International
The Supreme Court is inclined not to restrict the use of the abortion pill in the United States
The Supreme Court (TS) of the United States held a hearing on Tuesday on mifepristone, a substance used in abortion pills, and the judges mostly inclined not to restrict its use, in the most important abortion case that the highest court has had since it overthrewed the ‘Roe vs Wade’ ruling in 2022.
Despite the fact that the TS has a conservative majority and was the body that eliminated the constitutional protection of abortion almost two years ago, today it showed its reluctance to believe that the anti-abortion medical association Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine has shown that it suffered the type of damage that it entitles it to sue.
During the almost two hours that the oral arguments lasted, the Government and the pharmaceutical company GenBioPro emphasized their safety and thus rejected the arguments of Erin Hawley, a lawyer for the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, that the substance is dangerous.
A view rejected by multiple studies that have shown that the substance, used in most abortions in the United States, is safe.
The judges – whose decision will be known at the end of June or the beginning of July – are examining whether the regulatory changes carried out in 2016 and 2021 by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that made the drug available by mail and was prescribed by a health provider who does not have to be a doctor were legal.
Judge Samuel Alito, who was precisely the one who drafted the 2022 decision that annulled ‘Roe vs Wade’, was one of those who today showed his dissatisfaction with the Joe Biden administration’s argument that doctors do not have the legal right or “legitimacity” to sue.
“Is there anyone who can sue and obtain a court ruling about whether what the FDA did was legal? Maybe what they did was perfectly legal. But shouldn’t someone be able to challenge that in the courts?” the conservative asked.
But there were more who expressed doubts. The also conservative Neil M. Gorsuch described this case as “an excellent example of how to convert what could be a small demand into a legislative assembly” into a case “at the national level about the approval of the FDA.”
It has been almost two years since the Supreme Court eliminated the ‘Roe vs Wade’ doctrine that had protected abortion nationally for decades. Since then, two dozen states have restricted or banned abortion and that is why ‘teleabortion’ has been the solution for millions of women in the country.
A judicial decision restricting mifepristone would affect service providers in all states, including those where abortion is still legal. It would also make the aforementioned procedure difficult, by which women receive abortion pills by mail and are treated by doctors electronically.
And it could call into question the ability of the FDA to approve and distribute other medicines.
This case began in November 2022, after a group of doctors and anti-abortion medical organizations sued the FDA.
The coalition filed the challenge in Amarillo (Texas) and Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, appointed by Trump and openly opposed to abortion, issued a preliminary ruling invalidating the approval of the drug and withdrawing the pill from the market.
In August 2023, three judges of the Court of Appeals of the Fifth Circuit of the United States, one of the most conservative appeals courts in the country, determined that mifepristone should remain legal, but imposed important access restrictions, which are now in the air, pending the decision of the Supreme Court.
Mifepristone is one of the two medications used in a drug abortion and is combined with misoprostol to terminate a pregnancy.
It blocks progesterone, a hormone necessary for the pregnancy to continue, while misoprostol causes uterine contractions, which causes the body to expel the fetus.
Numerous studies indicate that the combination of these pills causes a complete abortion in more than 99% of patients.
The Planned Parenthood organization recalled on Tuesday in a statement that mifepristone is “safe and effective, with or without a visit to a health center” and that it has been used by more than five million people in the United States for more than 23 years.
In the opinion of Alexis McGill Johnson, president and general director of the organization, this case is a sign that “those who oppose abortion remain committed” to controlling women’s bodies “prohibiting abortion throughout the country.”
International
Bolsonaro is transferred to São Paulo to continue the treatment for an erysypela
Former President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro moved this Monday from the Amazon city of Manaus, where he was hospitalized with an erysipelas, to a hospital in São Paulo, where the treatment against that skin infection will continue.
The lawyer of the leader of the far right, Fabio Wajngarten, said on his social networks that Bolsonaro will also be examined for a possible intestinal obstruction, although he did not give more details on the matter.
Bolsonaro, 69, arrived last Friday in Manaus for some political commitments and on Saturday he was hospitalized once it was found that he suffered from erysipelas, a bacterial infection that affects the skin and subcutaneous tissue.
The Santa Julia hospital, where he was treated, reported that the former president, from 2019 to 2022, had a “table of dehydration and infectious skin process.”
The doctors did not mention the possible intestinal obstruction cited by Wajngarten, but it is a problem that Bolsonaro suffers repeatedly since, in the campaign for the 2018 elections, he was stabbed in the abdomen in the middle of a rally.
Since then, they underwent four surgeries to correct stomach problems resulting from that attack.
The former president faces serious difficulties in Justice, which investigates him in various cases, one of them linked to alleged plans to prevent the inauguration of the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who defeated him in the 2022 elections.
International
The number of deaths in a passenger bus accident in southern Peru rises to eleven
The number of deaths in Peru when a passenger bus crashed from the southern department of Puno to Cuzco, when it was traveling through the province of Melgar, rose to 11, official sources reported on Monday.
The head of the road police of the Puno department, David Sota Paredes, told the RPP station that the number of deaths from the accident increased to eleven, including a five-month-old baby, who have already been identified, and that in addition, 11 other injured people were transferred to the Ayaviri hospital.
The Universal company bus overturned at kilometer 1,170 of the Longitudinal road, in the district of Santa Rosa, in the province of Melgar in Puneña, in the early hours of Monday morning, confirmed the Superintent of Land Transport of People, Cargo and Goods (Sutran).
This official entity reported that it activated all its immediate attention protocols and initiated coordination with its inspectors in the region, the National Police of Peru (PNP) and the Health Emergency Operations Center of Puno to “help with the investigations that allow the causes of the accident to be determined.”
Likewise, Sutran indicated that the vehicle, with B2R959 plate, had authorization from the General Directorate of Transport Authorizations of the Ministry of Transport and Communications for the regular passenger transport service, with accident insurance and technical review in force.
“The Sutran expresses its condolences to the relatives and relatives of the victims of the unfortunate accident and vows for the speedy recovery of the injured,” he said in a statement shared on his social networks.
Last week, the roads in northern Peru recorded another accident of a passenger bus that left 27 people dead from the fall of the vehicle into a chasm in the department of Cajamarca, while another public transport unit rushed into a river, in the jungle of Amazonas, and caused the death of a policeman and 10 people injured.
International
Israel says it will continue to negotiate a ceasefire while bombing the east of Rafah
The Israeli War Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, agreed on Monday to continue “the operation” in Rafah, south of Gaza, but agreed to send a delegation to Cairo to continue negotiating a possible ceasefire.
“Despite the fact that Hamas’ proposal is far from meeting Israel’s fundamental demands, Israel will send a high-ranking delegation to Egypt in an effort to exhaust the possibility of reaching an agreement on acceptable terms,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
Benny Gantz, also a member of the War Cabinet, agreed with Netanyahu. “The military operation in Rafah is an inseparable part of our continuous efforts and our commitment to return our kidnapped,” he said tonight in a statement quoted by Israeli media.
Gantz confirmed that Israel will send a delegation to Cairo although, he said, the proposal agreed by Hamas “does not correspond to the dialogue that has taken place so far with the mediators and contains important gaps.”
Both messages come after the announcement of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau in Hamas, that the Islamist group accepted a proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, a few hours after the Israeli Army issued an “immediate” evacuation order from the east of Rafah.
In a final statement released tonight, Hamas confirmed that both Haniyeh and the secretary general of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ziad al Nakhala – a faction also present in the Gaza Strip – discussed on Monday whether or not to approve a ceasefire, and said that the decision was made as a result of “the evolution of the current situation” in Gaza.
“It was also emphasized that the resistance factions will not back down on their demands included in the proposal they agreed, in particular a (comprehensive) ceasefire, an integral withdrawal (from Israeli troops), an honorable exchange (of hostages for prisoners), reconstruction and the end of the (Israeli) siege,” Hamas recalled.
The Israeli Army confirmed that it is currently bombing the southern city of Rafah, where more than one million Gazans take refuge after the start of the ground offensive on October 27, which forced the northern population to leave their homes, many of which are now destroyed.
Despite the heavy bombings and firing of flares, according to EFE on the ground, Israeli troops and tanks have not crossed the fence that separates Israel from southern Gaza.
The Army “is currently carrying out targeted attacks against Hamas terrorist targets in the east of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip,” a military statement confirmed tonight, announcing that there would be more details shortly.
For its part, the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, confirmed Israeli attacks in the city of Rafah against “roads, agricultural land, residential houses and farms” in the eastern neighborhoods of Al Salam and Al Jinaina, among others, which coincide with some of the places included this morning in the evacuation letter.
In a press conference in Hebrew tonight, the Army spokesman, Daniel Hagari, recalled that the troops are prepared for a land incursion into Rafah after this morning’s evacuation order, which only affects about 100,000 Gazans among more than a million people who are overcrowded in Rafah.
Hamas warned Israel on Monday that any military takeover of Rafah will not be something simple and that his armed wing, the Qasam Brigades, are ready to defend his people.
Bolsonaro is transferred to São Paulo to continue the treatment for an erysypela
The number of deaths in a passenger bus accident in southern Peru rises to eleven
Israel says it will continue to negotiate a ceasefire while bombing the east of Rafah
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