Editorial Excerpts, September 2026
Published: September 8, 2026
The global fall in fertility rates has arrived faster and spread further than anticipated. Two-thirds of people now live in countries that have slipped below the replacement rate […].
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There are reasons to celebrate the shift. People have fewer children when they expect their babies to survive. The sub-Saharan African countries that lead fertility tables with around 6 births per woman, such as Chad and Somalia, also lead child mortality tables. Women’s education and their economic and social empowerment also cut birthrates. The UN now predicts that the global population will rise by around 2 billion, to peak at 10.3 billion in the 2080s — sooner than expected a decade ago. That may not have much impact in easing global heating, but it could help reduce competition for resources.
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Just as Africa’s population boom does not guarantee prosperity, so the impact of falls will depend on how they are managed. Countries must wrestle with profound social and political questions, including whether they are willing to accept and able to attract migrants; whether domestic political systems need to be redrawn as national populations are reshaped; and whether young people see a social contract worth sustaining. Governments should focus on understanding how their populations are changing, and preparing for that, rather than making futile attempts to reverse the decline.
— The Guardian, June 16, 2026
Republican attorneys general from 14 states […] sent a letter to the US Environmental Protection Agency earlier this month demanding action on what they warn is “a growing threat to the country’s waterways.”
So what gives? Has America’s staunchly pro-industrial party suddenly become a bunch of tree huggers? No. The attorneys general’s EPA gambit is an all-too-obvious head-fake in service to a more familiar goal: denying reproductive rights to women.
The letter claims, without evidence, that the abortion-inducing drug mifepristone poses an environmental threat and potential health hazards because trace amounts of it end up in wastewater after women use it for medication-induced abortions. It asks the EPA to classify it as a potential contaminant, which could ultimately lead to restricting or banning it.
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The letter — which is presented on Hanaway’s official stationary as Missouri’s attorney general — states that the AGs are motivated to “protect women from the harms associated with mifepristone.”
In fact, medication abortion, which by definition is used very early in pregnancy, is by far the safest form of abortion. Restricting medication abortion would very likely create more health hazards for women seeking abortions by forcing them to turn to more invasive medical procedures.
– St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 16, 2026