Four Democrat-led states ask FDA to remove abortion pill restrictions

Four blue states are asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to remove restrictions on a key abortion medication and make it easier for clinicians to prescribe and dispense it — an attempt to widen access as the agency plans to review the pill's safety.
The Democratic attorneys general of California, New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey filed a petition Thursday asking the FDA to remove stringent regulations on access to mifepristone, saying they are 'medically unnecessary' for a drug that scientific studies have shown is safe. The drug is taken alongside misoprostol to end pregnancies through 10 weeks' gestation and treat early miscarriages.

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CBS News

39 minutes ago

• CBS News

Boston protesters condemn U.S. attack in Iran as Rep. Lynch criticizes president's decision

A crowd of approximately 500 demonstrators took to the streets of downtown Boston Sunday to protest recent U.S. military strikes against Iran, while Gov. Maura Healey was briefed by Homeland Security. The march began at Park Street Station and culminated with a rally on the Boston Common, where activists, community leaders and concerned citizens gathered to make their voices heard. Protesters' demands The demonstration was organized by several advocacy groups, including the National Iranian American Council, Massachusetts Peace Action, Northshore for Palestine, and Jewish Voice for Peace Boston. Protesters said they were calling for a clear rejection by Congress of any steps toward war with Iran, a negotiated nuclear deal, and a formal congressional investigation into the strikes recently ordered by President Donald Trump against Iranian nuclear facilities. Lynch: Congress not told of strikes In an interview with WBZ-TV, Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch said that Congress was not made aware of these military strikes. "We had no prior contact or notification from the president," said Rep. Lynch. "He informed some of the Republican members and then did not inform the Democratic members. That's a complete breach of protocol. I think every American president in our history has always made sure that when we go into battle, we go in together as one country." Lynch also said that this is something he would consider an act of war, one that would require congressional approval. "It involved the deployment of U.S. forces, and we could have just as easily had casualties there," Rep. Lynch said. Rep. Lynch said that confidential security briefings will be held for members of congress over the coming days. He also added that conversation amongst Republican members of the house are split at the moment, with several members feeling betrayed after President Trump campaigned on not bringing the United States into foreign conflict. "The narrative was that President Trump was going to keep us out of these types of situations," he said. "There will be consequences to these attacks." Healey briefed by Homeland Security In a statement, Massachusetts Gov. Healey said she received a briefing from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Sunday afternoon. "While there are no specific threats to Massachusetts at this time, we are continuing to coordinate with state, local and federal partners to closely monitor the situation," said Healey in the statement.

Yahoo

an hour ago

• Yahoo

How Trump quietly made the historic decision to launch strikes in Iran

By the time President Donald Trump was milling about his golf club in New Jersey on Friday evening, the planes were about to be in the air. To onlookers at the club, Trump showed little anxiety about his decision to authorize airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities that could have profound ramifications both on US national security and his own presidential legacy. The B-2 stealth bombers carrying 30,000-pound bunker busters were preparing to take off at midnight from their base in Missouri, destined for Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. Another set of planes was heading west, a deliberate attempt at misdirection as Trump demanded complete secrecy for his momentous decision. As Trump escorted Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, to an event for new members in a clubhouse dining room, he was loose and — at least in public — in an easygoing mood, people who saw him said. 'I hope he's right about the AI,' Trump joked at one point, gesturing to his guest. Twenty-four hours later, Trump was in the basement Situation Room at the White House, wearing a red 'Make America Great Again' hat as he watched the strikes he had approved days earlier, codenamed 'Operation Midnight Hammer,' play out in real time on the facility's wall of monitors. 'Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success,' he said a few hours later during late-night remarks from the White House Cross Hall. 'Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.' The decision to go ahead with strikes thrusts the United States directly into the Middle East conflict, raising worries about Iranian reprisals and questions about Trump's endgame. It came after days of public deliberation, as Trump alternated between issuing militaristic threats against Iran on social media and holding private concerns that a military strike could drag the US into prolonged war. Yet by Thursday, the same day he instructed his press secretary to announce he was giving Iran two weeks to return to the negotiating table before deciding on a strike, allies who spoke to him said it was clear that the decision was already made. Speaking on NBC on Sunday, Vice President JD Vance said Trump retained the ability to call off the strikes 'until the very last minute.' But he elected to go ahead. Administration officials went to great lengths to conceal their planning. Deferring the strike decision for a fortnight appeared in keeping with the mission's attempts at diversion — a tactic designed to obscure the attack plans, even though Trump held off giving a final go-ahead until Saturday, according to senior US officials. By the end of the week, US officials had come to believe Iran was not ready to return to the table and strike a satisfactory nuclear deal after Europeans leaders met with their Iranian counterparts on Friday, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Trump's two-week public deadline lasted only 48 hours before he took one of the most consequential actions of his presidency. The operation began at midnight ET Friday, with the B-2 bombers launching from Missouri on an 18-hour journey that was the planes' longest mission in more than two decades, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a Sunday morning Pentagon briefing. 'This is a plan that took months and weeks of positioning and preparation so that we could be ready when the president of the United States called,' Hegseth said alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine. 'It took a great deal of precision. It involved misdirection and the highest of operational security.' Discussions about potential options for American strikes on Iran began in earnest between Trump and members of his national security team during a weekend retreat at Camp David in early June, where CIA Director John Ratcliffe briefed Trump on US assessments that Israel was prepared to imminently begin strikes. The options for Trump to join Israel in its campaign had been drawn up in the months beforehand, with the president's advisers having already worked out differences among themselves over what options were on the menu for him to decide from. In the week before he made the final call for US stealth bombers and Navy submarines to target three Iranian nuclear sites, Trump held briefings each day with his national security team in the basement Situation Room to discuss attack plans — and to weigh the potential consequences. Trump came to the secret talks with two principal concerns: that a US attack be decisive in taking out the highly fortified sites, including the underground Fordow enrichment facility; and that any action he took did not pull the US into the type of prolonged, deadly war he promised to avoid as a candidate. On the first point, officials were confident in the US bunker-busting bombs' ability to penetrate the facility, even though such an action hadn't been tested previously. Caine said Sunday that the initial assessment shows 'extremely severe damage and destruction' to Iran's three nuclear sites, though he noted it will take time to determine the ultimate impact to the country's nuclear capabilities. (Iranian officials downplayed the impact of the US strikes to their nuclear facilities on Sunday.) But on the second question of a prolonged war, officials could hardly promise the president that Iran's reprisals — which could include targeting American assets or personnel in the region — wouldn't draw the US into a new quagmire. 'As the president has directed, made clear, this is most certainly not open-ended,' Hegseth said Sunday. 'Doesn't mean it limits our ability to respond. We will respond if necessary.' The uncertainly seemed to give Trump pause, and throughout the week he said in public he hadn't yet made a decision, even if behind the scenes it appeared to the president's advisers that his mind was made up. Trump departed his Bedminster golf club Saturday afternoon and returned to the White House for a scheduled 'national security meeting' — travel that was unusual for the president on a weekend but was previewed on his daily scheduled released the day prior. The US conveyed to Iran through back-channel discussions that the strikes Trump ordered Saturday would be contained and that no further strikes were planned going forward, according to two people familiar with the discussions. But Trump's public message Saturday night after the strikes — warning of 'far greater' future US attacks if Iran retaliates — underscored the unpredictable period he is entering in the Middle East. In April, Trump issued an ultimatum to Iran on a potential nuclear agreement, warning Tehran to strike a deal within 60 days — by mid-June. At the same time, Trump urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on attacking Iran so he could give talks the time and space to show progress. A first round of talks was held in mid-April between the US and Tehran in Oman, led by Trump's foreign envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Despite optimistic notes following the conversations, there was little progress toward an actual nuclear deal. On June 8 — less than a week before Trumps's 60-day deadline was set to expire — he huddled with his advisers at Camp David, where he was presented with potential options on Iran. The next day, Trump and Netanyahu spoke by phone. Several weeks earlier, Netanyahu had told a group of US lawmakers that Israel was going to strike Iran — and he was not seeking permission from the US to do so. Sixty-one days after Trump's ultimatum, Israel launched unprecedented strikes on Iran, targeting its nuclear program and military leaders. 'Iran should have listened to me when I said — you know, I gave them, I don't know if you know but I gave them a 60-day warning and today is day 61,' Trump told CNN's Dana Bash after the Israeli strikes began. But senior Trump officials also initially distanced themselves from the attack, issuing statements that Israel took unilateral action and the US was not involved. As Israel continued its military campaign in Iran, Trump traveled to Alberta, Canada, for a G7 summit, only to return to Washington early 'because of what's going on in the Middle East,' the White House said. Trump spent much of the past week meeting in the Situation Room with his national security team to review attack plans and their potential consequences. On Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt read a statement dictated by Trump: 'Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.' But there were signs that diplomacy was not moving forward. Witkoff made attempts at meeting his Iranian interlocutor, Araghchi, with little luck. And Trump had been leaning toward joining Israel's military campaign in private discussions with senior staff even during Witkoff's diplomatic efforts. After European leaders met with Iran's foreign minister on Friday in Geneva, US officials felt it appeared the Iranians would not sit down with the US without Trump asking Netanyahu to stop Israel's attacks — something Trump was not willing to do, sources said. That afternoon, on his way to his New Jersey club, Trump told reporters that his two-week timeframe was the 'maximum' amount of time, and he could make up his mind sooner. Ahead of the Saturday strikes, the US gave Israel a heads-up it was going to attack. Netanyahu held a five-hour meeting with top Israeli officials that lasted through the US strikes, according to a source familiar with the meeting. Trump and Netanyahu spoke by phone again afterward, and the Israeli prime minister praised the US attack in a video message, saying it was carried out 'with complete operational coordination between the IDF and the United States military.' The US had also notified some Gulf partners that it was ready to strike Iran within the coming days, but it did not specify targets and time frame, according to a source familiar with the matter. The message was delivered verbally, the source said, and there was a meeting at the White House where some of these Gulf partners were told. Trump and his team were in contact with top congressional Republicans before Saturday's strikes, but some top Democrats were not told of his plans until after the bombs had dropped, according to multiple people familiar with the plans. Hegseth said Sunday that congressional leaders were notified 'immediately' after planes were out of Iranian airspace. The operation began at midnight Eastern Time Friday into Saturday morning. Caine said that B-2 bombers launched from the US, some headed west as a decoy while the rest 'proceeded quietly to the east with minimal communications throughout the 18-hour flight.' The unprecedented US operation involved seven stealth B-2 bombers. All told, over 125 aircraft were involved, including the B-2s, refueling tankers, reconnaissance planes and fighter jets. At approximately 5 p.m. ET, Caine said, a US submarine 'launched more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles against key surface infrastructure targets' at the Isfahan nuclear site. And shortly after, at approximately 6:40 p.m. ET, or 2:10 a.m. local time, the lead B-2 bomber plane launched two bunker-buster bombs at Fordow nuclear site, Caine said, and the 'remaining bombers then hit their targets.' Those additional targets were struck, Caine said, 'between 6:40 p.m. ET and 7:05 p.m. ET.' The US military then 'began its return home,' Caine said, noting that no shots were fired by Iran at the US on the way in or out. After US planes had left Iranian airspace, Trump revealed the attack to the world on his social media platform, Truth Social. 'We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,' Trump wrote, adding that 'a full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow.' CNN's Kylie Atwood, Natasha Bertrand, Haley Britzky, Zachary Cohen, Sarah Ferris, Betsy Klein, Manu Raju, Morgan Rimmer, Jim Sciutto, Alayna Treene and Kaitlan Collins contributed to this report.

Yahoo

2 hours ago

• Yahoo

Huntington Park mayor directs police to enforce ICE agents' self-identification

Huntington Park Mayor Arturo Flores released a statement Saturday, condemning what he called 'masked abductions' amid immigration raids across Los Angeles County, and directing police to intervene in unlawful or unauthorized operations. 'These are not lawful arrests. These are abductions,' said Mayor Flores. 'For more than a week, we have witnessed families being torn apart, children left without parents, and residents vanishing without explanation. Men dressed in tactical gear, operating unmarked vehicles without displaying credentials or agency affiliation, have infiltrated our neighborhoods in direct violation of our community's values, civil rights, and the basic principles of due process.' Last week, a raid on a Huntington Park home, attended by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, caused outrage in the community. The agency said that the federal immigration agents were targeting a man with a criminal record inside the home, but when about a half-dozen vehicles carrying heavily armed, masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents converged on the home, it was occupied by a 28-year-old pregnant mother of four. ICE agents and Noem eventually left the home empty-handed, and the children were allowed back inside. However, this was not the only raid reported in Huntington Park, according to the mayor, and other times, federal agents have been seen masking their faces and driving unmarked vehicles. Flores said he's received reports of masked and unidentified individuals abducting residents in broad daylight. 'These actions have sparked rumors of unauthorized vigilantes or bounty hunters operating under the guise of federal enforcement, have triggered widespread fear and confusion throughout the community.' This message also comes a day after protesters were seen facing off with masked men in the neighboring Southeast L.A. city of Bell, where a large crowd was seen surrounding unmarked vehicles with federal agents around. Several people were seen detained, and a large crowd continued to move in on the unmarked vehicles. 'This is not immigration enforcement. This is state-sanctioned intimidation,' said Flores. 'I am calling for the immediate cessation of these raids and for the Huntington Park Police Department to begin verifying the identities and authority of any individuals conducting such operations within city limits.' The statement shared that the mayor formally directed the police department to enforce laws concerning unmarked vehicles, visible license plates and required agency identification. 'He is urging law enforcement to investigate and intervene in any unauthorized operations that place public safety or civil liberties at risk,' continued the message. 'We cannot allow Wild West-style bounty hunter tactics to unfold unchecked on our streets,' said Mayor Flores. 'Our residents deserve to know who is operating in their neighborhoods and under what authority. Allowing unidentified and unverified actors to engage in forceful detentions is not only reckless—it is dangerous and corrosive to the rule of law.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.