Click to skip ahead: Something in the Water flags that conservatives are leaning into their abortion-in-the-water schtick. Care Crisis has a sad update about a young mother in Illinois. In the States, news from Nebraska, Virginia, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Michigan, and more. Ballot Box has news from Virginia, Pennsylvania, California, and Georgia.

Something in the Water

With Republicans ramping up attacks on mifepristone, anti-abortion activists are using the opportunity to revive one of their most batshit theories: that abortion pills are poisoning the environment and contaminating our water supply. They even claim that because women who have medication abortions flush embryonic or fetal remains, “we are drinking other people’s abortions.”

Absurd as it sounds, this isn’t a fringe argument or something we can laugh off. Abortion, Every Day has tracked the tactic for years, watching it evolve from a sparkle in Students for Life’s eyes to a campaign backed by federal lawmakers. In June, we uncovered that 25 congressional Republicans had asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to test the nation’s water supply for abortion pills. Now, according to a report from The New York Times, the EPA is actually considering it.

And let’s be clear: this isn’t just about abortion. Anti-choice groups also want Republicans to test the groundwater for birth control and hormones used in gender-affirming care—a chilling call for surveillance in a moment when women are already being arrested for their pregnancy outcomes. (According to sources who spoke to the Times, wastewater testing could even “identify a particular street or home where the pills were used.”)

The strategy has always been about punishment: anti-abortion activists have pressed the FDA to require women who self-manage their abortions bag up their blood and pregnancy remains, bringing it back to the doctor’s office as hazardous waste. Republicans also introduced federal legislation—backed by Students for Life and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America—that would make it a crime for abortion patients to flush fetal remains. Never mind that waterways can’t distinguish between the remains from an abortion and those from a miscarriage—conservatives are only interested in targeting the former.

Almost like this was never about the environment at all.

And remember, this abortion-in-the-water theory sprang up right around the same time Students for Life conducted polling that found young people—who are overwhelmingly pro-choice—care deeply about the environment. Vice president Kristi Hamrick told one audience that focusing on the environment wasn’t her “first weapon of choice.” But, she added, “environmental law has teeth…and frankly, I’m for using the devil’s own tools against them.”

Once MAHA happened—along with RFK Jr’s rise, conspiracy theories about ‘toxins’, and a new pro-natalist White House—the movement shifted focus, claiming abortion pills in the water make women infertile. And that’s exactly what GOP lawmakers brought up in their letter to the EPA.

Now, as Republican senators pressure the FDA to roll back approval of mifepristone, anti-abortion organizations are back at it: Liberty Counsel Action is blasting the agency over its approval of generic mifepristone, calling the medication “an environmental pollutant.” And Students for Life has refiled citizen petitions against the drug based on “medical waste requirements,” “environmental protection,” and “clean water.”

At The Federalist today, Hamrick also lays into the FDA for their upcoming ‘safety review’ of mifepristone, writing that “the failures in the process include absolute neglect of abortion water pollution.”

All of which is to say: they’re going all in on this. It’s ridiculous and not even remotely based in reality—but we have to prepare to fight back against it anyway. Learn more below:

Care Crisis

Last week, we told you about Harmonie—an Illinois woman refused timely treatment for her ectopic pregnancy by an OBGYN affiliated with a Catholic hospital. Harmonie—who already lost a fallopian tube from a previous ectopic pregnancy, and was terrified of dying—had to go to multiple clinics and hospitals before she was able to get the care she needed.

We’re very sorry to report that despite eventually getting help, it was too late: the 28-year-old had to have her second fallopian tube removed this weekend. If you’d like to leave some words of support, consider leaving a kind comment on her most recent video. (And don’t worry, we’ve connected her with organizations that are helping.)

Let’s be frank: this is obscene. The fact that religiously-affiliated hospitals are regularly denying women care—under the guise of protecting ‘life’, no less—is disgusting. And that these hospital systems are proliferating across the country should seriously alarm all of us, no matter where we live.

In the States

The legislative session hasn’t even started, and Nebraska state Sen. Rick Holdcroft is already throwing a hissyfit over abortion—accusing the Department of Health and Human Services of being “totally ineffective” in overseeing clinics. What he’s really peeved about, of course, is that the DHHS hasn’t shut any clinics down.

That’s why he’s calling for an interim study on the “quality of patient services” at Nebraska’s clinics and whether the state’s current oversight is adequate. He’s doing what most Republicans do when abortion is even nominally available: trying to make it impossible for clinics to operate.

Holdcroft is also pushing a bill that would force medically unnecessary in-person appointments, both before and after taking abortion pills.

Something notable: an attorney from the Thomas More Society testified at Holdcroft’s hearing this week. Senior counsel Matthew Heffron even slammed the DHHS in a release, saying “this hearing is essential to force accountability…laws protecting life must mean something.”

The Thomas More Society is a powerhouse conservative legal group behind all sorts of anti-abortion lawsuits and legislation—so as you can imagine, we keep a close eye when one of these guys shows up in a room. We’ll let you know if anything interesting happens.

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Meanwhile, don’t let the mundanity of local zoning laws conceal anti-abortion activists’ latest strategy to shutter clinics. We told you last week that the Lynchburg City Council in Virginia is advancing an ordinance to prevent clinics from operating within a thousand feet of churches, public libraries, schools, parks, children’s museums, and day care centers. If you’d like to learn more, listen to Virginia Public Radio’s latest segment; we expect to see lots more local moves like this, especially in pro-choice states.

Speaking of Republicans pushing policies that fly in the face of pro-choice law: A medical ethics expert testified in Kansas last week that