Supreme Court on Mifepristone, Evacuating Sudan, Ukraine Latest
14:29 Share

The Supreme Court overturns restrictions on a common abortion pill. Fighting complicates evacuations from Sudan. And Russia accidentally bombs one of its own cities while trying to attack Ukraine. I'm Camilla Dominovsky. And I'm Scott Simon, and this is Up First from NPR News. ♪

The top court's ruling keeps Mifepristone generally available, at least for the short term. In Khartoum, civilians are caught in the crossfire. Journalist Ismail Koushkoush is trapped inside a building. We think they haven't stormed the building yet because there are several internationals in the building, but we just don't know how things are going to go. And what to make of Russia's mistaken bombing while the international community meets to try and bolster the Ukrainian arsenal. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your weekend.

Let's begin with that move by the U.S. Supreme Court. It overturns an appellate panel's order that limited who and how people could get mifepristone, the pills used in most medication abortions in the U.S., and also to treat miscarriages. But the ruling probably won't be the last word on access to the drug. Martha Biebinger of member station WBUR in Boston joins us. Martha, thanks for being with us. Glad

Glad to be here, Scott. And what did the Supreme Court do exactly last night about this abortion pill that a lot of people couldn't name even a couple weeks ago? Right. And Mifepristone may still not be a household name, but it sure is getting a lot of attention. So today, that's because justices paused lower court rulings and agreed to keep Mifepristone available, at least for the immediate future. Well, at least two justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, dissented.

Now the case goes back to the appeals court, which is scheduled to hear arguments in less than a month. It's quite likely the Supreme Court will eventually hear this case too. What are the practical immediate effects for patients? Well, mifepristone in combination with another abortion pill can still be given through the 10th week of pregnancy. It can be prescribed using telehealth and the mail. That's something the lower courts had said should be stopped.

Nurse practitioners and physician assistants can continue to offer it as well as physicians, and most significantly, Scott, mifepristone is still an approved FDA drug, even though a federal judge in Texas said it should not have been approved 23 years ago. Martha, the ruling's been out just a few hours. What have you been able to hear from doctors and legal experts so far? Well, I hopped on a Zoom call last night with a smiling Dr. Kate White just after the news broke yesterday.

She's an OBGYN at Boston Medical Center and performs abortions. There's not been a lot of good news in any of these rulings recently, so I have to say I was surprised and incredibly relieved at this one. Dr. White says she's relieved, Scott, because she can keep offering patients one of the safest abortion options. That's this two-pill combination that includes mifepristone. On the other hand, many abortion opponents told me they're disappointed that

Mary Fiorito specializes in abortion law at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and she says at least she won't have to wait long because this appeals court's going to investigate the Mifepristone safety concerns soon. The more fact-finding there is on the possible medical dangers of it and the long-term effects of taking it, particularly for

younger girls, I think the better off everyone will be. Fiorito is especially worried about how easy it is to order mifepristone online and take abortion pills without ever seeing a doctor or nurse. But clinicians say when patients follow the guidelines, even if they don't see a doctor or nurse, an abortion using pills is still far less risky than a full-term pregnancy.

Martha, what's ahead in this dispute over Mifepristone? Well, it's kind of a tangled thread. There's the case we've been discussing about whether Mifepristone should remain available. That will be heard by the Federal Appeals Court in mid-May. There's another federal court decision, this one out of Washington State. It says there should be no change in access to Mifepristone, so that could become part of a Supreme Court review.

And then in addition, the largest mifepristone manufacturer in the U.S. just this week sued the federal government saying, you can't take our drug off the market. So we could be talking about mifepristone for months, maybe well into next year. Member Station WBUR's Martha Biebinger, thanks so much. Thank you, Scott. Thank you.

And now to Sudan. Reuters and the Associated Press are reporting that the Sudanese army says evacuations of foreign diplomatic missions can begin. And this is despite a ceasefire breaking down and the resumption of fighting that has trapped many civilians in their homes. NPR's Jackie Northam joins us now with more. Hi, Jackie. Good morning, Camilla. So these reports that Western nations, including the United States, will begin evacuating their embassies. What do you think? Can we take this at face value?

Well, you know, the army is just one of the combatants here and it is not in full control of Sudan. They're still fighting in Khartoum and other places and including at its main airport. It looks like Saudi Arabia has managed to get some of its nationals out of the country. We'll just have to see how this plays out. Right. So lots of different countries working on plans to get their embassies, staff and family out of Sudan. How

How many Americans are in Sudan? And are civilians part of these evacuation plans? Right. There are roughly 70 Americans at the embassy in Khartoum. As far as U.S. citizens, it's believed there are about 1,600 in Sudan. And many of those are dual nationals. The State Department says U.S. citizens are not part of any evacuation plans and that they'll have to make their own arrangements to stay safe.

The State Department sent out travel advisories over the past couple of weeks saying do not travel to Sudan or leave if you're already in the country. And on Friday, the State Department, the White House said...

It is not standard practice to evacuate civilians abroad, especially in these circumstances where they've been given plenty of warnings. So American citizens currently are on their own in Sudan. All right. Well, what is the U.S. guidance to all of those Americans who won't be evacuated? Stay off the roads, stay indoors, shelter in place. Do not try to make it to the U.S. embassy.

We're hearing reports from Americans stuck in Khartoum that the situation is deteriorating. They're running short of water and food.

And it's dangerous, you know, no matter who you are. Earlier this week, the European Union's ambassador to Sudan was assaulted in his own residence in Khartoum. It's hard to say if Westerners, including U.S. citizens, are being targeted. So the best thing to do is find shelter and stay there. And meanwhile, if airports are unusable, how is the U.S. planning to pull any people out of Sudan?

Well, neither the Pentagon nor the State Department are saying what options they're looking at. I spoke with Cameron Hudson, and he's a former diplomat who focused on Sudan, and he's now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. And he told me if they can get a sustained ceasefire, then they could be an overland convoy to, say, Egypt.

The other option, he says, would be for the U.S. to use a Sudanese military air base, land a plane and deploy a helicopter. Here's Hudson now. And that that helicopter would be able to land on the embassy compound. There's a big grassy area in the middle of the compound. So you could probably do it.

But, you know, Camila, Hudson says the optics of just taking embassy people to safety aren't great, you know, leaving others behind. And there's also the problem if something goes wrong with an evacuation. People remember the, you know, the chaotic evacuation from Afghanistan in 2021. So really the best thing would be a ceasefire. Right. And the most recent attempt at a ceasefire hasn't held. Are there still efforts to secure a lasting ceasefire?

Yes, there are. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is urging both sides to end hostility and start negotiations. Also, the U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres is calling for a complete ceasefire, urging combatants to protect humanitarian and aid workers. Some have been caught in the crossfire. That's NPR's Jackie Northam. Thanks, Jackie. Thanks very much. ♪

An extreme example of friendly fire at the Russia-Ukraine border. Russia's military has admitted one of its fighter jets had an accidental discharge over the Russian city of Belgorod, near the border with Ukraine. That has defense leaders from the United States, Europe, and elsewhere meet to try to coordinate the delivery of more weapons to bolster the Ukrainian arsenal. NPR's Ukraine correspondent Joanna Kakissis joins us from Kyiv. Joanna, thanks for being with us. Happy to join you today, Scott. And what do we know about this accidental bombing?

So, yeah, according to Russia's state media, there was this huge explosion on Thursday evening in Belgorod, a Russian city of about 400,000 near the Ukrainian border. And at least three people were injured and the explosion just...

badly damaged surrounding buildings. And yes, the Russian Defense Ministry later admitted in a statement that a supersonic fighter jet had indeed accidentally bombed the city. So what Russians usually bomb and shell in this area is the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, which is about 25 miles southwest of Belgorod. Of course, Western allies of Ukraine have continued to try to help Ukraine defend itself from those attacks. And defense leaders from

those nations met at the Rammstein US Air Base in Germany on Friday.

What are they trying to achieve? So these defense leaders are in what's called the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, and their goal is to help Ukraine defend itself. The group includes all 30 NATO member states, plus another 24 countries that support Ukraine. And this group meets every month and has provided a total of around $55 billion in security assistance to Ukraine. And this includes badly needed ammunition, as well as heavy weapons like Leopard and Abrams tanks,

and the Patriot air defense systems. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says this support has strengthened Ukraine's position on the battlefield, and U.S. officials say 31 of those Abrams tanks I mentioned above could reach Ukraine this fall, and Ukrainian soldiers could start training on them within weeks. Abrams tanks are famously powerful and lethal. What sort of difference could they make in this conflict?

So Ukraine's Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov told us earlier this year when the U.S. promised those Abrams tanks that they could be a game changer because not only is Ukraine trying to reclaim occupied territory, it's also trying to defend itself as Russia tries to take even more Ukrainian territory in the east.

You know, we've heard a lot about a city in the east called Bakhmut, where there have been very bloody battles for months for every single street there. But the arrival of the Abrams and the training to use them will come probably too late for Ukraine's planned counteroffensive strategy.

because it's supposed to happen sometime this spring or in summer. Ukrainians want to liberate as much land as possible during this counteroffensive. So this does not become like a long drawn out war of attrition, like, you know, Bakhmut on a larger scale.

So there's also concern that Russia is set to ramp up its air attacks. And so Reznikov says Ukraine needs F-16s. And Ukraine's Air Force spokesman Yuri Khnat told us recently that Ukrainian forces see F-16 fighter jets as the best way to protect Ukrainian airspace.

So he's saying that they can shoot down almost anything, you know, incoming missiles and drones, as well as enemy planes and helicopters, and they can also hit ground targets.

And as if on cue, while we were talking to him, an air raid alert actually went off on his phone. So, you know, you can hear it here. And he just smiled wearily and shrugged as if to say, you know, I rest my case. Joanna, the Secretary General of NATO this week said that Ukraine belongs in their security alliance. Is that likely that Ukraine will become a NATO member?

Yeah, so I think the short answer, at least right now, is yes, eventually. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visited Ukraine on Thursday, and it's his first visit since Russia's full-scale invasion began. And he said that, you know, Ukraine's rightful place is in NATO. However, he talked about a membership process that's going to take years, and President Zelenskyy

says, why should it take so long? We are not just defending our independence and existence as a nation, but we're also buffering you, our allies in the West from Russian aggression.

Zelensky wants membership talks to start as soon as this July at a NATO summit in Lithuania that he also plans to attend. But of course, this does not sit well with Kremlin officials who say one of the reasons Russia invaded Ukraine was to prevent it from joining NATO. NPR's Joanna Kakisis in Kyiv. Thanks so much, Joanna. You're welcome, Scott.

And that's Up First for Saturday, April 22nd, 2023. I'm Camilla Dominovsky. And I'm Scott Simon. Tomorrow on Up First, a year in the life of a class of kindergartners from one hard-hit city in Ukraine. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Diane Weber, Didi Skanky, Don Clyde, Ed Sheeran,

Ed McNulty, Fernando Narro, and Matthew Sherman. It was produced by Andrew Craig and Michael Radcliffe and directed by Danny Hensel with engineering support from Hannah Glovna. Evie Stone is our senior supervising editor. Our executive producer is Sarah Lucy Oliver. And our deputy managing editor is Jim Cain. And for more news and interviews, books and music, turn on your radio every Saturday and Sunday morning for Weekend Edition from NPR News.

Find your NPR station at stations.npr.org.