♪ lisa: good evening and hello. i'm lisa desjardins, geoff bennett is away. on this pbs news weekend... after last week's supreme court ruling allowing people to carry firearms in public, new york legislators pass stricter gun legislation. then... the options and obstacles for president biden as he pledges to protect some access to abortion. and... our weekend spotlight with legendary u.s. soccer star, briana scuy, about her life and groundbreaking career. briana: a lot of people would assume my greatest save was the penalty kick in 99. but my greatest save was myself, was me. lisa: all that and the latest headlines on tonight's "pbs news weekend." ♪

>> major funding for "pbs news weekend" has been provided by -- >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect. we of a variety of our no contract plans and u.s.-based customer servi team can find one that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individua and institutions -- ♪ and friends of the "newshour." ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs

station from viewers like you. thank you. lisa: good evening. we start tonight in texas, and yet anotr turn on abortion. late last night, the state's supreme court ruled against and seemed to close a temporar four-day window to abortion access. a lower court had ruled that a century-old ban could not go into effect. it allowed providers to resume abortion services for very early pregnancy this tuesday. now the state's now, the state supreme court's decision to overrule has clinics again sorting out if they can provide any abortions. we will have more on the ripple effects from the u.s. supreme court's abortion decision later in the program. also in texas, the embattled district police chief for uvalde schools has resigned from his position on the city council, amidst a growing outcry. he was already placed on administrative leave from the school district. chief pete arredondo came under fierce criticism for his

decision making during the mass shooting at robb elementary school that left 19 students and two teachers dead. new york has reimposed some limits on firearms, even after the supreme court recently struck down the state's limits on carrying firearms outside the home. applicants for a handgun license will need to attest to their character, temperament, and judgment in order to be entrusted with a weapon. republicans decried the measure, but governor kathy hochul said it was her responsibility to keep new yorkers safe. gov. hochul: i refuse to surrender my right as governor to protect new yorkers from gun violence or any other form of harm. we're not going backwards. they may think they can change our lives with the stroke of a pen, but we have pens too. lisa: california this week passed some of the nation's toughest rules and restrictions in the effort to reduce plastic waste. the state's new law requires that all single-use packaging, which includes plastic food takeout containers, be recyclable or compostable by the year 2032.

the law also requires that plastic producers foot the bill for the costs of recycling. and, if you're hitting the road or hopping on a flight this holiday weekend, you may be hit with some serious headaches. aaa predicts this fourth of july weekend will be the second busiest for travel since 2000, with nearly 48 million americans travelling out of town. that demand has especially affected air travel. since friday, over 10,000 flights so far have been cancelled or delayed. still to come on "pbs news weekend"... we look at what the biden administration can and cannot do as it looks for ways to protect abortion access. and... former u.s. soccer star, briana scurry, opens up about the highs and lows of her historic career. ♪ >> this is "pbs news weekend" from weta studios in washington, home of the "pbs newshour," weeknights on pbs.

lisa: this week, president biden confronted two realities about abortion in america and protecting access to it. first, political reality -- meeting with governors friday, the president admitted he lacks the votes right now from within his own party to reform the filibuster and legalize abortion nationally. pres. biden: congress is going to have to act to codify roe into federal law. there's a lot at stake here. in the meantime, i want to hear what the governors are doing, talk about my plans, and discuss what we can do until congress acts. this is not over. it's not over. lisa: but, the president also faces a legal reality -- whatever action he takes, he is limited by the letter of the law. to walk us through those legal limits on the president, as many watch what actions he may take, we turn to leah litman. she's an assistant professor of law at the university of michigan, and hosts the podcast, “strict scrutiny.”

leah, let's start with medication abortion used to end early pregnancy that has been the method of aboron used in the majority of cases in recent years. the president has vowed that the federal government will take action if any state tries to block abortion pills. but what exactly can he and the federal government do? leah: so what the federal government has the authority to do is adopt and enact federal regulations that permit the use of drugs for certain purposes. and they also have the authority to preempt state laws that stand as an obstacle to the accomplishment of the federal regulation's objectives. so, here, if a state tried to ban the drugs used for medication abortion, the food and drug administration could argue that the state law is standing as an obstacle to the accolishment, and in conflict with the federal regulation. lisa: part of this, too, is that some democrats are calling for the president to declare a

national emergency, national health emergency. can you talk about how that plays in? this is a president that the courts didn't even agree with on a mask mandate. where do we think the courts might side on this kind of idea? leah: well, i think that's a very real concern. the reality is that this is a supreme court, in particular, that is very skeptical of administrative agencies and the executive branch's authority to adopt regulations on important policy questions that decide important matters. and, i think there is real concern that the supreme court would not allow the current food and drug administration to say states can't restrict the uses of mifepristone, one of the drugs used for medication abortion. that is, they might say that question whether medication abortion should be permitted is a major question that has to be decided by congress, rather than by an administrative agency. alternatively, they might say that all states are doing is restricting certain uses of mifepristone, rather than banning it entirely, and

therefore, the state restrictions don't completely undermine the fda's regulations. lisa: would declaring a national health emergency affect that, either way in the courts? leah: it's not clear, given that it's not clear whether a declaration of a national health emergency would give the president any additional powers to block or preempt state laws that are undermining federal regulations. the supreme court has been very clear that there needs to be clear and explicit statutory authorization in order for an agency and the executive branch to decide a major question, and the reality is that this court probably believes that the lawfulness of abortions, including medication abortion, is such a major question. lisa: you know, the federal government is a very large land owner, one of the largest landowners, especially west of the mississippi. can you talk about whether the idea of allowing abortion clinics on federal land is that viable at all? leah: so, that's something that the president could do, but it's not at all cle that that would actually ensure access to safe and legal abortion, use it's

not clear if that would insulate abortion providers from criminal liability. there's a federal statute called the assimilative crimes act that actually incorporates the law of every state onto where the federal property and federal land is located. so, what that would mean is, in a state that prohibits abortions and imposes criminal penalties on abortion providers, doctors who perform abortions on federal lands would still technically face federal criminal liability under that federal law. now obviously, the biden administration wouldn't have any plans to prosecute individuals for performing abortions on federal lands, but there is a five year statute of limitations that gives the federal government five years to bring charges. so, if and when another republican administration were elected, a republican president might choose to bring criminal charges under the assimilative crimes act against doctors who perform abortions on federal lands. lisa: going to ask you a big

picture question -- roe v. wade, that precedent stood for 50 years. looking at the courts and president biden's potential to influence the federal courts, how long do you think this precedent could stand? leah: i don't think that president biden is exactly in a position now, absent major reforms to the supreme court, in particular, and the federal courts more broadly, to change this particular case. i think, if the democratic party continues along with the biden administration's institutionalist approach to the federal courts, this case, and this area of law, isn't likely to change for a pretty long period of time. lisa: leah litman. thank you so much for joining us. we appreciate it. leah: thank you. lisa: the role reversal is setting off ripple effects as states implement abortion bans. among them, rising concern for women abused by those close to them. here to discuss this new landscape for those facing domestic violence are two advocates. natalie nanasi. she's a professor at smu law school. she joins us from dallas.

and lori gonzalez from domestic violence interveion services, a nonprofit in tulsa, oklahoma. natalie, i want to start with you and help us with some very sic big picture understanding here. where does pregnancy and choices surrounding pregnancy fit in with abuse? natalie: well, at baseline, what's really important to remember is that domestic violence is not about anger. it's not about the relationship between the two people. it's really about power and control. and so reproductive rights have a big part to play in that because forcing somebody to get pregnant and then to carry that pregnancy is a way that somebody who is abusing their significant other to continue to perpetuate that power and control over that person. lisa: lori, your center sees hundreds of people, women facing domestic violence every year.

and oklahoma now has one of the strictest abortion bans in the nation. can you help bring us into the conversations that you're hearing from the women and others you serve and what questions they are having? what's going on right now in your world? lori: so the the difficulty is, is we have people coming in and they are afraid of what their future is going to look like. plus, we have to worry about how pregnancy can escalate the situation. it's actually a danger factor. it can really escalate and cause further harm. plus we have staff that are worried that they will do something wrong and be prosecuted for aiding and abetting somebody who is seeking an abortion. lisa: help me understand what that means. in terms of counseling, in terms of offering options, even just talking to these women -- is that what you mean? lori: some of the laws in oklahoma are conflicting. and one of the things my understanding is, is there's that option of if we are helping a person to get that service,

then somebody that's helping could potentially be prosecuted. and i don't know if that's going to come to fruition. i don't know if that's accurate. but there is some concerns that in our desire to help sobody, the advocate can get in trouble as well. lisa: natalie, from where you sit, is it more clear, a legal view of what domestic violence advocates can do or not do right now? natalie: no, unfortunately, it's really not. and i think i've been seeing the same thing on the ground here n texas, where a number of the agencies here that are working with survivors of both domestic violence and sexual assault are really concerned about this possibility of being sued, of being prosecuted, for doing their jobs, for just offering options and advice to the people that they serve. and it's that climate of fear that's really existed here in texas since sb8 was passed several months ago. that has caused people to to

change the way that they're offering services to these really vulnerable populations. lisa: that's amazing, because obviously domestic violence has happened in a climate of fear, often in a home as well. and i had read that murder, homicide is actually one of the leading causes of death for pregnant women. natalie, i want to ask you, are you concerned about perhaps an increase in violence? natalie: oh, absolutely. i'm concerned about an increase in violence. i think you're exactly right. and as we've already heard, that pregnancy is a huge risk factor that can exacerbate existing violence. partially again, going back to that concept of power and control that i discussed before, that sometimesn abuser can see a pregnancy as something that is taking that survivor away from from the perpetrator. right? that the pregnancy causes her to care about something more than she might care aut him.

and it is a time that we see abusers really lashing out and committing violence up to and including murder. lisa: lori, oklahoma and tulsa, i don't have to tell you, have seen very high levels of domestic violence recently. i'm wondering what your concern is there and if you're already seeing any change in people who come to you with need after this decision. lori: unfortunately, people are very concerned that they could get pregnant during this situation and then they would have even more barriers to escaping than there were in the past. and so there's that part. there's the safety part. and we know that that oklahoma right now is eighth in the nation for women murdered by men. last year, we were third in the nation. and so i am very concerned that this is going to make a bad situation even worse. lisa: it's something people don't always talk about. but we really appreciate your

time. and we're going we're going to want to keep in touch with both of you and see what happens. thank you so much, natalie nanasi and lori gonzalez. and now our weekend spotlight with soccer legend briana scurry. geoff bennett sat down with scurry to talk about her new memoir chronicling her rise to fame and a life-changing injury. geoff: soccer trailblazer briana scurry is finally ready to tell her story. sharing the highs -- the olympic gold medals and world cup wins -- and the lows, like an on-field collision that ended her career. all laid out in her new memoir, "my greatest save: the brave, barrier-breaking journey of a world champion goalkeeper." we recently spoke about her experience at audi field in washington, c., where she's a coach and one of the new investors for the washington spirit. considered one of the best goalies in the world, briana got her start playing on a boys team outside minneapolis. and you ended up in the goal because the coach at the time thought that would be the safest

place for you. briana: bless his heart. yes, he did. [laughter] we all know that's not true. geoff: so why did you stick with it? briana: i did it for that first year with the boys team, and then i did get on to a girls team the next couple of years. i got into the field. i was a forward. and so i split time back and forth and then i realized i really loved the goal because i like being able to keep the other team from winning. not necessarily winning myself, but keeping them from winning, and then potentially just being the star. geoff: you write about that moment when you realized you made the national team and then the coach at the time posted the roster outside the locker room . what was going through your mind? briana: i wanted to be an olympian since i was eight years old. and then going through high school, i made a sign that said i wanted to go to the olympics 1996, so i found myself really close to that moment. and then i was on the team , starting goalkeeper on a team that had won the world cup a few

years before. so i knew we had a chance. so seeing seeing that list, i just tested and i was like, i made it. geoff: on the field, briana broke down racial barriers and she was also the first openly gay player on the women's national team. how did you create space for yourself in all those different scenarios? briana: i realized that i might be potentially gay in junior high. i had a little bit of back and forth about it and then i just realized, hey, this is me. this is who i'm supposed to be. this is how i feel. this feels right. this is who i am. and i never really worried about what other people thought about it. and so through all the teams that i was on living in a rural town in minnesota, i was the only black player on every team. i ju knew that i was, you know, on my way and it really didn't hinder me at all. and i also didn't get any outward, you know, resistance from my teammates or my coaches or from really anyone. and i just realized that this is what i've wanted since was

eight years old. i may be a different person, looking different, have different preferences, but this is what makes a team great. all the differences. geoff: her career spanned the globe. in 1996, she earned olympic gold. three years later, the u.s. team won the 1999 world cup on a now famous penalty shootout. i imagine that moment has sort of been emblazoned in your brain. if you could walk us through the moment and what was going through your head step by step? briana: i was trying to keep all the information just into what i needed to do. so i would walk into the goal and just get ready and walk back and forth and steady myself and prepare to save the kick. on that third kicker as i was walking into the goal, i got ready, i got in my position. and sure enough, i drive to my left and there's the ball. but i could see everything in slow motion. like i saw her hips opening. i saw how she was going to go inside of the foot. i saw everything and i dove that

way. i exploded. i just knew it. i just knew i'd done what i needed to do, which was make one save. [applause] geoff: she and her teammates became america's sweethearts overnight. [girls chanting "usa!"] but unlike briana, other players received lucrative endorsement deals. bria: and i thought initially that it was because i was a goalkeeper. and then it wasn't until later on when i when i saw more change and evolution of our game and the way people were covering it and who was interested in , that it wasn't about being a goalkeeper, that it might be something else. geoff: so what did you come to think that it was? briana: i realized that it might be my skin color or it might be my sexual orientation. the fact that it was out that might have made people a little nervous about me, or i'm not quite sure, or they weren't sure how i looked or how i was and whatnot. and soccer at that point was a

suburban white sport. and it made me sad because i really didn't want to think that because it never had been an issue for me. geoff: then during a 2010 match, she took a knee to the head. it required surgery that left her in debt and put an end to her playing career. briana: i remember sliding into depression. and i woullook at pictures of me when i played to try to pick myself up. and i really didn't see how that could have been me. at the time, i didn't really understand or realize that it was connected to my concussion. and so i was self-medicating with alcohol and vicodin, and that's obviously a bad idea, but i knew that. i found myself on the end of a platform. there was a big waterfall near where i lived, thinking about jumping over. and then it came to the point where i thought about my mom, who would be notified that her baby was gone. geoff: but you found your way

back. briana: i did, yes. geoff: during her recovery, she met her now wife, chryssa, got back on track financially and reclaimed the gold medals she'd been forced to pawn. my greatest save. how did you settle on that title? briana: well, it had a double meaning. obviously, as a goalkeeper, a lot of people would assume my greatest save was the penalty kick in 99. i actually don't consider that my greatest on-field save. 2004 olympic final was actually my greatest game. and my greatest save was in that game. geoff: it was a good one. briana: it was, right? but my greatest save was myself. it was me. lisa: finally tonight... heather mcteer toney spent three years leading the environmental protection agency for the southeastern u.s. now her advocacy reaches both nation- and world-wide. tonight, toney shares her "brief but spectacular" take on "centering black leadership in climate change solutions."

heather: growing up, i was not aware of environmental problems, in the mississippi delta, in mississippi, in the south. we didn't think about climate in an environment, the way that it's focused now. and it's actually quite disturbing because it means that there's a whole foundational part of how we live and exist that wasn't integrated into our education, even though it touched our lives every single day. ♪ as a kid growing up, i took in a lot more than i thought i did. whether it was a meeting for an election that was coming up or a protest meeting, i was there. and i was there with other children, listening into the plans that were being made. and at the same time, you know, grappling with the fact that something must be so important that after a full day's work, you still go into the room to talk about how we could as one community ensure that our

children, me, would have a great future. my job every day is to help show people where they are in climate solutions, andlimate solutions that empower them to take control of their communities and spread their solutions across a wide spectrum of issues. how we connect, solving climate crisis in a community that may be impoverished along with how we are able to resolve education disparities in that community and health disparities in that community, and really th intersection of climate. the stereotype around black people not being involved in climate action and environmentalism and climate change comes from the idea that ack folks have got so many other issues to deal with. we don't have time to worry about the planet. it does not mean that even this

social justice issues that we have experienced have not been influenced by environmental climate. expanding that picture is my goal every single day to say, yes, you too are part of the environmental movement. you might not know how, you might not know where, but trust me, you are a part of this movement and it's time for you to see and recognize your space and step into it. i'm not willing to gamble on my children's lives. so i'm gonna stay in this fight. i'm gonna stay positive about it. and just like my mother was and her mother, my grandmother, i'm gonna be resilient about coming up with a solution. my name is heather mctier tony, and this is my brief, but spectacular take on centering black leadership in climate change solutions. ♪ judy: you can watch more brief but spectacular videos online at pbs.org/newshour/brief.

and that is it for our show tonight. i'm lisa desjardins for all of us at "pbs news weekend," thanks for spending part of your weekend with us. >> major funding for "pbs news weekend" has been provided by -- ♪ and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions -- ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

- this program was made possible in part contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. [ playing "the world we knew" ] ♪ over and over i keep going over the world we knew ♪ ♪ once when you walked beside me ♪