Abortion pill to remain available for now as Florida set to vote on six-week ban – live

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US 'close' to learning identity of Pentagon leaker

Joe Biden told reporters today that investigators are “getting close” to identifying the person behind the leak of military documents that have revealed Washington’s views of the war in Ukraine and other matters, CNN reports:

Meanwhile, the Washington Post yesterday interviewed a teenage associate of the leaker, who painted a disturbing picture of his motivations. Here’s more on that, from the Guardian’s Julian Borger:

The man responsible for the leak of hundreds of classified Pentagon documents is reported to be a young, racist gun enthusiast who worked on a military base, and who was seeking to impress two dozen fellow members of an internet chat group.

The Washington Post interviewed a teenage member of the group, who described the man, referred to by the initials “OG”, from their online correspondence, and shared photographs and videos. The Post also viewed a video of a man identified as OG at a shooting range with a large rifle.

“He yells a series of racial and antisemitic slurs into the camera, then fires several rounds at a target,” the report said. OG told fellow members of the same internet group that he worked on a military base, which was not named in the report, where his job involved viewing large amounts of classified information.

Florida’s Democratic lawmakers are doing all they can to stop a six-week abortion ban from becoming law. Here’s the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino with a look at the quixotic effort by the top Democrat in the state Senate to halt its passage there:

Last week, Lauren Book, the top Democrat in the Florida senate – was placed in handcuffs, arrested and charged with trespassing, after refusing to leave an abortion rights demonstration near the state capitol building in Tallahassee.

Hours before, Republican lawmakers in the state senate advanced the legislation, which would dramatically restrict the state’s current ban on abortion from 15 weeks of pregnancy to six weeks – before many women even realize they’re pregnant. Critics say the narrow window would amount to a “near-total” ban on abortions in the state.

The bill would have far-reaching implications across the south. After the supreme court’s decision to eliminate a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, Florida became a haven for women seeking reproductive care from states where access was prohibited or severely restricted, including Louisiana and Alabama.

Florida abortion ban will further cut off access in south

The southern United States is the country’s least friendly region for abortion, and access will soon grow even tighter as Florida moves to pass a ban on the procedure after six weeks. The GOP-controlled state House of Representatives is voting on the measure today, which contains exceptions for the life of the mother, and governor Ron DeSantis has said he’ll sign it. While it’s not the outright ban imposed by some of the state’s neighbors, it’ll reduce abortion availability to a time period when most women aren’t yet aware they’re pregnant.

The greater battle in reproductive rights appears to be over mifepristone, which is used in medication abortion, and the subject of an ongoing federal court battle. Here’s more from Reuters on the late Wednesday ruling from an appeals court that preserved its availability, but imposed restrictions it that made it more difficult to access:

The abortion pill mifepristone will remain available in the US for now but with significant restrictions, including a requirement for in-person doctor visits to obtain the drug, a federal appeals court ruled late on Wednesday.

The New Orleans-based fifth circuit court of appeals put on hold part of last Friday’s order by the US district judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, Texas, which suspended the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval for the drug while he heard a lawsuit by anti-abortion groups seeking to ban it.

The Biden administration and the maker of the mifepristone brand, Danco Laboratories, had quickly asked for an emergency stay of that order.

However, the appeals court declined to block portions of Kacsmaryk’s order that in effect reinstate restrictions on the pill’s distribution, which had been lifted since 2016. In addition to a requirement of in-person doctor visits to prescribe and dispense the drug, those restrictions include limiting its use to the first seven weeks of pregnancy, down from 10 weeks. Kacsmaryk’s order will take effect on Friday.

Florida to tighten abortion access, medication survives court challenge

Good mornings, US politics blog readers. Americans will be able to continue accessing medication abortion after a federal appeals court early this morning blocked a judge’s ruling that would have revoked its authorization – but did impose new limits on the medication. The conservative assault on abortion remains in full swing, with Florida’s House of Representatives expected to vote today on a bill that would ban the procedure after six weeks – a point at which most women are not yet aware they are pregnant. The bill is expected to pass and be signed into law by Republican governor Ron DeSantis, who is thought to soon announce a presidential campaign that will center on bringing the policies he pioneered in Florida to the White House.

Here’s what else is happening today:

• Joe Biden continues his travels in Ireland, where he made headlines with a gaffe involving a rugby team and a military force. He was in Belfast yesterday, trying to coax a power-sharing agreement out of Northern Ireland’s leaders.

• Justin Pearson, the second of two ousted Black Democratic lawmakers who were reappointed to their seats in the Tennessee House of Representatives by local authorities, will be sworn in today.

• Donald Trump is in New York today, where he’ll sit for a deposition in attorney general Letitia James $250mn lawsuit alleging fraud in his company.