US Supreme Court rejects bid to restrict access to abortion pill mifepristone
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?
Anti-abortion activists outside the Supreme Court in April 2023. Pic: Reuters
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.
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.”
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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
IS flag linked to deadly New Orleans attack is stark reminder dangerous extremist Islamist ideology never went away
An Islamic State flag attached to the pickup truck used to kill and injure dozens of people in New Orleans is a grim reminder of the persistent threat posed by Islamist extremism.
Investigators are rushing to understand why Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, the US citizen and army veteran who is suspected of carrying out the atrocity in the early hours of New Year’s Day, appears to have been inspired by the terrorist group, also known as ISIS.
A key question will be establishing whether he was self-radicalised by the terrorist group’s extreme ideology – or whether there was any kind of direction or enabling from actual IS members or other radicalised individuals.
The FBI initially said they did not believe the man, who was killed in a shootout with police after ploughing his rental truck into his victims in one of the United States’ worst acts of terrorism, had acted alone.
Latest updates on New Orleans attack
But President Joe Biden later said that the “situation is very fluid”, and with the investigation continuing, “no one should jump to conclusions”.
He also revealed that the suspect had posted videos on social media mere hours before the attack indicating that he “was inspired by ISIS”.
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President Joe Biden said Jabbar was ‘inspired by ISIS’
Whatever caused Jabbar to commit such carnage, his murderous rampage and the use of the IS flag underline the danger still posed by extremist Islamist ideology five years after the physical dismantling of Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar. Pic: FBI
Read more:
What we know about suspect
Teenage girl and graduate of Princeton University among first victims named
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President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly described how his administration “defeated ISIS” during his first term as president.
It is true that the US-led coalition against Islamic State helped Iraqi and Syrian Kurdish forces recapture swathes of territory that had fallen under IS control.
The US military also carried out a raid in October 2019 that killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the then head of Islamic State.
Pic: AP
But his extremist ideology that drove tens of thousands of fighters to pledge their allegiance to Islamic State – carrying out horrific acts of murder, torture and kidnap of anyone who did not follow their warped interpretation of Sunni Islam – has never gone away.
Many of the group’s fighters have been captured and are held in camps and detention centres in northern Syria, but their fate is looking increasingly uncertain following the collapse of the regime of Bashar al-Assad at the hands of another Sunni Islamist militant group called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which was once aligned with Islamic State.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, the HTS leader turned de facto ruler of Syria, has sought to distance his group from their past links with Islamist extremism.
But HTS is still considered a terrorist entity by the UK, the US and other western powers.
Experts fear that events in Syria may inspire sympathisers and supporters of Islamic State across the world to carry out new attacks.
It is far too soon to link specific events like the toppling of the Assad regime to the bloodshed on the streets of New Orleans.
But security officials, including the head of MI5, have long been warning about a resurgent threat from Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
In a speech in October, Ken McCallum spelt out the terrorist trend that concerns him most: “The worsening threat from al-Qaeda and in particular from Islamic State”.
A Holocaust survivor and the oldest living Olympic medal winner has died at the age of 103.
Agnes Keleti died on Thursday morning in Budapest after she was hospitalised with pneumonia on Christmas Day, the Hungarian state news agency reported.
Regarded as one of the most successful Jewish Olympic athletes, Ms Keleti won 10 medals in gymnastics, including five golds, for Hungary at the 1952 Helsinki Games and the 1956 Melbourne Games.
When celebrating her 100th birthday, she said: “These 100 years felt to me like 60. I live well. And I love life. It’s great that I’m still healthy.”
Ms Keleti celebrating her 100th birthday. Pic: AP
Born Agnes Klein in 1921 in Budapest, her career was interrupted by the Second World War and the cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Olympics.
Ms Keleti was forced off her gymnastics team in 1941 due to her Jewish ancestry.
She later went into hiding in the Hungarian countryside, where she survived the Holocaust by assuming a false identity and working as a maid.
Her mother and sister survived the war with the help of famed Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, but her father and other relatives died at Auschwitz concentration camp.
More than half a million Hungarian Jews were murdered in Nazi death camps and by Hungarian Nazi collaborators during the war.
Read more from Sky News:
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Two children among 12 killed in shootout after bar fight
Ms Keleti with her five gold medals. Pic: AP
After the war, Ms Keleti was unable to compete in the 1948 London Olympics due to an ankle injury.
She eventually made her Olympic debut at the 1952 Helsinki Games at the age of 31, winning a gold medal in the floor exercise as well as a silver and two bronzes.
In 1956, she became the most successful athlete at the Melbourne Olympics, winning four gold and two silver medals.
Ms Keleti at the age of 99 with her son, Rafael. Pic: AP
While she was becoming the oldest gold medallist in gymnastics history at age 35 in Melbourne, the Soviet Union invaded Hungary following an unsuccessful anti-Soviet uprising.
Ms Keleti remained in Australia and sought political asylum.
She then immigrated to Israel the following year and went on to train and coach the Israeli Olympic gymnastics team until the 1990s.
Two children are among 12 people killed after a gunman opened fire in western Montenegro following a bar brawl, officials have said.
Montenegro’s interior minister Danilo Saranovic said at least four people were wounded in the attack in the town of Cetinje.
The suspect was identified as 45-year-old Aleksandar Martinovic.
Mr Saranovic said Martinovic killed the owner of the bar, the bar owner’s children and his own family members, before going on the run.
Police dispatched a special unit to search for the attacker in the town. All the roads in and out of the city were blocked as officers swarmed the streets.
The interior minister later said that the gunman had died after taking his own life near his home in Cetinje, which is about 18 miles northwest of the capital Podgorica.
Police investigators at the scene of the mass shooting. Pic: AP
Mr Saranovic told state broadcaster RTCG that Martinovic died while he was being transported to hospital.
Police told the broadcaster that he had suffered a head wound.
Vanja Popovic, the cousin of one of those who died and of another injured person, said: “[The] son of my aunt is among the dead… we are all shocked.”
‘Gripped by sadness’
President Jakov Milatovic said in a post on X that he was “shocked and stunned” by the mass shooting.
He wrote: “Instead of holiday joy… we have been gripped by sadness over the loss of innocent lives.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Milojko Spajic went to the hospital where the wounded were being treated and announced three days of mourning.
“This is a terrible tragedy that has affected us all,” said Mr Spajic. “All police teams are out.”
Police and security personnel at the scene where several people were shot. Pic: Reuters
Police commissioner Lazar Scepanovic said Martinovic was at the bar throughout the day with other guests when the brawl erupted.
He said the suspect then went home, brought back a weapon and opened fire at around 5.30pm. The police chief said he killed four people at the bar and then continued shooting at three more locations.
Read more from Sky News
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The suspect is believed to have been handed a suspended sentence in 2005 for violent behaviour and had appealed his latest conviction for illegal weapons possession.
RTCG reported that he was known for erratic and violent behaviour.
Montenegro, which has a population of 620,000 people, is known for gun culture and many people traditionally have weapons.
Wednesday’s gun attack is the second shooting rampage over the past three years in Cetinje, Montenegro’s former royal capital.
An attacker also killed 10 people, including two children, in August 2022 before he was shot and killed by a passerby.
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