>> this program was made possible by contributions from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ judy: good evening and welcome to this "pbs newshour" special, the end of roe. i'm judy woodruff. the supreme court today delivered one of its consequentiadecisions and generations, ending the constitutional right to an abortion. overturning roe v. wade. five decades after an earlier court first guaranteed those rights. the ramifications of this decision are going to be

far-reaching. but tonight we are going to look closely at the court's decision. what will change in many states, and how this will affect women and families around the country. john yang begins with a report on the decision and the immediate reaction today. >> outside the supreme court, jubilation and celebration for some. >> my body. >> my choice >> for others, rage coupled with resolve. today's decision had been much since early may when justice alito's draft opinion was leaked. the ruling ends the constitutional right to an abortion, a right that had been the law for 50 years. alito wrote the majority opinion. the liberal justices, stephen breyer, sonia sotomayor, and

elena kagan -- dissented. john roberts did not join roe his conservative colleagues and overturning roe. he said there where's no need to do that to hold up a 15 week mississippi ban at the center of the case. president biden urged congress to act. >> the court has done what it has never done -- expressly take away a constitutional right that is so fundamental to so many americans that had already been recognized. the court's decision to do so will have real and immediate consequences. the only way we can secure a woman's right to choose and the balance that existed is for congress to restore the protections of roe v. wade as federal law. >> in a statement former president trump called the ruling the biggest "win for life ina generation and saying it was

only made possible because i delivered everything is possible. house speaker nancy pelosi weighed in. >> american women today have less freedoms than their mothers . for 50 years, a constitutional right. one having the right to choose. the hypocrisy is raging. but the harm is endless. >> house republican leader kevin mccarthy claimed a win. >> the people have won a victory. the right to life has been vindicated. the voiceless will finally have a voice. this great nation can now live up to its core principle, that all are created equal, not born equal, created equal. >> today's ruling is likely to lead to abortion bans in half of states. some have laws triggered by the overturning of roe, or pre-roe laws on the book. the michigan attorney general

says her states 1931 law is un enforceable. >> in the event that the court of appeals or the michigan supreme court were to overturn that, then the 1931 law would spring back into effect. as of right now it is unenforceable. so, everything remains the same as it was yesterday at this time, but just for now >> corporate america also respond up or the walt disney company announced it would pay for employees travel if it was needed to access family planning and reproductive care. citigroup, j.p. morgan chase, netflix and amazon had already pledged to offer similar benefits. from overseas leaders weighed in the ruling. british prime minister boris johnson. >> i think it is a big step backwards. i have always believed in a woman's right to choose. and i stick to that view. that is why the u.k. has the laws that it does. >> canadian prime minister

justin trudeau tweeted it was horrific. a million macron wrote -- emmanuel macron wrote abortion is a fundamental right. the court outside the supreme court crew and across the country in detroit, boston and new york, protesters spilled into the streets to decry the end of a long-standing constitutional right. i am john yang. judy: to unpack today's opinion, including its conservative majority and the liberal dissent we turn to marcia coyle of the national law journal. this is a big one at put this in context in the pantheon of major supreme court decisions, where does this one fit? >> this is huge. it's been, i can't even remember when the supreme court last revoted a right that an american

citizen held. so, this one was nearly 50 years old, had also been reaffirmed multiple times. judy: rolling the clock back. is that right? >> absolutely, it does. it is going to be -- there will be a patchwork of laws around the nations, either having abortion legal or illegal. will be see some of the deaths and injuries that occurred pre- roe when desperate women had gone to back alley type abortion s? it will depend on how some of these abortion laws are structured. judy: we did have an inkling this was coming, the draft opinion written by justice alito in may. we see some of that same language in this opinion. "we hold that roe and casey must b overruled. the constitution makes no reference to abortion and no right is implicitly projected by

any cut -- protected by any such provision including the roe one on which the defenders of roe and casey rely. that provision has been held to guarantee some rights that are not mentioned in the constitution, but any such right must be deeply rooted in this nation's history and tradition. the right to abortion does not fall within this category." explain what the justice, justice alito was getting at here. >> judy, the conservative majority on this court approaches the constitution by, and constitutional rights, by looking at the text of the constitution, tradion, and history. justice alito in the abortion opinion he said there was nothing in the text that supports an abortion right. there are many respected american historians who disagree, and also challenge the ability of the court and judges

in general to do the kind of historical research that is required to reach these kinds of conclusions. ju: as we see the chief on to the majority but he said " it is not necessary to decide more to dispose of a case than it is necessary not to decide more. surely we should adhere closely to principles of judicial restraint here where the broader path the court chooses entails repudiating a constitutional right we have not only previously recognized but also expressly reaffirmed, applying the doctrine of stare decisis." what is the chief justice saying. >> he wanted to only deal with the line that roe and casey drew about abortion bans. you cannot ban abortion before viability at 24to 24 weeks.

he felt like that was not a clearly justified line he's concerned about the course legitimacy and making this ruling at this time. and he agreed with that part of th alito majority opinion that did get rid of the viability line, but he would not come as you said, go so far as to overrule the roe entire roe and casey decisions. judy: we know there was a strongly worded dissent by the three liberal justices. here is part of what they wrote. "as a matter of constitutional substance, the majority's opinion has all the flaws its method would suggest because laws in 1868 deprive women of any control over their bodies, the majority approves states doing so today. today's decision strips women of agency over what even the majority agrees, contested and contestable moral issue, and forces her to carry out the state's will, whatever the

circumstances and whatever the harm it will wreak on her and her family. it takes away her liberty." >> the dissent had a lot of problems with the majority opinion. first the history, the point justice breyer, kagan and soto mayor made clearly is that the history the majority relied upon, the laws were all made by men. women at the time did not have righs, basically any rights at all. that was one flaw. the other very important flaw they felt was that the majority failed to stand by precedents. and that is known as stare d ecisis. they felt the majority did not properly applied the factors that the court is applied when determining whether to overrule an earlier precedent. factors like reliance and workability. so, i think those were the two main takeaways.

one other thing i would add about the majority opinion that i think is kind of important is that going forward, how will courts judge abortion regulations and restrictions? the majority opinion says that all a state has to do is justify that regulation by a rational, reasonable basis, and that is considered the easiest form of constitutional scrutiny. judy: what does that mean for the state courts? >> state and federal courts will be probably upholding many more abortion regulations and resurgence than they have done in the past. judy: marcia coyle, beginning to digest this most significant decision handed down today by the supreme court. thank you. >> my pleasure. judy: we are going to hear from leaders on both sides of this issues about what comes next. first, i'm joined by the president of the susan b anthony

pro-life america organization. welcome to the newshour. so, what is your reaction, the reaction of the anti abortion movement how much of a victory is this? >> for the pro-life movement this is a culminating moment of 50 years of what we believe is the greatest human rights movemenof our time. and abortion every single abortion there are two that must be service and the experience of women since 1973 when they were told this would be the great liberator has not been that, it has been the opposite. and now when the states and the, uh, congress. every elected body will be able to discuss this issue in the public square, the merits of the arguments will be meted out in ways that are not clauoseted. and the will of the people will make its way into the law. and women will be served in ways

they deserve. judy: i do want to ask you because you told another reporter today who said that you and others will work to ban abortion in every state and in every legislation " including the congress." is your goal to ban abortion nationwide? >> if you look at what i said, you would see that will work and so will the pro-life movement in all of the legislators, the democrats who do not like abortion after the first trimester to work -- state to state to state. north carolina will be different from vermont and california the state law will reflect the will of those people. judy: we see public opinion polls have been done by pew, the newshour has commissioned polls in the last couple of months that show still the majority of

americans think roe , thought that roe should not be overturned. that most people believe american women should have a right to an abortion. so, how does that public vie square with what we are seeing todayw? >> judy, i have to believe that you have to look at the rest of those polls. when you look at the rest of those polls, you see the democrats, women, diverse groups of people, it is not a partisan issue. think that abortion should at least be restricted in the second and third trimester. this seems reasonable to most people. it does not please both sides. but it definitely something that is consensus in this nation, doesn't reflect that poll bit you just communicated and this is because people want limits that roe simply would never have allowed, and that has not been understood. judy: i want to ask you one question and one that comes up from the anti-abortion movement

and that is the fundamental unfairness of saying to women who don't have the financial means, who live in states where abortion will no longer be legal, that they are in effect either going to give birth to a child they are not prepared to give birth to, whereas women who have financial means are going to be able to travel somewhere if they want an abortion to get it. what about that? >> that would be fair if that were true but pro-life, not anti-abortion is pro-life at birth and through light-- throughout life. it is my personal commitment. every leader that i know, and not just of the small number of people but the governors i've spoken to, 22 so far, in the states that are most likely to limit abortion very early on, that commitment to those who are perceived as outliers, people who have received -- are perceived as can't manage

allowing their children to be born, those of the people we go to first, those of the people that we love. love is at the center of this movement and is exactly what makes us ourish and why we will succeed. judy: thank you very much. the president of susan b anthony pro-life america. we appreciate it. >> thank you. judy: now to alexis michael johnson, the president of a planned parenthood action fund, the political arm of the country's largest abortion provider. thank you very much for joining us. what is your reaction to this historic decision? >> obviously, i am devastated. it is -- so challenging to have lost faith and hope in, in the institution that controls literally our bodies, our freedom. the fact they came out with this decision even though we saw a leaked version of it less than a month ago, it feels even harder

to see it come to fruition. judy: what do you think the practical effect of it is going to be for american women, for american families? >> the practical effect is that people will have to go to great lengths to get out of their states, to get access to care. we know that 26 states are poised to ban access to abortion . 36 million women and non-binary and trans folk will be affected by this decision. we know that people that will be most impacted are likely to be low income, rural, black, brown, indigenous communities who may lack the resources to get out of state. it means that many peoe will be forced into pregnancy, and that will have a devastating consequence for the families they are currently caring for,

much less themselves and their communities. judy: and what does it mean from planned parenthood and other organizations like yours that support abortion rights? what do you do now? >> look, i've lost hope in the court, but i have a lot of hope and the people. back, and that is exec with what we are planning to do. we are mobilizing people across the country to ensure that they know what is at stake, to en sure that every lawmaker, every corporation, every university understands the impact this will have on their constituents, on their workforce, on their communities, on their students, and to ensure that no one gets to stay neutral in this moment. no one gets to say, well, that is a controversial issue. i do not want to touch. it will start to impact your community and you will have to take a stand and we will force evyone who is in every

community to have that conversation. judy: and what about the effect politically? this is a midterm election year. what do you see happening now? >> i think president biden it today, his remarks to the country. roe is on the ballot this is going to be a driving force for millions of people to the polls. we know that people are devastated and outraged and they should be. because a court just overturned 49 years of precedent, they took away a right we have guaranteed a movement for 49 years and people are enraged. we know the midterm election is certainly going to be an incredibly important, competitive set of elections, and for everyplace from the senate to the house, to governors races across the country and every state legislature. judy: the anti-abortion movement

many leaders are saying they are not stopping with this. they are going to look to try to ban abortion nationwide. how will you respond to that? >> they've been forecasting this for so long. we have to fight back and be just as relentless to fight their extremism. and that is exactly what we are going to do. can you imagine in a state like new york or california when these laws start to encroach upon those freedoms, people will be riled up and wenow they will be out in the streets to fight that -- fight back. judy: alexis mcgill johnson, the president of the planned parenthood action fund. thank you very much. in many ways life in this country for people with on wanted pregnancies after today's reversal of roe won't be the same as it was pre-1972,. medically induced abortions have

become the method at half of american women who end their pregnancies. for a generation of women who remember what life was like before roe, they see far too many parallels to that era. onion of aahs has that part of the story. >> it was just not something that any woman should have to go through. period. just as simple as that. >> decades ago, now 81-year-old roberta was a reporter in new york city and her 20's when she had an unplanned pregnancy. she traveled to a clinic in puerto rico for what was then an illegal procedure in new york state and across much of america, an abortion. >> it was the kind of hospital where women gave birth as well is had abortions. so you heard babies crying and you saw women who were there for the same reason you were. i had an at acetic. it did not totally take -- i had

an anesthetics. . it was humiliating because i knew i was doing something illegal. >> before the 19 supreme court decision roe v. wade, abortions were prohibited in 33 states and only allowed in special circumstances in 13 13 others, but women in those states still have abortions. some through unsafe back alley procedures. others tried to induce abortions themselves. >> we had almost no options. you would either put yourself at risk by self inflicted of an abortion, using knitting needles, anything that could stop -- pills. there was no other option. >> billie has been working on reproductive rights since 1971. at the time, women would also travel to terminate their pregnancies, abroad or to new york where abortions were legalized in 1970. but that kind of travel was

impossible for many women she counseled in florida. >> a black woman came and we started giving her this information and she said, i do not have any money to go to new york. i don't know anybody there. a month or two later, she died. from a self-induced abortion. so, that really opened my eyes that even if we had access to abortion, that women did not have the means by which to pay for that. they still did not really have access. >> throughout the 1950's and 1960's, an estimated 200,000 to 1.2 abortion abortion million illegals were performed a year in the united states. hundreds of women died every year from botched procedures. in the early 1960's, new york city alone, abortion accounted

for half of all childbirth-related deaths among nonwhite and puerto rican women. >> before roe, there were septic abortion wards in hospitals of women who had tried to either induce their own abortion or we nt to someone who wasn't reliable, was not trustworthy and had done damage to them. >> as graduatea student in 1965, heather booth co-founded an underground abortion service using the code name. >> we can use my phone, but change it so they do not ask for elinor. how about jane. nobody is called jane anymore. we had the phone numbers on bulletin boards around chicago. pregnant? call jane. >> the janes airing on hbo tells the story of those woman who called themselves the service between 19 ski nine and 1973 using secret communications and

safehouses to protect each other and the women seeking help, the janes perform thousands of safe and affordable abortions. >> women with launch into these stories. i have three children. my husband is leaving her my husband is six. i'm 17 i want to go to college and i have the scholarship and if i do not do this now. they were really cogent and important reasons, but we would really try to make clear to them they did not have to justify themselves. >> what we were trying to do was to create a caring community where there was a women's orientation of support, of hel ping women go through this decision and on with the rest of their life. >> in 1972, the chicago police department arrested seven members of the service and charge them with 11 counts of abortion and conspiracy to

commit abortion. one of the janes remembers that day. >> they took me out to the parking not where they cuffed me and took me into this van, an ordinary police van, metal, col d. i was nervous, physically uncomfortable, shuddering from the cold. >> she was the first to be let out on by bail who recently had a child. >> i went andtood -- maybe i have to cry. and went and stood next to his he woke up. so, i picked him up and nursed him and while i was nursing him i could feel the tension which i had not be conscious of juste --streaming out of my body.

>> a few months after their arrest, the supreme court legalized abortion nationwide. the charges of were dro pped. 50 years on, the supreme court's decision to reverse roe has left many devastated. >> women's lives will be, will be -- thwarted, diminished because their freedoms are diminished. it means you're raped, a victim of incessant. t, in many states you will not have an option to have another direction in your life. >> i think it is going to be worse for a lot of women. it is going to be worse for women who live on lower incomes. >> avery believes like in the days before roe women will find a way around restrictions. >> this might seem like a step

backward, but i think it is going to have a different kind of effect. it is an unjust law. and these young women are not going to ke a backseat to anybody. they're going to do it. i have faith in them. they will. because their lives depend on it. >> back in new york, she says getting her own illegal abortion motivated her to report on other women's abortion stories and months after the 1973 roe v. wade decision, she wrote a groundbreaking piece in ms. magazine illustrated with a gruesome photo of a woman who died years earlier from a botche d abortion. the headline was "never again." >> it was entitled "never again," because ironically we thought never again would women have to go through what jerry santoro did who is pictured in the photograph that accompanied the article did on a motel room floor.

we thought never again. who ever thought the whole thing could be turned around? >> but with the supreme court's decision, women now again contend with the world without roe. judy: what's clear is that we are going to be dissecting this decision by the supreme court for months and years to come. thank you for spending part of your evening with us on this important day. tune in saturday and sunday to pbs news weekend and online and pbs.org/newshour for the latest updates on the reaction and the impact of this decision. for those stations staying with us for "washington week," we discuss the political consequences of the ruling with a panel. for those stations going to other program coming -- other programming, i will sign off. to all of you, thank you for watching. i'm judy woodruff.

have a good night. "washington week" starts in a few moments. >> this program was made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. c >> 50 years of federal abortion rights ended. >> i am furious. letting these people make decisions over your own body, a woman's body, is appalling. >> rage. >> i'm grateful to the lord that it has been overturned. >> and joy. after the supreme court overturns roe v. wade, paving the way for abortion bans in multiple states. >> let's be very clear, the health and life of women in this nation are now at risk. >> the impact already sweeping the country as clinics make changes and close their doors. >> the people have won a victory.