as always, thank you for being here with us from our nbc studios in new york. good evening. thanks for joining us this hour. happy to have you with us. we've been on the road. we went producers out across the country to pull together a really important story tonight about something that is happening right now with historic implications. the story here tonight begins with this guy. this is harry blackman. he was from minnesota, conservative lawyer, a judge first appointed to the federal bench by dwight eisenhower. he became richard nixon's second apointment to the united states supreme court. but blackman was not the first pick. the first picks got dissected during the confirmation process.

both of them were rejected by the senate which was a big and embarrassing blow for nixon. so, for his third try, nixon chose blackman because he was seen as so uncontroversial he would be hard for anybody to vote against. >> judge blackman made a good first impression and the senators will vote to decide his fate and barring the unexpected his nomination should sail through. thus far no one has even asked to testify against him. but the unexpected aural has occurred twice, so most senators still are not committing themselves. >> we find a super uncontroversial guy strategy worked for that nomination. harry blackman's nomination to court was unanimously approved by the u.s. senate. on june 9, 1970, he was sworn in to the supreme court. and somewhat ironically because he was seen specifically as the

most middle of the road, non-offensive guaranteed non-controversial guy to stick in that spot, justice blackman would go on just a couple of years later to write one of the most controversial u.s. supreme court opinions ever. >> the court said in a 7-2 decision that in the first three months of pregnancy only the woman and her physician may decide whether she may have an abortion. in the second three months all the state may do is regulate abortion procedures. and only in the final three months of pregnancy can the state forbid abortion. all 50 states are effective whatever their loss. >> it wasn't a close decision. it was decided by a big majority, 7-2. but it was harry blackman who wrote the opinion for the seven member majority, and for that reason harry blackman became the sort of face of that ruling, the face of roe vs. wade. five years after his death his papers were released and we

learned that harry blackman saved everything, everything, in the 1,500 plus boxes of documents he donated to the library of congress, you can find everything from hotel receipts to tennis scores to dance cards from childhood, private notes between justice in the supreme court. and it turns out when you are the guy who wrote the roe vs. wade decision and you're also a guy who keeps everything, that means you're a guy who has held onto a pile of hate mail and death wishes and threats. ten years after roe in 1983 according to reporting by the associated press, the supreme court had received 45,000 letters about roe vs. wade, most of them addressed to justice blackman. justice blackman said at the time, quote, we still receive, 8, 9, 10 letters a day. some are very supportive, very lovely messages, but most are very abusive.

ignoring the advice of fellow justice against reading such mail justice blackman says i want to know what the people who wrote are thinking. here's what they were thinking, quote, they had called him a murderer, a butcher, even pontius pilot. they have compared him othe the nazi overseers of genocide. in 1985 a bullet from a .19 mill meter pistol was fired into his living room showering glass on his wife who happened to be in the room. it was never determined if that bullet was directly targeting justice blackman or if it might have been a stray shot, just a coincidence. but the shot through the window came on the heels of a series of death threats. justice blackman's daughter has said he always travelled with security after that. >> blackman who used to go alone on walks has been under protection since receiving a already letter last fall and another last week threatening him with death. anti-abortion demonstrators have

singled out blackman for his decision decriminalizing abortion. >> that's how the modern day abortion wars have been fought in this country from day one, from the roe vs. wade decision onward, with violence and the threat of violence always hanging in the air. when the supreme court cleared the way for legal abortion in every state, clinics sprang up all over the country to accommodate women who were coming out of the shadows to access this now legally-protected procedure. >> okay. is there an appointment for abortion? >> but as quickly as abortion clinics opened their doors, organized opponents gathered trying to shut them down. >> after the supreme court legalized abortion, an abortion clinic opened in st. louis. anti-abortion groups have been picketing ever since. they also got the legislator to throw up various roadblocks to abortion. >> by the 1980s and '90s this is what it was like to be an abortion provider in america.

>> already many have bulletproof glass, and across the country there are more than 30,000 escorts who have to use cloak and dagger measures to protect doctors, clients, and themselves. >> a wave of clinic bombings that peaked in the 1980s was followed by a series of assassinations in the 1990s. >> an abortion facility was hit by a bomb blast. >> a bomb blast at three abortion clinics. >> a propane gas bomb exploded last night. so far this year 28 abortion clinics and information centers have been bombed or set afire. >> dr. david gunn was shot as he came to work at a pensacola abortion center. >> dr. tiller who performs third trimester abortions had been shot twice outside his clinic. >> the gunman shot four people before escaping here. one woman a clinic worker died at the scene. >> dr. john britain and james barrett were cut down with shot

gun blasts. >> a doctor well known to antiabortion protesters was shot down by a sniper last night while at home with his wife and four children. >> you could not find an abortion provider in the '80s and '90s who would say they felt immune from the that of terroristic violence. everyone involved in abortion was vulnerable. but perhaps no one was targeted as relentlessly as one specific doctor in wichita, kansas, dr. george tiller. >> for two months anti-abortion protesters laid sieged but their main target was not the clinic, it was a doctor, dr. george tiller. they called him tiller the killer. tiller still performs abortions, but hundreds of other doctors have stopped because of scenes like this and this. >> anti-abortion forces targeted dr. tiller in every way imaginable. in 1986 his clinic was bombed. tiller hung a sign outside the

bombed out building that said, hell no, we won't go. he reopened the next day at a secret location. >> we have had a major $100,000 bombing here in our organization, and one day later we're in business. >> in 1991 the radical anti-abortion group, operation rescue, called on thousands of anti-abortion activists from across the country to converge on wichita to physically shut down george tiller's clinic. >> wichita is not used to guerilla tactics, but it's learning. people have seen weeks of protests, barricading clinics, harassing patients shs using children as human shields. >> eventually the radical fringe of the anti-abortion movement turned to a chilling new tactic to isolate and target doctors. wanted posters that cast abortion doctors as murderers and gave anyone who might wish them harm literal instructions

on how to find those doctors. there was a wanted poster targeting dr. david gunn before he was murdered. it showed his photo, the make and model and license plate number of his car. it showed the addresses of each of his offices. there was a wanted poster targeting dr. john britain before he was murdered. the photo even shows him wearing a bullet proof vest. it lists information about his car and includes his home address. here's a wanted poster of dr. george tiller we believe circulated in the early '90s. it compares him to adolph hitler. it shows his photo, the city where his lives and exact office address. an anti-abortion activist walked up to dr. george tiller at the parking lot of the address on that poster, and she shot him. >> for the second time this year an abortion doctor has been shot apparently by an anti-abortion activist. this time the doctor survived the attack.

>> dr. tiller was taken to the hospital and treated. he returned to his clinic to work the next day. >> you know, i'm just telling my patients, you know, last night i got shot and i was scared, but there was somebody there to take care of me. >> shelly shannon shooting him did not stop dr. george tiller. >> what did you want to do when you shot him? >> stop him from killing babies. >> but getting caught and convicted and sentenced and thrown in prison did not stop shelly shannon from believing that she did the right thing and that she was and could continue to be an important part of a movement that embraces violence as a means to end abortion in america. there is a pro-violence wing of the anti-abortion movement. these people see themselves as soldiers in an actual war. they call themselves the army of god. assassinating abortion doctors in their view is justifiable homicide.

going to jail for murdering an abortion doctor is seen as a noble sacrifice. before she shot dr. tiller, shelly shannon wrote warm approving letters to the man who killed dr. david gunn in florida. she wrote to him in jail as he awaited trial. when she went on to commit her own act of violence, that began the next chapter of her life as a hero soldier in the army of god. her prison term would stop her from personally carrying out any further violence. but it couldn't stop her from inspiring the next would-be assassin. meanwhile in wichita dr. tiller kept on with his work. >> you simply cannot retreat when you're committed. there is no way that we are going to be forced out of this particular moral, correct, legal health care experience. >> outside of the army of god

manifestos from dark corners of the internet, some of the most radical language used against george tiller was piped into millions of homes on a regular basis thanks to a television host on fox news channel. >> killing babies in america, that's the subject of this evening's talking points memo. for $5,000 tiller will perform a late-term abortion for just about any reason. this man, dr. george tiller, known as tiller the baby killer, is performing late-term abortions without defining the specific medical reasons why. >> in 2002 an anti-abortion state legislator named phil cline was elected attorney general for the state of kansas. >> i want to first tell you who does not endorse attorney general phil cline, abortionist

dr. tiller does not endorse phil cline. >> in 2011 a producer from this show asked for his thoughts on abortion. >> do you believe yourself abortion should be made illegal? >> do i myself, yes. i wanted to make one other comment about that. i'm also anti-murder and i put a lot of murderers away, too. i follow the law. >> almost immediately upon taking office as kansas state attorney general, phil cline started a secret investigation into george tiller. he used subpoena power to get dozens of patient medical records. in defiance of a judge's order keeping the patients' identity secret, they staked out his parking lot, followed patients, took down license plate numbers, and subpoenaed a nearby hotel for records that helped them unredact these patients' medical records to get the patients' names. all of this was in pursuit for something to use against george tiller, something to charge him

with. but it also sent a message to women and girls in kansas. if you tried to get an abortion here, you could be the subject of an investigation by the state attorney general. this guy will get his hands on your personal medical records, all of them. cline ultimately got his license to practice law yanked by the state of kansas for misconduct in his pursuit of dr. tiller. all of his efforts against tiller ultimately yielded a misdemeanor case brought by cline's successor. on march 27th, 2009 following years of investigations, after four days of testimony, it took jurors 25 minutes to clear george tiller of all charges. but two months later, dr. tiller was dead. tiller's murderer had been sitting in that room watching the system exonerate george tiller. you can see him here sitting next to the president of operation rescue. two months later he would walk

into the church george tiller attended. he walked in on a sunday morning, held up a gun to tiller's head, and executed him at point blank range. according to the killer, scott rotor, he had been thinking about killing tiller for years. but it was the result of that trial, the acquittal of all the misdemeanor charges, that motivated him to go through with it, to do it. >> it seemed like that was the last attempt by the state of kansas to find if there was anything at all going on illegally in george tiller's clinic, and it seemed as though that was the last step and now he was acquitted, found not guilty. >> did you decide it was incumbent upon you to do something? >> there was nothing being done, and the legal process had been exhausted, and these babies were dying every day. and i felt that if someone did

not do something, efs had he was going to continue aborting children. and so i felt that i needed to act and quickly for those children. >> scott roader did not get to this point of radicalization overnight. according to his ex-wife he had become involved in the antiabortion movement in the 1990s. he protested at clinics, including dr. tillers. he tried to super blow the locks shut on another candidate and also visited shelly shannon in prison. >> get down on your knees. >> on the day he murdered dr. tiller when he was arrested that day after the shooting, a scrap of paper was found in his get away car. on that scrap of paper was written the phone number of a top operation rescue official. roader testified at his murder trial that he learned about dr. tiller's security protocols from operation rescue.

scott roader, the murderer of dr. george tiller, was not a lo lone wolf. he was the product of a violent, radical anti-abortion network. >> look, when i was in the pro-life movement we knew who was gluing doors shut. we knew who was vandalizing property. we knew of people who had thrown fire bombs. we knew, of course, people who were in jail. most of these pro-life groups have people always on the fringe hanging around more extreme than others they know have been involved in acts of vandalism, petty theft, maybe a fire bombing, this or that. it's time to blow the whistle on these guys. had that happened with scott roader, dr. tiller would not have been murdered. >> when he was tried for the murder of dr. till e it took a jury all of 37 minutes to decide that they would convict scott roader. and with that, the trial was over. the national media attention faded. and wichita was left to grapple with the aftermath of this act of terrorism. without george tiller, there was

no abortion provider left in this city. and that might have been it, but tillers friends and family and supporters decided that they would do what they had seen george tiller do time and again. they would overcome the fear and the intimidation and the violence and come back. living joyfully. the united explorer card hooks me up. getting more for getting away. traveling lighter. getting settled. rewarded.

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george tiller's father was also a doctor, a prominent wichita family practice doctor.

in 1970 tiller's father along with his mother, his sister and his brother-in-law were all killed in a plane crash. after that crash, george tiller left the navy to head back to wichita where he and his wife adopted his infant nephew and where he intended to wind down and eventually close up his father's practice in wichita. but then something happened. patients started asking the younger dr. tiller if he was going to take care of women the way his father had done. this was before roe vs. wade. abortion at the time was illegal in kansas. >> i was horrified because the only thing worse than a woman that would request an abortion was the physician that would do the abortion. so i was outraged. why would these nice people that my dad had been providing quality health care for them

over an extended period of time say he was a scum bag? >> tiller thought his father had done one or two abortions over the course of his career. but after he took over his father's family practice he learned it was much more than one or two. >> here's what happened in 1945, '46 or '47 a young woman for whom dad had already delivered two babies came to him pregnant right away, and she said something to the effect of i can't take it, can you help me? and those are the two common denominators. that is apparently the way you ask for an abortion from your regular doctor before abortion was legal. dad said no, by the time the baby gets here everything will be all right. she went out had a non-health care abortion, came back ten days or two weeks later and died. i don't know how many abortions he did, but the women in my father's practice for whom he did abortions educated me and taught me abortion is a matter

of survival for women. >> and so george tiller stayed in wichita in his father's practice in the same building. he expanded it, he rebuilt it after it was bombed in the 1980s. in the 1990s the supreme court decision planned parenthood v casey paved the way for states hostile to abortion rights to push through onerous new restrictions targeting abortion clinics. in response tiller added a new wing to the clinic with massive operating rooms designed to meet the specifications of an ambulatory surgical center even though most abortions can be done just in a doctor's office. after more than 30 years from everything from vandalism to blockades to threats and violence to the full force of the state government being leveraged against him george tiller was finally silenced when scott roader shot him in the head. on may 31st, 2009. nine days later tiller's family

announced that they would not reopen the clinic. dr. tiller was the city's only abortion provider, so his death ended abortion access in wichita. and that had a real practical and immediate effect on all the women who had come to rely on tiller and on this particular clinic for this kind of care. anti-abortion forces in wichita were adamant about keeping the clinic closed in the wake of tiller's murder, keeping wichita abortion-free. late in 2010 more than a year after tiller's death and more than a year after the clinic had closed, the associated press reported two doctors in kansas were training to become abortion providers. those doctors names were leaked to the ap by the anti-abortion movement and the ap decided to print their names. and the threats and intimidation and harassment began immediately. one of those two doctors was dr. mila means. she chose to share her story

with us, among others, after she was outed by the ap. her landlord sued her to stop her from adding abortion service to her primary care practice. he threatened to kick her out if she did any abortions at the practice. she was picketed at her home and at her office. even prospective locations she was rumored to be considering relocated to, those were targeted too. anti-abortion activists distributed a wanted-style flier with her photo and her exact address, calling her a murderer. she got a letter warning her that someday somebody was going to put a bomb under her car. so mila means and the other doctor who were trying to bring abortion back as a medical service to wichita after the murder of dr. tiller ended it, they weren't successful. the intimidation and threats and harassment worked as intended and wichita remained without a provider. then came julie burkhart.

she had worked for dr. tiller for years and up until his murder on legislative policy and as the clinic's spokesperson. she, like others in doctor tiller's orbit, was devastated for his murder and what it meant for her city and also quietly determined to bring abortion back to wichita. >> women here need to be able to have access to obgyn care that includes abortion care. why living in this part of the country should women be denied those services? the vast majority of the people i work with here, we're from this part of the country so this is our place as well. i think it says a lot for our nation that we are not going to tolerate these extremists, and we will ensure that women have rights no matter where we live. >> in 2012 three years after dr. tiller was assassinated, julie

burkhart bought tiller's old clinic. and right away the network of anti-abortion activists who had just successfully fought back those other two doctors who had been trying to reinstate abortion access in wichita, right away when julie bought tiller's clinic they came for her. they tried twice to get the land the clinic sits on rezoned so a medical facility couldn't operate there. they held protests outside her house, and of course they distributed wanted-style posters and her photo and her personal information. >> is this scary to you to have this distributed and to have your home address and your picture? >> well, it's something that i take very seriously. we communicate regularly with law enforcement, so it's something that we take very seriously. but it will not deter us. >> it will not deter us. coming up next this is what it looks like when your job makes you the target for a whole radical movement of people who are bent on stopping you. who see this as a war and you as

their enemy. >> i remember when dr. tiller was assassinated. i was in my first year of medical school. i was in a womens health elective actually when i found out. and i -- i don't know if that just like planted a seed in my head but i will always remember that moment. and i come here now as an abortion provider and i see my patients who have been cared for in the past by dr. tiller. i see nurses and volunteers and so many people know him. and it's inspiring. but it's also scary. i know -- i think about it all the time especially when i'm sort of out and about. i'm flying or i'm pulling into clinic or i'm checking into the hotel. i don't want to tell my uber driver what i'm doing here.

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in january 2013 julie burkhart was camped out at the site of george tiller's shuttered clinic surrounded by contractors and a crew of lawyers and activists intent on bringing abortion access back to wichita. now six years later they've accomplished that and then some. when she set out to reopen it, julie burkhart was not sure anyone would want to come to this clinic again, the place that for decades had been the epicenter of america's often violent abortion wars. but like george tiller had always said, women need abortions and people did come to the clinic. in fact so many people came that three years after she got dr. tiller's clinic back up and running again in wichita, julie opened another clinic three hours south in oklahoma city. it was a fight to get each clinic open. most days julie says it still feels like a fight to keep them open.

>> between these two states, you know, we have things coming at us all the time. whether it's protesters, what the state legislators want to do, what we have going on, you know, running through the judiciary, there might be patient issues, funding issues, physician recruitment issues. people still don't want to necessarily come to wichita. people still ten years after dr. tiller's assassination still view wichita has being this very violent volatile community. and i get that. but it makes it difficult for us in terms of recruiting doctors. i still don't have any physicians who live in wichita or live in oklahoma city. so all these years later we still fly people in. >> all these years later we still fly people in.

she has to fly doctors in to wichita and oklahoma city every week to see patients. angela marchin is one of those doctors. >> i'm from the midwest so i had thoughts of moving back to the midwest. i don't feel that it's safe for me to go to live in a place where i would constantly be under threat of violence or harm. >> so you wouldn't feel safe living in wichita and working here? >> no. >> this setup where clinics do not have in-town doctors, this is very common in the states where abortion access is already most vulnerable. and at least half a dozen republican led states where there are very few or even just one remaining clinic the atmosphere is seen as so hostile to abortion providers that clinics are not able to find any local doctors who will do the job. just like julie is doing, they

fly doctors in from other states. and that makes those clinics even more vulnerable to getting shut down by the very creative and aggressive anti-abortion forces working in the state legislatures. there's a whole class of laws known as t.r.a.p. laws, t-r-a-p, regulations designed for one purpose, to shun down abortion clinics because clinics aren't supposed to be able to comply with these requirements. one of the more in fashion t.r.a.p. laws over the past several years is a rule of requiring abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a

nearby hospital wherever they practice. there's no medical reason for this. abortion is relatively safe low risk procedure that in most cases can be done in a doctors office. complications that require hospitalization are very rare, and even in those very rare cases the doctor who performs the procedure doesn't need admitting privileges to send a patient to the hospital. in a place like wichita or oklahoma city where the doctors do not live in the states where they do abortions, it's impossible for them to get admitting privileges at a local hospital. but that's of course the point. the point is not that doctors should be able to get those privileges. the point of these laws is that doctors won't get them. and so that can be used as an excuse to legally ban that doctor from performing abortions or to shut down the clinics where they would have done so. we've seen this play out. in texas in 203 the republican state government there passed an admitting privileges t.r.a.p. law. as a result half the clinics in that state were forced to shutdown. three years later the supreme court threw out that t.r.a.p. law in texas in a 5-3 decision.

they r50u8ed it did nothing to protect womens' health but it did put a substantial burden on womens' ability to access abortion, so that law was overturned. since then president trump has made two u.s. appointment tuesday the supreme court and there's a new flashing red light warning sign that the new conservative court wants to another look at this particular brand of t.r.a.p. law. the court has now taken up an identical t.r.a.p. law to the texas one they threw out. the case is set to be decided by the supreme court in june. the expectation is that this newly constituted court will change course on that t.r.a.p. law. the expectation is they're going to say that t.r.a.p. law is okay now even if the result is the immediate wholesale shut down of clinics. so when julie burkhart says she feels like there's opposition coming at her all the time, this is what she means. first anti-abortion threats and terrorism and violence have made

her city an unsafe place for local doctors to practice abortion. so her work around is flying doctors in from out of state. but now the new conservative majority on the supreme court looks poised to use that very fact she cent get local doctors at her clinic as a reason to shut her down, to end abortion in wichita again. more ahead tonight in this special report. stay with us. of once-weekly ozempic®. in a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than 7 and maintained it. oh! under 7? (announcer) and you may lose weight. in the same one-year study, adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. oh! up to 12 pounds? (announcer) a two-year study showed that ozempic® does not increase the risk of major cardiovascular events like heart attack, stroke, or death. oh! no increased risk? (announcer) ozempic® should not be the first medicine for treating diabetes, or for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. do not share needles or pens. don't reuse needles. do not take ozempic® if you have a personal or family history of medullary thyroid cancer, multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to ozempic®. stop taking ozempic® and get medical help right away

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carl swinny has a desk job. office hours 8:00 to 5:00 most days, some days slower than others. but that's where carl swinny's

desk job stops being a normal desk job because while he does sit at a desk, his desk sits opposite a metal detector, and he wears a gun on his hip. carl swinny works for julie burkhart at the trust women clinic in wichita, kansas. he's the facilities coordinator there which means he's in charge of keeping the staff at that clinic safe as well as the patients who go there for health care. carl worked for dr. tiller's clinic, too. he was the security guard at dr. tiller's clinic up until the day tiller was shot at his church. carl remembers seeing the man who killed his boss. he had come by the clinic when dr. tiller worked there. >> you'd seen scott roader here. >> i'd seen him, yeah. what got me is what he said in court, or so i heard it. he was asked why he didn't try to shoot him here instead of in church and he said well the guard had a gun.

i thought i wonder why. >> these days mr. swinny still has his gun. he mans the lobby at the clinic. he signs in the patients. he keeps an eye on the protesters making sure they don't get too close. there are fewer protesters than there were in the tiller days but they can still get aggressive sometimes. they stand in the parking lot, drive by the entrance back and forth, back and forth. the threat they pose still feels like a very live one because it's hard to tell who's just a guy with a sign and who could be the next scott roader. carl says he keeps an eye out for what he calls the problem people. >> in kansas today a woman who shot a doctor who performs abortions was sentenced to 11 years in prison. she was convicted in march in the attack on dr. george tiller. >> rah rochelle shannon went to prison for trying to murder dr.

tiller. a federal judge called her a terrorist and said she was even a threat behind bars. but that was 25 years ago. shelly shannon is not behind bars anymore. right now she's out. shelly shannon was let out of prison last year on supervised release. the assistant u.s. attorney who prosecuted her case says, quote, she's completely unrehabilitated. she has the same mentality and goals that she had when she was convicted. abortion providers across the country expressed alarm when shannon was let out of prison, not just because she herself could cause more violence but because she could inspire it, too. so carl keeps a picture of shelly shannon on the wall next to his desk. her head shot hangs behind reception so everyone on staff knows exactly what she looks like, too. because who knows if she might decide to come back. dr. tiller, of course, will not be there if there is a next time. but the clinic is still a clarion symbol for the

aggressive radical anti-abortion movement that has targeted his clinic. and the reason that clinic has remained a symbol, the reason that clinic is still there at all still serving kansas women is julie burkhart. julie is not just the face of abortion services in wichita after that famous doctor was killed. she's the reason abortion services exist in wichita at all. were it not for julie burkhart, a man with a gun could have shut down abortion access in wichita for good. >> do you feel julie is in the kind of danger dr. tiller was? >> yes. yes, i do. >> the threats started before julie even got the clinic reopened. once the news got out that abortion was coming back to wichita, that julie was bringing it back, she started getting stalked. a flier with her photo and home address calling her a mass

murderer and encouraging people to go to her house, that was distributed in her neighborhood. anti-abortion activists posted an audiotape online of the man who murdered dr. tiller. but this time he was threatening julie by name. >> it is a little bit death-defying, you know, for someone to walk back in there. you know, i think that woman's name is julie burkhart. it's almost like putting a target on your back, saying, well let's see if you can shoot me. >> eventually julie says she was getting death threats not just from behind bars but from her front lawn. >> when the protesters came into my neighborhood, they were handing out these wanted-style posters. and they asked people to bring me to eternal life. and i take that very seriously that, you know, the way we get to eternal life is through death. >> at one point this was the view from inside julie's house. prepare to meet thy god.

where is your church? that veiled threat was not lost on julie, that someone might come shoot her at church just like dr. tiller. julie asked the court for a protective order against the pastor who she said was targeting her at work and home. the pastor turned around and sued julie for a bunch of things for defamation, a piece of that legal fight spun on for years. the trial didn't wrap up until october of this year. julie's lawyer told the jury, quote, violence toward abortion providers isn't speculative, it isn't abstract, this is real. and the jury agreed. julie won. not a surprise to julie, she was confident she would win. but sitting in court listening to the trial, she couldn't stop herself from thinking about the time her old boss dr. george tiller was in a similar spot, when he too got halled in to

court, when he too had to defend himself in court from charges that wouldn't have existed if not for relentless campaign by antiabortion activists went on topping him from doing his job, and how one of the spectators in that courtroom scott roader would be so galvanized by watching that spectacle. >> he was my only target. >> and would get so furious when the wall came down on tiller's side that he would murder him over it. >> do you worry someone was sitting in that courtroom who's going to be the next scott roader? >> absolutely, yes. yeah. >> that's a lot to carry around. >> that's why as much as i wanted to win, sorry, sometimes i thought losing might be better. >> julie burkhart told us she has tightened security at her home, that she is cautious. but she told us her work is what she loves to do.

she told us this specifically. see says, quote, i don't think any of us should be bullied out of what we do or what we love to do. we'll be right back. ♪ - [woman] with my shark, i deep clean messes like this, this, and even this. but i don't have to clean this, because the self-cleaning brush roll removes hair while i clean. - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans now cleans itself.

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when justice harry blackman wrote the supreme court decision that gave women in all 50 states access to legal abortion, he knew it was a landmark ruling. but even though he was writing for a seven member majority on that court, he knew it might not stand forever. >> do you think that roe vs. wade stands the chance of being over turned? >> i think any case up here always stands a chance of being overturned. i can't forecast that one way or another. it may well be overruled. it'll -- that will depend primarily on the personnel of the court. >> that will depend on the personnel of the court.

you might have noticed there's been some turnover in the personnel of the court lately with donald trump's two picks neil gorsuch and brett kavanaugh. there is now a conservative anti-abortion majority on the court. because of that, america's abortion providers have been planning for a post-roe world. thinking and talking mostly amongst themselves about which states would be first to ban abortion and how they might develop ways to get women from those states in what they're calling haven states where abortion will remain legal. if roe were overturned by the court tomorrow, these are the states that have laws already in place so that they could ban abortion right away. so if roe gets overturned at the court legal abortion could be gone in all of these states basically immediately. that suddenly seems possible. it probably will not happen in the next year, but here's what could happen next year. if the supreme court lets that

louisiana t.r.a.p. law stand, the one that's basically identical to the t.r.a.p. law of the court throughout 2016, the one that closed all those clinics in texas, if the new conservative majority in the supreme court lets the louisiana law stand, here are the places where that kind of law would likely shut down the last clinic in the state. that's a realty we could be living next year. the court is set to hear case next year and raul by june. and that's what julie burkhart is preparing for right now. the name of her clinics is trust women. that's how he came to be an abortion provider himself. the mission of trust women which hangs on the walls in both clinics is, quote, to open clinics that provide abortion care in underserved communities so that all women can make their own decisions about their health care. there are more underserved communities that julie burkhart has her eye on.

she's watching the court and watching the anti-abortion activists who she knows will try to stop her. but she's also planning her next move. that does it for us tonight. thanks for being with us. now it's time for "last word" with lawrence o'donnell. good evening and welcome to a special thanksgiving holiday edition of "last word." tonight we are less than a year away from the 2020 presidential election. a year ago voters delivered a strong message to republicans and the trump presidency in the congressional elections with the democrats winning the house by the largest mid-term margin of victory since the impeachment investigation of richard nixon forced him to resign the presidency in 1974. and now another republican president is the subject of a house intelligence