US Supreme Court rejects bid to restrict access to abortion pill mifepristone

Published

1 year ago

June 13, 2024

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Americans will still be able to buy an abortion pill after the US Supreme Court threw out a bid by campaign groups to restrict access to it.

The decision was made by the same court that two years ago overturned Roe v Wade – which had previously given women rights to terminate a pregnancy.

The drug – mifepristone – was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in September 2000 for medical termination up to seven weeks into pregnancy, extended to 10 weeks in 2016.

It was ruled the plaintiffs behind the lawsuit challenging mifepristone lacked the necessary legal standing to pursue the case, which required they show they have been harmed in a way that can be traced to the FDA.

The plaintiffs wanted an end to rules introduced in 2016 and 2021 that permitted medication abortions at up to 10 weeks of pregnancy instead of seven, and for mail delivery of the drug without a woman first seeing a doctor in-person.

The suit initially had sought to reverse FDA approval of mifepristone, but that aspect was thrown out by a lower court.

Mifepristone is taken with another drug called misoprostol to perform medication abortions – now the most common method of terminating pregnancies in the US.

Read more: Why were there calls to ban abortion drug?

The FDA said that after decades of use by millions of women in the US and around the world, mifepristone has proven “extremely safe” and that studies have demonstrated that “serious adverse events are exceedingly rare”.

The plaintiffs, known as the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, argued the FDA acted contrary to its mandate to ensure medications are safe when it eased the restrictions on mifepristone.

They also accused the administration of violating a federal law governing the actions of regulatory agencies.

US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk broadly sided with them in a 2023 decision that would have effectively pulled the pill off the market.

Analysis: Abortion pill decision offers some respite from complicated patchwork of laws

By Sarah Gough, US producer

Pro-choice campaigners breathed a sigh of relief following the news the Supreme Court will not limit access to medication abortion.

The fight for mifepristone was one of the latest attempts by anti-abortion groups to restrict access to reproductive rights in America following the overturn of Roe v Wade in 2022.

The pill gives much-needed access to abortion care to those who do not yet need to undergo a procedure to terminate their pregnancy. This decision means mifepristone can still be accessed over the counter and through the post with a prescription.

The drug was approved by the FDA more than 20 years ago and has been considered safe ever since. The fact its safety was ever called into question was egregious to many doctors, and women who’d taken the drug, across the country.

It was a unanimous ruling to throw this case out. Unanimous decisions are not something we usually see at the Supreme Court, given the right-wing majority sitting on the bench. However, this was a ruling about how the case was brought, not a moral opinion on whether the abortion pill is necessary or not.

Despite the win for pro-choice groups, there is constant legal wrangling across the US when it comes to abortion care.

The next most consequential upcoming case in front of the Supreme Court concerns whether emergency abortion care can be obtained in spite of abortion bans. It’s being brought out of the state of Idaho, where abortion is entirely banned with limited exceptions, and where some women who go to the emergency room with pregnancy complications are having to be airlifted to nearby states to get the care they need.

Women in restrictive states often have to act via underground methods to obtain an abortion, and doctors live in fear of making hasty, illegal decisions when it comes to reproductive healthcare. What follows is a delay in care, often for the most vulnerable.

The protection of the abortion pill provides some brief respite from a complicated and fraught patchwork of laws.

Read more on Sky News:
What’s changed since Roe v Wade decision was overturned?

However, after the FDA appealed, the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals did not go as far as Kacsmaryk but still ruled against its move to widen access to the pill.

This decision was placed on hold pending the Supreme Court’s review.

The plaintiffs said they had legal standing to sue because their member doctors would be forced to violate their consciences due to “often be called upon to treat abortion-drug complications” in emergency settings.

The Justice Department said these claims relied on an impermissibly speculative chain of events.

Following the decision, Joe Biden said in a statement: “Today’s decision does not change the fact that the fight for reproductive freedom continues.

“It does not change the fact that the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade two years ago, and women lost a fundamental freedom.

“It does not change the fact that the right for a woman to get the treatment she needs is imperiled if not impossible in many states.”

Meanwhile, Mr Trump – speaking at a campaign event – acknowledged the issue had cost Republicans and that it is too important to ignore.

The presidential hopeful said it was his preference for the decision to be made by the people and individual states.

The mifepristone dispute is not the only abortion case the Supreme Court is due to decide during this presidential election year.

It also is expected to rule by the end of June on the legality of Idaho’s strict Republican-backed abortion ban that forbids terminating a pregnancy even if necessary to protect the health of a pregnant woman facing a medical emergency.

World

Israel allows Red Cross and Egyptian teams into Gaza as search for bodies of hostages widens

Published

10 hours ago

October 26, 2025

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Israel allows Red Cross and Egyptian teams into Gaza as search for bodies of hostages widens

International teams searching for the bodies of hostages have been allowed to cross Israel’s military boundary in Gaza, according to an Israeli government spokesperson.

Hamas says it has expanded its search for the bodies of hostages in Gaza, a day after a team of Egyptian experts arrived to help retrieve them.

The team is working with the Red Cross during the search.

“Israel is aware that Hamas knows where our deceased hostages are, in fact, located. If Hamas made more of an effort,
they would be able to retrieve the remains of our hostages,” the government spokesperson said on Sunday.

The military boundary, often referred to as the “yellow line”, is a boundary for Israel Defence Forces (IDF) troops in Gaza, established by the ceasefire agreement.

The fragile ceasefire, brokered by the US, relies on Hamas returning all the remains of Israeli hostages as soon as possible, but in the past five days, no bodies have been released.

On Saturday, the Egyptian team arrived with an excavator and bulldozers to help search for bodies, as part of efforts by international mediators to make sure the ceasefire holds.

The bodies of 13 hostages remain in Gaza, with Hamas chief Khalil al Hayya saying the group has started searching in new areas on Sunday morning.

As part of the ceasefire deal, Israel agreed to give back 15 bodies of Palestinians for every body of a hostage.

Israel has now sent back the bodies of 195 Palestinians, while Hamas has returned 15 bodies of hostages.

US President Donald Trump warned he is “watching very closely” to ensure Hamas returns more bodies.

“Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now and, for some reason, they are not,” he wrote on Truth Social.

“Let’s see what they do over the next 48 hours. I am watching this very closely,” he said in his post on Saturday.

Last week, Hayya told an Egyptian media outlet that efforts to retrieve the bodies faced challenges because of the massive destruction, burying them deep underground.

On Saturday night, Israeli forces struck the central Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza for the second time in a week, according to Awda Hospital.

The IDF claimed it was targeting militants associated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group who were planning to attack Israeli troops.

Islamic Jihad, the second largest militant group in Gaza, denied it was preparing for an attack.

Hamas called the strike a “clear violation” of the ceasefire and accused Benjamin Netanyahu of attempting to sabotage President Trump’s efforts to end the war.

The strike on Saturday came hours after US secretary of state Marco Rubio left Israel.

He was the latest in a series of White House officials to visit Israel and visit a new centre for civilian and military coordination that is attempting to oversee the ceasefire.

US vice president JD Vance was in Israel earlier this week, as were American envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law.

World

Prosecutor furious as news leaks of Louvre heist gang arrests

Published

16 hours ago

October 26, 2025

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Prosecutor furious as news leaks of Louvre heist gang arrests

Two men have been arrested following a robbery at the Louvre museum in Paris which saw thieves escape with priceless jewellery, including part of the French crown jewels.

Confirming arrests had been made on Saturday night, French public prosecutor Laure Beccuau appeared furious with the way the arrests were announced.

She said: “I deeply deplore the hasty disclosure of this information by informed individuals, without consideration for the investigation.

“This revelation can only harm the investigative efforts of the hundred or so investigators involved in the search for both the stolen jewellery and all the perpetrators.”

While Ms Beccuau did not confirm the number of arrests, she said one man had been arrested as he was preparing to leave the country from Charles de Gaulle Airport.

A second man was arrested on the same evening, also in the Paris region, according to French media.

Ms Beccuau did not say whether jewels had been recovered.

Both men are originally from Seine-Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, according to French daily paper Le Parisien.

The operation is understood to have been swiftly launched after investigators, who had been monitoring the two individuals for days, realised that one of them was about to flee abroad. French media reported he was set to board a flight to Algeria.

Ms Beccuau said it was too early to provide any further details, but would say more at the end of the period of police custody.

Commenting on the arrests on social media, France’s interior minister Laurent Nunez praised the investigators for “working tirelessly” and said “the investigations must continue while respecting the confidentiality of the inquiry”.

The suspects are now in pre-trial detention as part of investigations into the “organised theft” and “criminal conspiracy to commit a crime”. They can be held for up to 96 hours.

The men are suspected of being part of the group of criminals who used a cherry picker to reach a window in the Apollo Gallery of the Louvre, smashing display cases and making off with jewels worth £76m. They fled on motorbikes.

One of the world’s most famous museums, attracting up to 30,000 visitors a day, the Louvre was forced to close last Sunday morning after thieves accessed a gallery containing the French crown jewels at around 9.30am local time (8.30am UK time).

It took them less than eight minutes to steal eight “priceless” objects, including sapphire and emerald necklaces, and a diamond brooch containing 2,438 diamonds.

A ninth item – the emerald crown of Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugenie – was stolen but recovered, damaged at the scene.

The Louvre reopened to visitors earlier this week.

Sky News has contacted French police for comment.

World

Trump oversees signing of ‘historic’ Thailand-Cambodia ceasefire deal

Published

16 hours ago

October 26, 2025

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Trump oversees signing of 'historic' Thailand-Cambodia ceasefire deal

US President Donald Trump has overseen the signing of an expanded ceasefire deal between Thailand and Cambodia, which he helped negotiate this summer to resolve their border dispute.

The ceremony took place shortly after Mr Trump arrived in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur for the ASEAN summit on Sunday, in what he described as a “momentous day”.

“There was a lot of killing. And then we got it stopped, very quickly,” he said before Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul signed the agreement.

“We did something that a lot of people said couldn’t be done,” said Mr Trump. Mr Manet called it a “historic day” and Mr Charnvirakul said the agreement creates “the building blocks for a lasting peace”.

The ceasefire agreement calls for Thailand to release 18 Cambodian soldiers in captivity and for both countries to start withdrawing heavy weapons from the border.

The US president said he had signed economic deals with both nations and was scheduled to finalise a trade agreement with Malaysia later in the day.

During the ASEAN Summit, regional leaders are expected to work on stabilising ties with the US.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and a troupe of ceremonial dancers greeted Mr Trump at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. He paused on the red carpet to dance with the performers before getting into his limousine.

Kuala Lumpur is the first stop of Mr Trump’s week-long trip to the region, which also includes visits to Japan and South Korea.

This includes a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC summit in South Korea.

Asked by a reporter whether rare earths were discussed in the US-China talks that began on Saturday, US trade negotiator Jamieson Greer said a wide range of topics were covered, including extending the trade truce.

“I believe we are reaching a point where the leaders will have a very productive meeting,” Mr Greer said.

Mr Trump is also expected to discuss tariffs with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is among the leaders attending the APEC summit.

East Timor, Asia’s youngest nation, officially became ASEAN’s 11th member on Sunday, fulfilling a vision its current president had nearly 50 years ago, when the country was still a Portuguese colony.

Also known as Timor-Leste, the nation of 1.4 million is among Asia’s poorest and hopes joining the bloc will strengthen its fledgling economy. At roughly $2bn, it represents only a small fraction of ASEAN’s combined $3.8trn GDP.