US Supreme Court preserves women’s access to abortion pill mifepristone at centre of legal fight
Women’s access to a widely used abortion pill in the US has been maintained by the Supreme Court during an ongoing legal battle over the drug.
The justices agreed to stay or pause a lower court decision imposing restrictions on the availability of mifepristone during a challenge by anti-abortion groups to its federal regulatory approval.
Mifepristone, which was licensed in 2000, is used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol, and accounts for more than half of all abortions in the US.
President Joe Biden hailed the high court for keeping the pill available while the court fight continues.
“As a result of the Supreme Court’s stay, mifepristone remains available and approved for safe and effective use while we continue this fight in the courts,” Mr Biden said in a statement.
“The stakes could not be higher for women across America. I will continue to fight politically-driven attacks on women’s health.
“But let’s be clear – the American people must continue to use their vote as their voice, and elect a Congress who will pass a law restoring the protections of Roe v Wade.”
His administration is seeking to defend mifepristone in the face of mounting abortion bans and restrictions imposed by Republican-led states since the Supreme Court in June 2022 overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision that had legalised the procedure nationwide.
Opponents argue the Federal Drug Agency (FDA) illegally approved mifepristone and then removed critical safeguards on what they describe as a dangerous drug.
Read more:
What is mifepristone and why could it be banned?
What’s changed since the landmark abortion decision was overturned?
Erik Baptist, a lawyer for the conservative religious rights group Alliance Defending Freedom said: “Our case seeking to put women’s health above politics continues on an expedited basis in the lower courts.”
Carol Tobias of National Right to Life said: “What the courts will see is a drug that does not cure a disease or alleviate the symptoms of a disease.
“It was developed to take the life of an unborn child and always has the potential to harm the mother.”
The FDA has called mifepristone safe and effective, highlighted by decades of use by millions of people, with adverse effects exceedingly rare.
Mr Biden said: “I continue to stand by FDA’s evidence-based approval of mifepristone, and my administration will continue to defend FDA’s independent, expert authority to review, approve and regulate a wide range of prescription drugs.”
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Why could abortion pill be pulled in US?
Jessica Ellsworth, a lawyer for the pill manufacturer Danco Laboratories said the Supreme Court’s decision “preserves crucial access to a drug relied on by millions of patients” after lower courts had caused “widespread chaos.”
Abortion rights groups praised the Supreme Court’s decision, but noted the case was ongoing.
The Supreme Court did not rule on the merits of the case meaning that mifepristone could still be restricted or banned at a later stage.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” said Nancy Northup of the Centre for Reproductive Rights.
Joshua Sharfstein, a public health professor at Johns Hopkins University and a former FDA official said: “It’s the right decision and a huge relief.
“The alternative would have not only undermined access to reproductive health care, it would have thrown into disarray drug regulation in the United States.”
The pop of flash bangs and the drawing of rubber bullet launchers by police sent protesters scattering down streets in downtown LA during a fourth day of demonstrations against Donald Trump’s immigration policy.
Dozens of National Guard – America’s reserve force – carrying shields and long guns, created a perimeter around a federal building as protesters angrily shouted at them.
“National Guard out of LA,” they chanted, followed by a chorus of “shame, shame, shame”.
The arrival of National Guard troops on the streets, with a total of 4,000 now deployed by President Trump against the wishes of California governor Gavin Newsom, seems to have escalated tensions.
Another 2,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines are heading to Los Angeles on orders from US President Donald Trump
First and second-generation immigrants tell Sky News they have to ‘defend’ LA
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass described her city as a “test case” for Trump usurping the authority of local governments.
The news that 700 marines were also being mobilised, ready to deploy, was viewed by Democratic politicians as not just a gross overreaction to the situation but a cynical political ploy by the White House to stoke trouble.
Trump says they are needed to restore law and order.
As it happened: 700 marines to be deployed in LA
Crowd control explosions were being deployed from the rooftops of the federal buildings towards protesters in a plaza below in a bid to disperse the crowd.
Many of those gathering are first and second-generation immigrants, mostly from Central and South America.
They are furious about the raids that took place last week. Dozens of immigrants were rounded up in LA’s garment district, an area packed with clothing wholesalers.
Read more:
What we know about the LA immigration raids and protests
Downtown LA is a scene of pandemonium and lawlessness
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Pandemonium and lawlessness on streets of LA
Bryanna Ordonez, 17, was protesting with friends. Her dad was among the 44 people arrested in the raids. He’d lived here – illegally – for more than 10 years.
“My father got deported on 6 June,” she said, holding back tears. “I’m here protesting for him and two of my uncles that were deported.
“Our parents worked so hard to get us here today just to be taken from us because they wanted us to have a better life. It’s so unfair.”
Bryanna Ordonez, 17, tells Sky News her dad was among 44 people arrested in Friday’s raids
Giovanni Garcia is from South Central LA. His mother emigrated from Mexico 26 years ago, but she only received her Green Card last year.
“Everyone says LA is an immigrant city, and it is,” says Giovanni. “You go to Chinese restaurants, they have Hispanic workers in the back.
“You know, you go to the clothing companies, they have Hispanics working. Like, this is our city, and we have to stand here and defend it.”
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As dusk fell, the crowds thinned on the streets. A remaining hardcore of demonstrators were backed into a corner of downtown LA known as Little Tokyo.
As night fell, an hours-long standoff between police and protesters took place next to a pagoda and with the backdrop of a giant mural of LA Dodgers baseball star Shohei Ohtani, before, eventually, a number of them were arrested.
LA is a city known for sporting prowess, multiculturalism and a long history of resistance movements – the immigration protests of 2025 now among them.
A shirtless man waving a Mexican flag stands atop a burning car in the heart of Los Angeles, as another man throws a traffic cone into the flames and some play drums and shout chants in opposition to immigration officials.
In the background, city hall can be glimpsed through a haze of thick black smoke.
The downtown district of one of America’s biggest cities was a scene of pandemonium and lawlessness as protests, which had previously been mainly peaceful, turned ugly.
Critics of Donald Trump said the president’s extraordinary decision to deploy National Guard troops, defying the wishes of the state’s governor, had inflamed tensions and stoked emotions.
A protester throws a cone into a burning fire in LA. Pic: Reuters/Daniel Cole
The 101 Freeway, the main highway cutting through the downtown area, was also closed down for much of the day as police and protesters faced off, with flash bang devices sending some people scattering.
Bottles and other projectiles were hurled towards police, who responded by using tear gas and rubber bullets.
It was this chaos, his critics say, that Donald Trump wanted to provoke.
California Highway Patrol officers try to dodge rocks being thrown. Pic: AP/Ethan Swope
Trump’s decision to call in 2,000 National Guard troops, several hundred of whom were on the streets of LA on Sunday, was taken without consultation with the California governor and LA mayor, and marked an extraordinary escalation by the president.
The military arrived on Sunday morning and was ordered to guard federal buildings, after two days of protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
As part of Trump’s closed border policy, ICE has been ordered to find, detain and deport as many illegal immigrants as possible, and it was these raids that stoked the first signs of protest on Friday into the weekend.
Smoke rises as the National Guard clashed with protesters in downtown Los Angeles.
Pic: Reuters/Daniel Cole
By midday Sunday, the military was surrounded by protesters outside the Metropolitan Detention Centre in downtown LA. It was here that many immigrants had been held before being shipped off to detention facilities.
The walls and floors are covered in expletive-ridden graffiti, reading f*** ICE.
The Los Angeles police soon split the crowd and drove a wedge between the National Guard and the crowd.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has called Donald Trump’s acts those of a “dictator, not a president”.
A police officer fires a soft round in Los Angeles. Pic: AP Photo/Eric Thayer
Los Angeles Metro Police officers strike protesters during unrest in the downtown area of the city.
Pic: Reuters/Daniel Cole
He’s formally requested that the Trump administration withdraw the National Guard. The White House say the military will remain there until order is restored. Five hundred marines are still on standby.
Los Angeles Police Department police chief Jim McDonnell, asked whether the National Guard was needed, said: “This thing has gotten out of control.”
He said that although the LAPD would not initially have requested assistance from the National Guard, the disorder had caused him to reevaluate his assessment.
US correspondent Martha Kelner is reporting from Los Angeles
Several people were arrested.
Sky News witnessed a young woman, who called herself Gabriella, riding her motorbike at speed towards a line of police officers.
Read more from Sky News:
Analysis: Trump deploys federal force in LA
Trump claims CA officials ‘can’t do their jobs’
One of the police officers used his arm to push her off the bike. She said she was protesting because her “people were being rounded up.”
Politicians on both sides of the aisle condemned the violence, but some vehemently disagreed about what actions led to the escalation.
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