and the environment, and are a growing threat to the country’s waterways. 

However, as Stateline reports, health experts say there is no evidence that the drug in wastewater causes harm to humans or the environment. According to the Center for Biological Diversity’s website, there’s no evidence that medication abortion is affecting the country’s water systems, including drinking water and aquatic wildlife. 

The current effort is not the first time that this water contamination tactic has been used. According to the Guttmacher Institute, last year, anti-abortion lawmakers introduced bills in seven states to target medication abortion using deceptive claims about water pollution. 

These efforts are made at a time when hazards to water from pesticides and PFAS (also known as "Forever Chemicals") are being ignored by EPA. Just last month, the agency said it would drop limits on PFAS compounds, which have been linked to kidney cancer, immune system harm, and developmental delays in babies and children.

The park, located along the Texas-Mexico border, encompasses the largest protected area of the Chihuahuan Desert and includes 118 miles of the Rio Grande River with natural walls taller than the Empire State Building, so hardly an ideal place to sneak across the border. 

In fact, according to Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, in fiscal year 2025, apprehensions by Border Patrol in the Big Bend sector accounted for just 1.3 percent of the total recorded across the entire U.S.-Mexico border.

That didn’t stop Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin issuing a decision on Monday, June 8, waiving over 24 federal conservation, environmental, and resource protection laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Migratory Bird Conservation Act, among others to speed up construction of roads, and potentially, a 30-foot-high steel wall along the river. 

Locals and environmental groups reacted with outrage, saying border infrastructure poses a risk to the region's wildlife, dark skies, and tourist economy. They say the wall would sever wildlife migration routes and heighten flood risk. The Big Bend area is also home to several endangered species and numerous petroglyphs. 

Conservation groups led by the Center for Biological Diversity amended a previous lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to challenge what it calls an unconstitutional waiver. On June 10, a proposal that would have prevented the Department of Homeland Security’s budget from being used to construct barriers within the park died in the U.S. House Appropriations Committee on a party-line vote.

Now, an innovation developed by the University of Texas has your back. They’ve developed a jacket that uses a specially engineered hydrogel fabric made from biomass-derived material to collect water vapor from the air. It then takes that moisture and funnels it to detachable harvesting units that are heated by sunlight to produce water. 

Compared with conventional water-harvesting materials, the textile showed a three- to ten-fold improvement at scale, producing between 400 and 900 milliliters or about 14 to 30 ounces of drinkable water per day, depending on humidity levels.

The team says the jacket would perform best in many of the world’s most water-stressed areas, including parts of North Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. That makes this technology especially promising for remote communities, emergency responders, and other settings where conventional water systems are difficult to build or maintain.

The researchers say there’s also potential to use the fabric for backpacks or tents, which could be deployed during disaster response. So, perhaps they could call the material a “life jacket”?

The study was published in the journal Science Advances.