WASHINGTON, Nov 24 (Reuters) – The Pentagon on Monday threatened to recall U.S. Senator Mark Kelly, a retired Navy captain, to active duty status in order to prosecute him after what it described as seditious behavior by the former astronaut and decorated veteran.

Kelly, who denies any wrongdoing and who said in a statement he would not be intimidated, joined five other Democrats in Congress with backgrounds in the U.S. military and intelligence community to urge U.S. troops to refuse any illegal orders.

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Kelly’s November 18 video message came amid heightened concerns among Democrats, echoed privately by some U.S. military officials, that the Trump administration is violating the law by ordering the U.S. military to kill suspected drug traffickers in strikes on their vessels in Latin American waters.

The Pentagon says those strikes are justified because the drug smugglers are considered terrorists.

The Pentagon statement said it was reviewing “serious allegations of misconduct” against Kelly. While it did not say what charges Kelly could face if it took such an extraordinary step, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted remarks on X accusing Kelly and the other lawmakers of sedition.

“The video made by the ‘Seditious Six’ was despicable, reckless, and false,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on X.

“Encouraging our warriors to ignore the orders of their Commanders undermines every aspect of ‘good order and discipline.’”

Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, sedition and mutiny are among the most serious offenses and can be punishable by death.

VOWS NOT TO BE SILENCED

Kelly, in a statement, said he learned of the threat from Hegseth’s social media post. He detailed his public service prior to joining the Senate representing Arizona, including 39 combat missions in Operation Desert Storm and four space shuttle flights at NASA.

“If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work,” Kelly said.

“I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution.”

The decision to recall and potentially prosecute Kelly could also be seen as a message to those recently dismissed officials, who have stayed silent following their removals.

DOES KELLY HAVE A STRONG LEGAL CASE?

Rachel VanLandingham, a former Air Force lawyer now at Southwestern Law School, said she had never seen sitting lawmakers called back to the military involuntarily, and that Kelly would have a strong legal case to get a preliminary injunction since there was no evidence of probable cause.

“He has strong legal standing to say ‘Absolutely not. I’m not going to do this’,” VanLandingham said.

Hegseth’s remarks also could undermine any Pentagon effort to prosecute Kelly since they amounted to a clear case of undue command influence and could be used as evidence that Kelly would not be able to get a fair trial, she said.

The prosecution of Kelly would raise questions about free speech rights and the separation of powers under the U.S. Constitution.

But Brenner Fissell, a professor at Villanova University School of Law, said Kelly could be facing some legal risk.

Kelly lacks the protections of Speech and Debate Clause immunity, Fissell said, which protect lawmakers for statements they make on the House or Senate floor.

“If they’re serious and they’re planning on charging him with mutiny, sedition, it seems like they would definitely try to book him in a pre-trial detention if they believe it’s that serious of an offense,” Fissell, a former defense counsel at Guantanamo Bay Military Commissions, added.

It is also the latest example of Trump’s administration seeking punishment of those Trump sees as political opponents.

Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has occasionally called for imprisoning adversaries and his Justice Department has targeted critics such as former federal officials John Bolton and James Comey.

The Pentagon cautioned that all retired service members could be subject to recall.

“All servicemembers are reminded that they have a legal obligation under the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) to obey lawful orders and that orders are presumed to be lawful. A servicemember’s personal philosophy does not justify or excuse the disobedience of an otherwise lawful order,” the Pentagon said.

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The remains of an Israeli hostage have been transferred to Red Cross custody and will soon be turned over to the Israel Defense Forces in the Gaza Strip, the IDF announced Tuesday.

“The Red Cross is on its way to the meeting point in the central Gaza Strip, where a coffin of a deceased hostage will be transferred into its custody,” the IDF said in a statement.

“The IDF requests that the public act with sensitivity and wait for the official identification, which will first be provided to the families,” the statement continued.

“Hamas is required to uphold the agreement and take the necessary steps to return all the deceased hostages,” the IDF noted.

HAMAS HANDS OVER ANOTHER ISRAELI HOSTAGE’S REMAINS AS GAZA CEASEFIRE EXCHANGES CONTINUE

It is still unknown whose remains Israel will be receiving. Prior to Tuesday, there were three deceased hostages known to still be in Hamas custody: Ran Gvili, 24, Dror Or, 48, and Sudthisak Rinthalak, 43.

Gvili served in an elite police unit and was recovering from a motorcycle injury on Oct. 7, 2023. He nevertheless rushed to respond to the attack and helped people escape from the Nova music festival. He was later killed fighting at another location and his body was taken to Gaza.

TRUMP THANKS GROUP REPRESENTING FAMILIES OF HOSTAGES FOR NOBEL PEACE PRIZE APPEAL

Or was a father of three who was killed along with his wife, Yonat Or, while protecting two of their children on Oct. 7. The two children, Noam, who was then 16, and Alma, then 13, were abducted and then released during the November 2023 ceasefire.

Rinthalak was a Thai worker employed at a kibbutz that came under attack on Oct. 7. He is one of 31 Thai workers who were kidnapped on Oct. 7. The Thai government says at least 46 of its citizens were killed during the course of the war in Gaza.

The latest release comes less than a week after President Donald Trump met with 17 surviving Israeli hostages and their loved ones at the White House.

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Trump gave each of the 17 survivors a Presidential Challenge Coin.

“You’re not a hostage anymore, today you’re heroes,” Trump said. “We love you all, and our country loves you all. You’re amazing people.” 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

As misinformation about women’s health spreads faster than ever, doctors say new research on the risks of hormonal birth control underscores the challenge of communicating nuance in the social media age.

The study, which was conducted in Sweden and tracked more than 2 million teenage girls and women less than age 50 for more than a decade, found that hormonal contraception remains safe overall, but also found small differences in breast cancer risk based on the hormones used in the formulation.

In addition, the researchers observed a small, short-term rise in breast cancer diagnoses among current or recent users. Those findings are consistent with prior large studies, including a 2017 Danish registry analysis and a 2023 meta-analysis.

It was published online on October 30 in JAMA Oncology.

Doctors say these study results won’t change how they advise patients and that women should not stop using their birth control.

Still, TikTok is flooded with factually incomplete warnings that contraceptives cause cancer and are as dangerous as smoking. Reproductive health advocates warn that studies like this can easily be taken out of context online and be reduced to a single alarming number.

Case in point: The study reported that women who had used hormonal birth control had about a 24 percent higher rate of breast cancer than women who hadn’t. But because breast cancer is still uncommon in younger women, that works out to an increase from roughly 54 to 67 breast cancer cases per 100,000 women per year – about 13 extra cases per 100,000 women, or about one extra case per 7,800 users of hormonal contraceptives per year.

Co-authors Asa Johansson and Fatemeh Hadizadeh, epidemiologists at Uppsala University, said the rise is modest and short-term, with risk highest during current use and fading within five to 10 years after stopping.

Rachel Fey, interim co-CEO of Power to Decide – a group whose mission is to provide accurate information on sexual health and contraceptive methods – said that kind of nuance is exactly what tends to disappear on social media.

“I get really angry at this because it’s designed to scare people like me away from birth control, which has made my life so much better in so many ways,” she said. “It’s really frustrating … especially when it’s given without context. And then in this era of social media, it can just take off without anybody who knows what they’re talking about providing that context.”

The researchers also found the risk was slightly higher with certain progestins such as desogestrel – found in combined oral contraceptives like Cyred EQ, Reclipsen, Azurette, and Pimtrea – but did not increase with others, such as medroxyprogesterone acetate injections, sold under the brand name Depo‑Provera.

How to interpret the findings

Some experts say the results should be viewed with care because the study counted both invasive breast cancers and early, noninvasive lesions known as in situ tumours, growths that may never become life-threatening. Including these precancerous cases could make the overall risk of clinically significant disease appear higher than it is.

“A substantial proportion of the ‘cases’ would never have progressed to invasive breast cancer,” said Lina S Morch, a senior researcher and team leader at the Danish Cancer Institute. Morch was not associated with the Swedish study. She added that experts should wait for more data separating early-stage and advanced cancers before making new rules or warnings about specific hormones.

The doctor-patient conversation

Even as scientists debate how to interpret the finer points of the data, physicians emphasise that for most patients, the study reinforces what they already discuss in the exam room: That hormonal birth control is broadly safe, and decisions should be tailored to each woman’s needs and values.

Katharine White, chief of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Boston Medical Center, said this study won’t change how she talks to her patients.

“When counselling patients about their contraceptive options, I focus on their past experiences with birth control, their medical history, and what’s important to them about their birth control method and pregnancy planning (if applicable),” White wrote in an email. “Side effects and risks of methods are already a key part of my counselling about both hormonal and non-hormonal methods.”

Other doctors noted there are other contraceptive options.

Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, chief of General Internal Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, said, “For those who prefer hormone-free contraception, the copper IUD offers safe, convenient, highly effective contraception for over a decade after placement, and is rapidly reversible when pregnancy is desired,” referring to a type of long-acting intrauterine device.

Mary Rosser, director of Integrated Women’s Health at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, said this was a large, high-quality study that looked at many types of hormones over many years. But she added that doctors shouldn’t change their advice yet.

Johansson and Hadizadeh stressed that the results should guide shared decision-making, not cause alarm. “It may be reasonable to consider formulations associated with lower observed risk in our data,” they said. They noted that products containing medroxyprogesterone acetate, drospirenone, or levonorgestrel were linked to lower risk, while long-term use of desogestrel-only contraceptives might be best avoided when other options fit.

Keeping the risk in perspective

Hormonal birth control provides many health benefits beyond pregnancy prevention. It can lighten heavy periods, ease pain from endometriosis, and lower the risk of ovarian and uterine cancers for years after stopping. Morch noted that even small risks are worth discussing, but said decisions should be guided by women’s “values and preferences”.

White said it’s important to see the big picture. “The risk of an unintended pregnancy is 85 percent for people who do not use contraception – so any risks of birth control need to be weighed against the risk of an unexpected pregnancy,” she wrote.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that partners with PolitiFact and produces in-depth journalism about health issues.