you are watching "getting answers" on abc 7 where we talk about questions and put into bay area and get answers for you in real time. are agencies about to fall off the fist a cliff and fail? sacramento held a hearing yesterday to prevent thacrippling scenario. secretary scott weiner will join us to talk about the dire scenario we could be facing. "jeopardy masters" continues this week and we have not one but two bay area sherwood being on "jeopardy" has given them, including a unique platform to champion transgender rights, but first, reproductive rights are being fought over

nationwide. a federal appeals court's hearing arguments in a case that will determine if a critical abortion pill that has been taken by women were two -- for two decades should remain available in the u.s. ob/gyn and executive director bay area health joins us. explain why today's appellate court hearing is happening and what is at stake. >> a lot is at stake. the access to mifepristone, which is one of a two-drug regimen for medication abortion, is what is at stake here. what is happening is the fifth circuit appeals court is hearing arguments on why or why not this medication should remainn shels or retain fda approval. this is happening because a ju appointed judge by former president trump, ruled that it should lose fda approval.

it then went to the appeals court. long story short, they are deciding if this drug should stay on the market, and if so, how it can be accessible. kristen: depending on which way the supreme court rules, if a person could be taken away even from those who live in california nationwide? >> correct. absolutely. we don't know quite how that would go or how it could be enforced. as of today in states such as california, you can and will still be able to get mifepristone. it will require a bit of a workaround to get it from international sources for community providers. you can get more information on how to do that on our website. kristen: can you explain to us why abortion pill have become more critical in the wake of roe

v. wade being overturned? >> sure. we know medication abortion is how the majority of abortions are carried out, so it allows people legal abortions in the privacy of their own homes. it has become more of a target because the antiabortion movement realizes they can shut down clinics but cannot as easily control people having safe, legal abortion in their own homes, hence the new targeting of these medications, which have been fda approved and medically safe for over 20 years. kristen: it has not been that long since roe v. wade was overturned, but there have been a lot of efforts to overturn access to abortions and we are seeing that play out in north carolina. what is the current status of abortion access if you look across the 50 states? >> abortion access is a mess and a crisis, and it's because as more of these laws passed, access gets restricted. it means people have to travel more, pay more, or potentially try unsafe options.

not everybody is aware that you can get medically safe abortions in all 50 states. opleill that mifepristone for medication abortion is banned a whole when it's not because these stories have what is called a chilling effect. people who file these stories et and that's why they do these things. kristen: e nvepills still w available, is e any evidence, data that shows in any that wo wn'mes'thaloverall e roe v. wade was overturned? >> absolutely. we have seen that more complications have happened. there's a study out of texas that showed that maternal mortality and morbidity increased after sb eight when into effect, and now multiply that everywhere. we are seeing this happen with people dealing with more issues

of hemorrhage needing emergency surgeries because their abortion care was not delivered in a timely fashion and we are only at the tip of the iceberg. it takes time to collect this data in a more formal, robust way, and the results will be more concerning. kristen: the judges in the fifth circuit hearing today's hearing, i understand they are all gop nominated. reading the tea leaves and when you listen to the questions today, the comments, how do you think this will go? >> reading the tea leaves, we are not optimistic. steeped in just the questions did not seem to be too steeped in any sort of medicine and seemed to be political, so i'm not hopeful, but i do hope it goes to the supreme court, that we can maybe cross our fingers and get a ruling that we want, but that is why we cannot depend on these courts, and a great thing you can do today is you can order these things even

before you are pregnant, so another actionable item where people can take control and take their power back. kristen: what is the best place to order them? >> you can go to mayday.com information on how to do that as you can decide for yourself. we also link on our website. we also talk about privacy and how to get supndrtporom our website, you can see where you want to go ifha tis shiet kristen: could the ruling precedent that could diminish the fda? >> 100%. why would they then spend billions of dollars potentially sending to drugs to market and paying for fda approval to only know that it could potentially ev rd se denied based on the politics of a single judge

in a small town in texas? it goes far beyond abortion, and that's something i hope more and more people do realize. kristen: do you think a national ban on abortion could be on the horizon? a lot of people think a federal bill has no chance. that we used to think would never happen. we know extreme antiabortion groups want a national abortion ban and they have a lot of money and a lot of power, but we know that if people show up and vote, that will never happen because the vast majority of americans do not want these fans, and even more, including from both sides of the aisle, not that the government should be playing a role in this. kristen: can i ask why it is that we don't see will daily protests, daily news conferences even from democrats, women on abortion rights? why do you think that is?

>> that's a great question. i feel like i'm protesting every day on social media, but number one, people are scared and frightened because of how these laws are written. they are scared to speak up, number two, the biden administration has not been aggressive enough. it is a rare occurrence that he talks about abortion and i would love to see more leadership in that regard and seeing more support from the top down so people in ban states can feel secure. quick thank you so much for joining us. -- kristen: thank you for joining us. it could be the end of the line for public transit. the dire prediction made, so why are public transit agencies in the state financially struggling? we will get some

kristen: bay area leaders are sounding the alarm that a doomsday scenario for bart and bay area transportation agencies is possible unless governor newsom more, not less, funding to transit in the upcoming budget. joining us live not to discuss it is state senator scott wiener, a leading advocate, to talk about the future. thanks for your time. >> thank you for having me. kristen: what was your conclusion from yesterday's hearing about where bay area transit is heading? >> my two conclusions, first that we have a big problem if we do not act, than in the next 12 to 24 months, we will see massive service cuts. muni has said it will

20 bus lines entirely. bart has talked about ending weekend service entirely and reducing weekday service, so it is a big, impending problem. but the big news and the second take away is it is extremely solvable. we need about $1 billion a year for the whole state for every transit system in the state for five years which in the context of your budget is very doable, but that amount will allow us to avoid these problems. kristen: i think you are saying if you had $5 billion more over the next five years, right, we could avoid that scenario? but gavin newsom is looking at the budget deficit for california coming up, so i think he wants to take some of that out of transit. is that right? >> yeah, so the governor has proposed cutting $2 billion in transit capital projects, which is bad, but what we are talking about is operating money because

what happened is during the pandemic, ridership fell dramatically. it is recovering and going up, but not as quickly as we would like, and federal rescue funds are running out, so we have a temporary problem for the next few years where revenue is still recovering but is not quite there yet, but the federal funding is running out. if these systems unravel, it's going to be very hard to put humpty dumpty back together again. that would be horrific for anyone who relies on transit to get to work or to school or the grocery store. terrible congestion, more cars on the road, and will undermine our climate goals. kristen: you talked about how the pandemic put some of these agencies in a deep hole. a lot of riders left, were working from home and did not come back, but are other big cities and regions also facing a big hole? or is there something unique to

us? i've seen many surveys that show many riders are not satisfied with their experience on bart or muni. >> in new york city, the transit system has the same problem, and the state of new york just stepped in with bridge funding to make sure the new york city subway and bus lines don't collapse, so we should be doing what new york did. i ride muni all the time. for me, it is i think a good experience. it can always do better, but it gets hundreds of thousands of people around every single day, people that don't have a car. bart has had problems, but it has increased police presence on their trains, has doubled the frequency of cleaning and deep cleaning of the trains, and they have more personnel in their stations, so bart is taking these issues seriously, and

unless we let the systems fall apart, i think we have a great future for public transportation. i think they are making the changes they need, and people rely on these systems. try to imagine the bay area with a much smaller, more limited muni or with a dramatically smaller and less frequent bart system with no service on the weekend. that is unacceptable. we cannot let that happen. kristen: if the dire cuts to service that you worn about could happen, which commuters will be affected most? certain segments of the population most impacted? >> yeah, well, we know a disproportionate number of people who rely on public transit -- in other words, people who do not have a car or other option -- are disproportionately seniors, younger people including students, low income people including low-wage workers, and people of color, so we will be

really shooting ourselves in the foot. literally workers who will not be able to get to work, and even if you don't take transit, the last thing you should want is to have a huge number of additional cars on the road because if transit is not an option, we will just see more cars on the roads and freeways, more congestion, and it will be worse for everyone. we all have a reason to support public transportation. kristen: before i let you go, you have launched an exploratory committee overrunning for house speaker nancy pelosi's seat. what should we make of that? >> i'm currently in the state capitol, so i cannot talk about politics. what i will say is i love serving people san francisco and san mateo county and in whatever role i'm in, i will be working very hard, as i always have, to serve the community.

kristen: we should have asked you to walk the two blocks over to a park. thank you so much for joining us today to talk about the state of transit. really appreciate it. >> thank you. kristen: coming up next, a meeting of the minds. a jeopardy chant inspired by another elite player is meeting her inspiration for the first time right n

kristen: have you seen "jeopardy" lately? earlier this week, two champions dazzled us with their vast knowledge, and coincident, both have bay area roots, and both are breaking barriers as transgender women. joining us live, jeopardy chant hannah wilson and oakland's "jeopardy" champion amy schneider. this is so incredible. are you two meeting for the very

first time, like, right here right now? >> essentially, yes. we have an in contact a little bit, but we have not spoken before. quick snow, and hopefully, we will actually meet in person at some point, but, yeah, this is as close as we have gotten at some -- gotten so far. kristen: hannah, congratulations on your eight-game winning streak, ending monday night. $220,000, right? >> yeah, something like that. kristen: did you think you would come this far? >> absolutely not. i was kind of going in thinking it would be really cool if i won one game, i think that would be amazing. but getting on jeopardy is so hard. even doing it is a dream come true, but then i won a game and then a second game and a third game, and it just kept going. i was like -- almost could not believe what was happening. i was on cloud nine. kristen: oh, my gosh.

how did you first get interested? i heard it was kind of in your blood, right? >> yeah, i've been watching basically since i was a little kid. it was just on tv at dinner every single week night, and i would just play along and just cap doing it basically for my whole life, so it was just always there. kristen: and, amy, i know you have been following hannah's run. you tweeted something i want to share with viewers. huge congratulations to hannah wilson, welcome to the "jeopardy" guild of "jeopardy" champion guild of trans women. someone will be in contact with you shortly to teach you the handshake. >> it is a small but growing crowd. i've spoken to others in the past who may have been pre-transition. one of us should put up a discord and get this actually

going. kristen: are you the one coming up with the secret handshake? >> that was just a joke, should get something going. >> yeah, we need to work something out. kristen: and it was amy that inspired you to go on television, right? >> yeah, i saw her on tv when i was early in my transition. she was just so good about encouraging me to apply and, like, i did it, and i got on. it was just, like, incredible. kristen: how does it make you feel to hear that? >> it feels amazing. i have heard similar from other people. like hannah, i've been watching jeopardy my whole life, and like hannah, i have not often seen people like us on it. i am really excited about the fact that this

the more of us that are on there, the more are encouraged to try to get on themselves, and eventually, nobody will need to be inspired to be on "jeopardy." they will just be on it. kristen: in the meantime, your inspiration has really open a lot of doors. i think we have video of when you went to the white house in march. that has got to be absolutely incredible. talk to us about that. is that even surreal? you are at the podium. >> i have had so many surreal moments over the last 18 months or so, but that was definitely one. i have gotten to know what they feel like. it is one of those things where you are there and it is almost strange that it does not seem stranger. it is just everything is there. it is a physical desk with people standing there. it is a room you are in, but it

is also the actual white house and it is a very bizarre feeling and not one i ever anticipated having. >> right, and really stepping into the role and responsibilities of being a role model. >> yeah. you know, it is not the best time in american history to be trends right now, though it is probably among the best, but we have been targeted a lot lately, and i'm just glad any time somebody is talking about trans women competing on "jeopardy" or anything else about how we are living our lives and not attacking us. kristen: absolutely. i have been watching you the past few weeks including last night on "jeopardy masters." that darn james hall sour -- that darn danjames

right? >> i'm enjoying it in many ways, but in others, i'm not getting the results i wanted, and that is frustrating, but we really connected. almost all of us were at the last tournament of champions and then james came in, and, yes, he is a game show villain, but he really is a very sweet guy. we just all, like -- every time there was a taping, we really look forward to hanging out with each other. we got a chat going. we all really get along. i think you can see how much fun we had with each other during all this. it was a lot of pressure but we also all were having a good time. kristen: i could tell that. and you can tell that about james. you can tell under that biting sarcastic humor there's a really sweet guy. i want you to advice because no doubt hannah will return for tournament of

champions at some point, right? i don't know how i practice that. >> i would say the buzzer, you absolutely do not -- do not think about it. do not assess how you are doing. because if you are assessing how you're doing -- and this happened to me a couple of times . my too slow, or am i too fast? about addition, that's great advice as well. what is next for you? no you are also in the limelight. what are you going to do with that? >> i

i have been drawing a lot lately. i'm taking a class right now that is children's illustration. i don't know if i'm going to be publishing a book any time soon, but i think it would be fun. kristen: two "jeopardy" champions in one place. thank you for joining us today. quick thank you for having us. kristen: it is great. you can see amy but her brain to the test again tonight on abc 7. the test again tonight on abc 7. she goes up against the grades (bell dinging) how's john? oh, much better. that was quite a scare. got us thinking about a lot of things. like life insurance. if something happened to either one of us, we'd really be in trouble. but where can we get coverage with john's health problems on a fixed income? go with a sure thing.

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if you've been thinking about getting life insurance to help your family with funeral expenses and other bills you may leave behind, call for free information today. there's no obligation, and you'll receive a free beneficiary planner just for calling. (bell dings) same time next week? sure thing. kristen: thanks so much for joining us for "getting answers"

today. we will be here every weekday at 3:00 answering questions from viewers >> david: tonight reports of a dangerous scene in new york city, prince harry and duchess mag and reporting a car chase throughout the streets of new york, calling it near catastrophic after leaving an event in manhattan. meghan markle's mother in the car, and laying in on the scare, paparazzi driving on sidewalks the wrong way down one-way streets. video showing the way that they tried to get an a taxi, the mayor urging everyone to remember the reckless behavior that led to princess diana's death. also in new york tonight, the man who intentionally drove his truck into new yorkers killing them face to face with his victims. convicted terrorist s