juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: massive protests have erupted across the united states following the publication of a leaked supreme court opinion that revealed the court is preparing to overturn roe v. wade, the 1973 landmark ruruling that established a constitutional right to abortion nationwide. supreme court chief justice john roberts confirmed the leaked document is authentic but said it is only a draft opinion. he has launched an investigation into the leak. thousands took to the streets around the country any outrage tuesday, just hours after reproductive justice groups called for actions with rallies in california, arizona, washington state, oregon, texas, alabama, georgia, nebraska, illinois, pennsylvania, here in new york, and dozens of other cities. protesters also gathered in front of the u.s. supreme court

in washington, d.c., for a second straight day tuesday. >> i think it should be overturned and then it will become a war on women's rights again, something our mothers and grandmothers already did before and can't believe th have to live through this again. back alley abortions again. abortion is never going to be van. it will never go away. i'll they're doing now is sacrificing women's health and a medical issue. amy: grassroots groups have called on people to donate to abortion and reproductive health funds. meanwhile, many democratic-led states are preparing to receive a growing number of people seeking abortions if roe v. wade is struck down. at least 16 states and washington, d.c., have already codified abortion rights into state law, including new york and colorado. here in new york, lawmakers have now introduced measures that -- legislation that would expand abortion access to all. new york assemblymember jessica

gonzález-rojas made the announcement tuesday. >> everyone should be able to access the care they need new matter their immigration status, their identity, sexual orientation, racial identity, disability status -- every single person deserves access. i am so proud to stand with you today as we introduce the freedom and equity act. abortion providers on the front lines for our essential workers are able to get the resources to ensure that new york state will be a safe haven for every single person for access of care. amy: for more on how grassroots

organizers are responding to the leaked supreme court opinion, we're joined by two guests in phoenix, arizona. a doctor and an activist. alejandra pablos is a reproductive justice community organizer and storyteller based -- who has been targeted by immigration and customs enforcement for her activism and has been in deportation proceedings for over a decade. and dr. deshawn taylor is an ob/gyn physician, abortion provider, and owner of desert star family planning in phoenix, arizona. dr. taylor is the only black independent abortion provider in arizona, where republican governor doug ducey in late march signed into law a measure banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. we welcome you both to democracy now! dr. deshawn taylor, talk about your response to hearing this leaked opinion, that was leaked by political yesterday, and what

this means. >> i would say although logically i knew that this opinion was possible, are newer justices had been si noodling -- our newer justices had been signaling about their thoughts on what they wld do during the oral arguments, actually, so although most of us who work in abortion care on the day-to-day thought this was possible, it is still hard to see it on paper. it is still hard t hear that justice roberts, you know, confmed the authenticity of this document. what this means for us is that we really have to deterne what

we have a 15 weekan that the governor signed or does the w that bs abortion entirely come into play with this rulinfrom the supreme court? whh would completely criminalize abortion, make it illegal in arizona. juan: dr. taylor, even with the law that was passed senate bill 1164 and the governor signed in march outlawing abortions after 15 weeks in your state, what has been the impact on your practices that lawas passed? >> i am ying to make sure people understand that abortion tour current legal limit is still available to people. when our governor signed at bill into law, it does not take effe until 9days after legislative session ends.

people don't understand that. in all of the discussion around it, the scourse the media, it has created an affect people where there is a fever of peop trying to get into clinics, receive abortion clinic before they can't anymore. there is definitely the fear that people will not be able to get there abortion and it is a re fear even with the opportunity to have an abortion up to 15 weeks bause of all the restrictions that already exist arizona, people essentially have to trave into thphoenix metro area fmll the state. anthere's a 24 hour forced delay. so there could be weeks for someone can actually get tha initial, -- also take should have an abortion procedure and then there might even be another week or so before they can then

actually have the abortion because it is not they're going to come in and then have their abortion the very next day in most instances because of the decrease access that has occurred in our state overtime due to all of the restrictions that have been passed over the past decades. juan: i want to bring alejandra pablos into the conversation. can you talk about your reaction to the court's ruling and how you see it affecting your work as a reproductive justice community organizer? >> grassy us. thank you for having me back. for me, even as i was listening to the beginning of the program, i just started to get overwhelmed. just a reminder i have already been in the state of threat due to my deportation case unstuck i have seen my name on paper,

multiple identities as a woman, a noncitizen, as a eer person, pro-abortion activist i know she will already. -- i know too well already. i know people say it is a drft, but to me it is a warning of what is going to happen. i the need to be just as outraged in june whene hear this again. the same people that would force me to be dorted, send me to a place i've never lived at and don't choose to live at, the same people that will force me to be pregnant when i don't want to. i think right now i'm thinking of all of the people that w share our stories r every day so we can release stigma. we have to do more than fight, lift or repeal laws now for our daily reproductive health care. amy: can you talk about the scene yesterday in arizona, all

over the country, people rising up? thousands of people coming out to protest against -- again, it is a leaked opinion, not a decision that has been handed down yet. it can conceivably change because of this response, but you are a longtime activist. if you can describe that and talk about your own story in having an abortion, being a community organizer, and feeling that you yourself were targeted by ice on it why you are in deportation proceedings. >> thank you, amy. in arizona, we are about to be one of the 22 or 28 states that already with legislation copied from mississippi, overall racist legislation. 500 restrictions since 2011 to ban our right to full

reproductive health care. we know what is at stake. i think the work any of are doing as storytellers and abortion activist is to get us ready for this moment, to support one another. we need to take care of one another. fighting policing of our lives, our bodies, our sexuality. for me, facing the threat of immigration from excited to share around my asylum hearing. it is been a long decade of fighting to stay with my family, making decisions of my own life. it is a moment to shout out the activists that have been in more hostile countries. in the u.s., we have a lot of rights but we see the attacks on our bodies are daily. i want to shut out the work of people in mexico doing this work because we don't give them enough credit. i want to shout out to all of the activists because it is

dangerous. in arizona, we are being criminalized for protests. i am an abortion dula. and the one who gives people rides to clinics. i talked to those to make sure people have the support they need. day in and out, we're talking about how abortion access is an immigration justice issue. the most impacted people that don't even get access to health care because of here of -- because of fear of hospitals and police working together. we're not going back to hangers. i don't know why people believe to put people in fear and throwing this hanger -- we are practically taking care of one another. we are experts. we have pills. abortion pills exist and we will

never stop having abortion. we cannot force people to be pregnant. this is a racial justice issue and we need to be talking about it as is. amy: and your own experience? >> well, i mean, for myself, i shared publicly i had -- i have had more than one abortion and i shared publicly i think in 2017 i shared for the first time because of taboo, we don't share publicly our stories with more than one person but we always have someone who loves us. we know six out of 10 people havingbortions are already parents. eight out of 10 people would support is whether they would have one. i shared my story. i was having my fourth abortion in 2017. that was during my deportation case. the same people would force me to have a baby would take my baby away if i were to take the

pregnancy to full term. literally after sharing about my fourth abortion, i get picked up by ice a year later and spend another two months finding to be released. -- fighting to be released. immigrants like me are facing mandatory detention and deportation. we don't know when we don't know wh we' going to get deported. we know how dangeus -- we get to decide when a where we want toreate r families. it is about when and where you want to create families. that you do so in safe environmen as long as police and cages exist, i cannot feel safe. we will keep fighting for us to have abortions that are safe, lel, and accessible to evyone no matter where you're coming from. juan: dr. taylor, in terms of this whole issue, clearly,

people will continue to have abortions either in states that permit it or otherwise. how does self managed abortion look today in 2022 compared to the early 1970's before roe v. wade? >> want to thank alejandra for referencing this old coathanger imagery. it is outdated and we really want good-intentioned advocates because we have abtion pills and it has definitel made self managed abortion safer. self managed abortion is someone takes some type of substance to

induce their own abortion. and we have seen that increasing rrently while roe v. wade is still the law of the land. because of all of these restrictions that have been passed across the count, people a already taking their abortion care into their own hands most there have already beenommunity network formed to ensure that people have cess to abortion pills and that they have community support and they go thugh this process. i will say my clinic was a site for the study with some researchers out of ut austin in tes where we wanted to see wh people knew about self managed abortion and had they try to themselves a what type of things peoplare trying to use. sohat has really been helpful over these last couple of years of the pandemic is the increased

access to the drugs and now the ability to mail them together the protocol to take the firs medication and then the second medication a certain amount of time later to induce the expulsion of the pregnancy. we now have e fda removinthe restriion so that permanently in states that don't have restriction for this, people can receive the drugs by mail. the idea that you're going back to back alley abortions like that person athe supreme cou rally mentionedwe definitel not there but make no mistake, people should be able to access abortion care as part of the

general health care that a pregnt person or any other person would seek to help them let and thrive. abortion care should n be mething on the french of health care -- fringe ohealth care. people shod be able to go to their primary care provider and have an abortion. that is how it should . that's what reproductive justice calls for is our government to create the condition for conditions to be safe, affordable. more sacred than it was before the roe v. wad decisio it should not be something that people should think about at all. we are in one of the richest countries in the world. we should not be in a situation

where people are needing to create nworks unr their community to make sure that people receive essential health care. juan: dr. taylor, have you thought about what you will do in your activists, assuming the supreme court -- practice, assuming the supreme court leak becomes the final decision of the court, and of course was the arizona law comes into effect, what you will do in terms of providing abortions? >> right now we are waiting to see ultimatelwhat the final decision is. my clinic would not necessarily close. i provide holistic community care and abortion is -- abortion care is part of the care i ovide. paicularly, if abortion was illel and arizona, our family planning would still exist. we do provide miscarriage

management a well. what i suspect to be able for the communit is a sa haven for people who have questions, who may have an incomplete -- present aan incomplete miscarriage because ty may have started a process at home that did not complete. i think it is really important to tie this into what alejandra pablos mentioned about policing and thencreased police state. the fact a health car worr called the police on a young woman for miscarriage in texas. people are going to be afraid. i want people to knostar family planning is a safe place for them regardless of the outcome of the supreme court decision. amy: alejandra pablos, the effect particularly on undocumented people who what abortions in arizona? >> yeah, the state is getting

even more hostile and it is really unfortunate because of the resilience and resistance of our people here is what drives mend keeps me going. it is interesting to remember back in 28 when i got rearrested and taken away by ice d got interviewed shortly after being released and reporters told me, we shared we would be fighting for a pardon in the future. we don't fight pardons here in arizona stuff we c see the governor is not very welcoming or vy nice governor. the reporters would tell me, the governor's not going to giv you a pardon for your deportation, not because you don't deserve it but because of your abortion activism. three years later, look at where we are at, right? let the same governor being ready to ban abortion here. when we are talking about

undocumented people, dupe rotation cases, more than wanting to win a deportation case. we already know we have dignity and we are performing freedom every day, right, so i think from myself, it is about fi ghting control. abortion is not even in the bible. i think it is a lot of having to unlearn and have conversations with one another, conversations that are accessible to spanish-speaking community's, african immigrts and arizona, ruraimmigrants from all over the world. right now we're talking about the people deserve to have abortion because of a piece of id. everyone should be having an abortion and we should stop making it harder for people to access abortion.

amy: a quick question, just have 15 seconds. your senator kyrsten sinema least a statement tuesday pledging her support for abortion rights but she did not say she would change her opposition to reforming the senate's filibuster rule to pass legislation that would codify the right to an abortion. your thoughts? >> i don't understand what we keep asking sinema. she is not going to give me reproductive health care, relieve any threats here for anyone locally. we are being watched by the whole of arizona. i think sinema is better not saying anything at all and leing people share their stories of resistance and supporting one another. amy: alejandra pablos, thank you for being with us, reproductive justice community organizer and speaking to us from phoenix, as is dr. deshawn taylor ob/gyn , physician, abortion provider, and only black independent abortion provider in arizona.

next up, how the supreme court was designed for this moment by a conservative dark money network and also go to ohio to talk about the race that nina turner just lost for congress. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. the leaked draft of the supreme court's decision to overturn roe v. wade was anticipated by many who say the court's current 6-3 conservative majority was designed for this moment by a conservative dark money network. these include groups like the judicial crisis network, which does not disclose its donors, and key players like leonard leo, the vice president of the federalist society who advised former president donald trump on all of his judicial nominations. the supreme court's anticipated reversal of federal

constitutional protections of abortion rights is out of step with the views of a majority of americans, as well as the democratic majority in the congress and president biden. some put the number, the percentage of americans for abortion at 70%. for more, we are joined by andrew perez, senior editor and reporter at the lever. he co-wrote the new piece "the roe disaster -- and what to do about it: reproductive rights are on the chopping block because of dark gop schemes and democrats' duplicity -- but this fight is not over." andrew, white -- why don't you take it from there. follow the dark money trail for us. looks sure. leonard leo is a longtime senior executive at the federalist society and he played a huge role in building this court the way it is, making it so it is poised to overturn roe v. wade. since 2005, he has been leading a dark money network.

its owners are pretty much unknown. we really have no idea who s been funding it but they been highly influential. they have run a lot of tv ads, boosting candates or judges. they player just played role in fighting merrick garland's nomination. cut to help make the court picks for trump as chief judicial advisor. juan: could you talk specifically about the amounts of mey involved here? you traced enormous sums of money that were plowed into building support for justice amy coney barrett and brett kavanaugh and how the network actually -- >> nearly $10 billion per pick.

that group and its affiliates also then definitely donated some millions of dollars to other groups that were supporting gorsuch, cavanaugh, and amy coney barrett. they also spent around $10 million to blockarland's nomination in 2016. juan: this wasn't just money spent on the supreme court, right? in terms of the impact of leonard leo on many other lower federal court appointments by both president trump and president bush? >> definitely. they have been active, especially recently another court nominations and also been involved in the state supreme court fight like in wisconsin. i believe they also helped finance and effort in nebraska to basically reinstate the death

penalty. amy: i would ask you about the primary and ohio, jd vance won after eating the back of donald trump, although he had attacked trump years ago. even though his opponents had aired months of ads highlighting his anti-trump statements in the past, including saying trump could become america's hitler. he has since become a supporter of trump and praised him tuesday night. >> i got to say, a lot of fake news media out there. there are some good ones in the back, some bad ones, too, let's be honest. but they wanted to write a story that this campaign would be the death of donald trump's america first initiative.

amy: jd vance is a venture capitalist and author who was heavily supported by right-wing tech billionaire peter thiel and will face off against democratic commerce member tim ryan in november's election to fill the seat currently held by republican senator rob portman. vance's wife clerked for justice kavanaugh. in another closely watched race in ohio, democratic commerce member shontel brown defeated progressive challenger nina turner from the former cochair of bernie presidential campaign. turner teased a 2024 presidential bid in her concession speech last night. >> let me say this simply, nina turner is going nowhere. i resolved tonight is attacked.

this is what i do know. [indiscernible] that is why that money came in here because they know i was going to shake that sucker. on behalf of the poor, the working poor, and the barely middle-class. this black girl magic. what i'm going to do is i'm going to take this magic all of this country and shake it that way. 2024 is coming. the great state of california got something to say. the great state of iowa got something to say about what nina turner can do. the great state of nevada has something to say.

we ain't going nowhere. and because this comes as the intercept reports nina turner had faced opposition from several political action committees, including the democratic majority for israel pack and the protect our future pack. she also did not receive support from several progressive groups that had backed her previous run. one of those groups, the justice democrat, said in a statement, "unit is a giant in the progressive movement and we are proud to have gone all in for her campaign last year. the reality is our organization has to be strategic about our priorities as we are getting massively outgunned by republican donors funneling millions to superpacs like aipac and dmfi against our existing candidates." for more would continue with

andrew perez, senior editor and reporter at the lever. he brought about this in a piece titled "oil mogul bankrolls attempt to buy democratic primary." explain what you found. >> what we found was the dmf ipaq has been heavily funded by an oil heiress who runs a company that donated i think $2.5 million to dmfi pac since march. they spent at least $1 million in the race cycle, really under the last few weeks. also spent almost $2 million last election against nina supporting shontel brown who won. a big part of the campaign really was just saying nina turner was not a real democrat because she's been critical of

joe biden and critical of the party establishment. what the results really show is especially because it was much closer last time, this time it was not a close election at all but if progressive groups don't back candidates, especially candidates like nina who been really critil of the establishment, like the party will -- the party and its operatives will really sell out to destroy them. we really saw what happened this time. juan: in the first race last year, there was only five percenge points difference between them. this time nina turner lost two to one in the vote total. was your sense that it was largely a result among the progressives or did she not run a stronger campaign this time around as previously? >> it sounds like a big issue

really was that groups were not really involved -- groups ke fi spent big in the last few weeks and shontel brown also had support from super pac led by a crypto billionaire. that group also spent around $1 million. $2 million in one congressional race in a few weeks is pretty staggering sum of money. it was clearly a lot to overcome. juan: i want to ask you about another issue that you have followed a lot. you recently wrote a piece with david sirota titled "the means-test con," published at -- in which you discuss how the biden administration is considering forgiving some student loan debt, but not the $50,000 democrats have pushed for. can you talk about that in the battle over what the biden

policy should be on student loans? close the student loan issue, and job i did promise to cancel at least -- job i did promise to cancel at least $10,000 of student debt, but also pledged to cancel all federal student debt and right now we don't really know what the number is going to be. he says it won't be 50,000 but his adminiration is signaling it will be at least $10,000. for a lot of borrowers, it is good money but it is not altogether that helpful if you have larger loans or if you just have older loans with ballooning interest. thother issue is, the fact they're talking about imposing an income limit, also known as a miens test, it polls well, popular among pundits because there is this odd argument that student loan cancellation would really benefit the wealthy --

which is really not borne out by fax at all or by data. the issue is it creates a paperwork headache for people. there is also the universlity issue. the u.s. has some universal programs on their popular like social security and medicare are very popular. when you start creating this means testing program, it starts to be vieweds a welfare program and is much easier for opponents to attack and they can were difficult for people to have their loans canceled. amy: i want to move onto another piece you have done on mayor alana -- marijuana legalization. he wrote about the cannabis dream -- short-lived cannabis dream. >> joe manchin is one of a

handful of conservative democrats who are standing in the way of federal legalization of marijuana. a bunch of those democrats, the handful that are being talked about right represent states that have either legalized weed free the recreation or medical use, just like west virginia has. west virginia legalized for medical. we have found records showing joe manchin's son registered inllc for the purpose of getting into the marijuana business. it is detailed in state records. we got to speak with him and he told us he did not end up getting into the business because it just does not make a lot of financial sense right now. we also saw the llc he had been using to buy -- was given deeds to two homes right around the

start of the pandemic. he assured us he had reached agreements with those people to allow them to stay in their homes or that they're working on payment plans to take back their homes, as we speak. juan: andrew perez, in terms of the prospects for the midterm elections, given the events of the last couple of weeks, clearly, what appears to be a sueme court decision that will end roe v. wade and now of course the victory of the trump-backed jd vance and the republican primary in ohio, what do you see from your perspective of the prospects the democratic party faces as it heads into the midterm electi? >> i guess pretty widely accepted that things are not looking good for democrats. there has been a whole lot of

blame shifting going on about how the party is not messaging properly or certain left-wing agenda items are hurting the parts because. there's also t issue the party really hasn't done a whole lot in terms of direct aid to people at all since the covid relief for little over a year ago. they have spent the bett party -- part of last year debatg an agenda bill they failed to enact entirely. what you are hearing today is democratic operatives in washington think the end of roe might help them mobilize voters. but it is definitely to be determined. it is not obviously an issue that has giant repercussions for people, especially poor people, people of color. it is definitely a big issue and

it is not just a political ring that will have a giant effect on people's lives. amy: finally, andrew, let's end with where we began, the elections in ohio, jd vance, the best selling author of "hillbilly elegy," trump-supported senatorial candidate winning. it's significance? >> it is definitely going to be perceived as a win for trump because donald trump did endorse his campaign. his son has done a lot of rallies with him, as did the former president. both candidates were pretty conservative. i guess jd vance is seen as a more indie establishment but i guess it is probably not terribly different than it josh mandel had won. amy: andrew perez, we will into your reports at democracynow.org

. a clarification to one of our headlines, paypal has canceled the account and frozen the funds of the independent news outlet consortium news, which has criticized u.s. policy on ukraine. that does it for our show. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!] lo)?■o■oó

♪ hello. welcome back to nhk "newsline." i'm takao minori in new york. russian commanders have complained the west is stuffing ukraine with weapons, so they've turned their guns on the sources of those arms. they're targeting railways and other supply lines.

the russians have zeroed in on lviv, a city to the west near the polish border. some units have disabled infrastructure for rai