California and three other states petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Thursday to ease its new restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone, citing the drug’s proven safety record and arguing the new limits are unnecessary.

“The medication is a lifeline for millions of women who need access to time-sensitive, critical healthcare — especially low-income women and those who live in rural and underserved areas,” said California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, who filed the petition alongside the attorneys general of Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey.

The petition cites Senate testimony by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last month, in which Kennedy said he had ordered FDA administrator Martin Makary to conduct a “complete review” of mifepristone and its labeling requirements.

The drug, which can be received by mail, has been on the U.S. market for 25 years and taken safely by millions of Americans, according to experts. It is the most common method of terminating a pregnancy in the U.S., with its use surging after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade in 2022.

The Supreme Court upheld access to the drug for early pregnancies under previous FDA regulations last year, but it has remained a target of anti-abortion conservatives. The Trump administration has given Kennedy broad rein to shake up American medicine under his “Make America Healthy Again” banner, and Kennedy has swiftly rankled medical experts by using dubious science — and even fake citations — to question vaccine regimens and research and other longstanding public health measures.

At the Senate hearing, Kennedy cited “new data” from a flawed report pushed by anti-abortion groups — and not published in any peer-reviewed journal — to question the safety of mifepristone, calling the report “alarming.”

“Clearly, it indicates that, at very least, the label should be changed,” Kennedy said.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) on Monday posted a letter from Makary to X, in which Makary wrote that he was “committed to conducting a review of mifepristone” alongside “the professional career scientists” at the FDA.

Makary said he could not provide additional information given ongoing litigation around the drug.

The states, in their 54-page petition, wrote that “no new scientific data has emerged since the FDA’s last regulatory actions that would alter the conclusion that mifepristone remains exceptionally safe and effective,” and that studies “that have frequently been cited to undermine mifepristone’s extensive safety record have been widely criticized, retracted, or both.”

Democrats have derided Kennedy’s efforts to reclassify mifepristone as politically motivated and baseless.

“This is yet another attack on women’s reproductive freedom and scientifically-reviewed health care,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said the day after Kennedy’s Senate testimony. “California will continue to protect every person’s right to make their own medical decisions and help ensure that Mifepristone is available to those who need it.”

Bonta said Thursday that mifepristone’s placement under the FDA’s Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy program for drugs with known, serious side effects — or REMS — was “medically unjustified,” unduly burdened patient access and placed “undue strain on the nation’s entire health system.”

He said mifepristone “allows people to get reproductive care as early as possible when it is safest, least expensive, and least invasive,” is “so safe that it presents lower risks of serious complications than taking Tylenol,” and that its long safety record “is backed by science and cannot be erased at the whim of the Trump Administration.”

The FDA has previously said that fewer than 0.5% of women who take the drug experience “serious adverse reactions,” and deaths are exceedingly rare.

The REMS program requires prescribers to add their names to national and local abortion provider lists, which can be a deterrent for doctors given safety threats, and pharmacies to comply with complex tracking, shipping and reporting requirements, which can be a deterrent to carrying the drug, Bonta said.

It also requires patients to sign forms in which they attest to wanting to “end [their] pregnancy,” which Bonta said can be a deterrent for women using the drug after a miscarriage — one of its common uses — or for those in states pursuing criminal penalties for women seeking certain abortion care.

Under federal law, REMS requirements must address a specific risk posed by a drug and cannot be “unduly burdensome” on patients, and the new application to mifepristone “fails to meet that standard,” Bonta said.

The states’ petition is not a lawsuit, but a regulatory request for the FDA to reverse course, the states said.

If the FDA will not do so nationwide, the four petitioning states asked that it “exercise its discretion to not enforce the requirements” in their states, which Bonta’s office said already have “robust state laws that ensure safe prescribing, rigorous informed consent, and professional accountability.”

A new wave of scam text messages impersonating the California Department of Motor Vehicles prompted the agency to alert the public not to comply with the threats or offers of discounted services.

The text messages claim the recipients have unpaid tickets and threaten things like prosecution, suspension of vehicle registration and revocation of driving privileges or offer discounted registration fees, the division stated in a June 4 news release.

The text messages are written as if they were official communication from the division to entice the recipient “into clicking malicious links and divulging personal or financial information under the guise of settling non-existent violations,” the division stated in the news release.

“The DMV does not offer discounts on vehicle registration renewals and will never ask for payment or personal information through unofficial channels,” the department said in a press release.

What the fraudulent text messages typically include

The California DMV says that exact phrasing can vary but the scam texts usually:

• “State they are from the ‘California DMV’ or a similar official-sounding entity.”
• “Allege outstanding unpaid tickets or violations.”
• “Threaten imminent legal action, such as prosecution.”
• “Warn of pending suspension of vehicle registration and/or driving privileges.”
• “Contain a link to a fake website to ‘resolve’ the issue or make a payment.”
• “Offers of discounted DMV services.”

Ways to prevent being scammed if you receive a suspicious text claiming to be from the DMV

“The safest way to renew your vehicle registration is directly through the official DMV website,” said DMV Director Steve Gordon. “We never conduct official business through social media or other unofficial channels.”

The California DMV offered this guidance:

• Don’t click on links, as they “often lead to fake websites designed to steal your information,” the California Division of Motor Vehicles warned.
• Don’t share personal or financial information, including your driver’s license number, Social Security number, credit card information, or banking information.
• Don’t reply.

What to do if concerned about the status of your driver’s license, vehicle registration or potential tickets

Contact the California Department of Motor Vehicles directly through its official website, at https://www.dmv.ca.gov or call the DMV at 800-777-0133.

“If you have not engaged in any activity that would result in a ticket or penalty, it is almost certainly a scam,” the news release stated.

If you get one of the fraudulent texts, you can report it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, www.ic3.gov, or the Federal Trade Commission, reportfraud.ftc.gov.

This article mentions suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.

The 1978 cold case murder of a California high school teacher who was stabbed to death has been solved nearly five decades later, officials confirmed.

Diane Peterson was found dead on a hallway floor near her classroom at a San Jose high school on June 16, 1978, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office. She was 26. The killing happened on the day after summer break began when teachers returned to campus to finish cleaning their classrooms, the district attorney said.

The San Jose Police Department can now confirm that Harry “Nicky” Nickerson stabbed Peterson when he was 16, after a family relative witness came forward earlier this year. The district attorney’s office said Nickerson confessed to the murder to the family member and was seen carrying a knife with the phrase “Teacher Dear” written on it.

“When we hit a brick wall and we reached a dead end with forensic evidence, it came down to old school police work and our detectives interviewing people and trying to get answers from people. And we finally got the answer we were looking for,” Deputy District Attorney Rob Baker said at a news conference Monday, June 2.

The district attorney’s office said a family member of the victim thanked investigators for continuing to search for answers, adding that “Diane was a beautiful and wonderful person who is missed dearly.”

What happened to Harry Nickerson?

Nickerson died in from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1993, according to the district attorney’s office. While Nickerson was never convicted in Peterson’s death, he was among the prime suspects.

A 1978 booking photo of the teen appeared very similar to a composite sketch eyewitness accounts shared, the district attorney’s office said.

“He denied being involved. He said he didn’t own a knife and the case was basically cold,” Baker said, adding that Nickerson accused officers of trying to “pin” the crime on him.

In 1983, a family of a student at the school claimed they saw Nickerson kill Peterson, but the student later denied making the statement, per the district attorney. The next year, a witness told police that they saw Nickerson carry out a drug deal that implicated the teen in the murder.

Following Peterson’s death, Nickerson was arrested and convicted of various charges including armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and kidnapping, the district attorney’s office said. In 1984, he was shot and critically injured during a drug robbery, but no charges were filed in that case.

Why did the witness just come forward?

The family relative, whose identity the district attorney did not share, did not come forward for decades out of fear of retaliation from Nickerson or his family, Baker confirmed with USA TODAY.

“After exhausting all other investigative leads, including extensive forensic DNA analysis, homicide detectives reached out to the relative, who revealed the secret they had been keeping for nearly 50 years,” Baker told USA TODAY. “According to the detectives, it was an emotional moment for the relative.”

The witness was not involved in Peterson’s killing in any capacity and did not help Nickerson evade arrest so criminal charges could not be filed, Baker said.

“This marks the end of a terrible and tragic mystery,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a news release. “Ms. Peterson would have been a senior citizen today if she had not crossed paths with this violent teenager. I wish she was. I am pleased that we have solved this case, even though the murderer is not alive to face justice. I wish he was.”