The answer to Monday’s Wordle has been changed amid speculation that the US Supreme Court could lift the legal right of Americans to an abortion.

The New York Times, which bought the game for at least one million US dollars earlier this year, said “fetus” – the American spelling of “foetus” – is “outdated”.

It changed the answer to “shine” for “as many solvers as possible”, but issues with Wordle’s software meant some were left with the original solution.

The company said in a statement: “Some users may see an outdated answer that seems closely connected to a major recent news event.

“This is entirely unintentional and a coincidence – today’s original answer was loaded into Wordle last year.

“Because of the current Wordle technology, it can be difficult to change words that have already been loaded into the game.

“When we discovered last week that this particular word would be featured today, we switched it for as many solvers as possible.”

It comes after the leak of a Supreme Court ruling which would overturn the landmark Roe v Wade case, scrapping abortion rights that have been guaranteed in the US since the 1970s.

If the draft is finalised, it is expected to prompt abortion bans across roughly half of the 50 states.

The Times statement continued: “When we acquired Wordle in January, it had been built for a relatively small group of users.

“We’re now busy revamping Wordle’s technology so that everyone always receives the same word.”