[MUSIC FADES IN]
Good morning! It's Monday, June 27th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news, and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
[MUSIC FADES OUT]
It was a weekend of protest and preparation, as people on all sides of the abortion issue braced themselves for what comes next now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe. In some states, for health workers and patients, the impact was immediate. Some abortion clinics had to suddenly shut down when the ruling came in.
[START HOUSTON WOMEN'S REPRODUCTIVE SERVICES ARCHIVAL CLIP]
I regret to inform you that as of today, Friday, June 24th, 2022, the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade. What that means is we are no longer able to provide abortion care.
[END HOUSTON WOMEN'S REPRODUCTIVE SERVICES ARCHIVAL CLIP]
That's now the out-going voicemail message at Houston Women's Reproductive Services. "The Washington Post" takes us to that clinic, where 20 women had appointments on Friday. Some were already in the waiting room when the Supreme Court issued its ruling. The staff had to let the patients know one by one that they could not be treated. One woman drove hundreds of miles across two states to get to the clinic. Another walked out in tears. The clinic also changed its voicemail to say they would help refer patients to other states for the procedure.
[START HOUSTON WOMEN'S REPRODUCTIVE SERVICES ARCHIVAL CLIP]
We believe that abortion is healthcare. And we want abortion to remain available and accessible for all.
[END HOUSTON WOMEN'S REPRODUCTIVE SERVICES ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Several Democratic governors said they would help women travel to their states for abortions. Michigan has a law on the books pre-dating Roe that criminalizes abortion. Governor Gretchen Whitmer was on CBS's "Face the Nation," saying she's trying to fight that old law from going into effect.
[START CBS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
I am horrified, as are so many women who are 50 years old, or in my generation, that the thought that my daughters will have fewer rights than I've had virtually my whole life.
[END CBS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams was on CNN's "State of the Union."
[START CNN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
We know that the right to choose should not be divvied up amongst states, and that the sinister practice of taking constitutional rights and allowing each state to decide the quality of your citizenship is wrong. Women deserve bodily autonomy. They deserve the right to make these choices. And in Georgia in particular, in a matter of days, this six-week ban will be the law of the land.
[END CNN ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Some Democrats renewed calls to expand the Supreme Court, as a way of checking the conservative majority. Senator Elizabeth Warren was on ABC News' "This Week."
[START ABC NEWS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
I believe we need to get some confidence back in our court, and that means we need more justices on the United States Supreme Court.
[END ABC NEWS ARCHIVAL CLIP]
President Biden continued to say he does not support that plan. His administration is taking steps to block states from banning pills used for medication abortions and preparing to fight in court.
A CBS poll in the wake of this ruling shows that around 60% of Americans disapprove of the Court's decision on abortion. "Politico" reports on what this all means for the Midterm elections. It found some swing-state Republicans are trying to avoid questions about abortion. Former vice president Mike Pence and others in the party have said they want a national ban on abortion. The GOP is trying to argue that they still have a chance at taking back the House, that voters won't punish their party for the Court's ruling, and that the election will hinge on inflation and other issues.
Meanwhile, as Biden is abroad at the G7 meeting, world leaders are reacting to the ruling. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson called it a "big step backwards." "Horrific" was the word that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used to describe it. The UN says, "access to safe, legal and effective abortion is firmly rooted in international human rights law," calling the ruling "a huge blow to women's human rights."
[PENSIVE MUSIC]
[MUSIC FADES OUT]
We've talked now about the political and global implications of the abortion ruling. But for many Americans, the impact is personal. Not just for people who get pregnant, but for doctors and pharmacists, friends and family, or even volunteers who help someone get an abortion.
The greatest danger is no longer medical, it's legal. Jia Tolentino has been writing about this at "The New Yorker."
What is going to happen is that in the prohibition states, there will be an extreme increase in surveillance and criminalization of ordinary pregnancy. For abortion rights activists, they worry that now if a pregnant person miscarries, they could be suspected of having an illegal abortion.
There are about a million miscarriages or stillbirths every year. And there are about the same number of abortions that occur. Pregnancies end early, and it is not always possible to tell from the outside whether the pregnancy ended early because of a miscarriage or because of abortion.
Tolentino writes that some doctors are refusing to treat women who are in the middle of a miscarriage. They're afraid treatment could be classified as abortion. She cites the example of a woman in Texas with an ectopic pregnancy, meaning that it was nonviable and could've killed her. But she had to drive 15 hours to New Mexico to have it terminated.
Tolentino writes that in states where abortion is banned, law enforcement could go after your personal data, your search history, text messages, even your phone location data. The medical journalism site "Stat" reports that the well-known medical-privacy act HIPAA will not prevent people's medical records from being turned over if there's a warrant or a subpoena.
And Tolentino says the criminalization of women's reproductive health choices could go even further, driven by a wave of laws that declare fetuses people. If an embryo is a full person, IVF becomes possibly an instrument of murder. So does the morning after pill. So does an IUD. You know, there are implications in the idea of fetal personhood, which is the doctrine that is going to be pushed state by state much quicker than I think many people imagine.
A common rallying cry right now, for people who support reproductive health rights, is, "We will not go back." We will not go back to a time of dangerous, illegal abortions and preventable deaths. But Tolentino says, for now, we're headed somewhere much worse.
[MELLOW MUSIC]
[MUSIC FADES OUT]
Let's turn now to other things happening in the news. Specifically, let's talk about the job market, which is doing well by many measures right now. Unemployment is near a half-century low. Lots of people are getting offers for new jobs and quitting their old ones.
But "The Wall Street Journal" points to signs that things may be cooling off. Some job seekers say that companies are rescinding offers they made recently. One person who was planning to start a new job in July told the "Journal" he had this new position lined up for months, he was really counting on it, and he couldn't believe it when his offer got revoked.
A recruiting expert points out, cancelling an offer was practically unheard of six months ago. When this happens, it's usually a sign that a company's business outlook has changed quickly. These cancelled offers might mean that executives are finding it harder to predict the future, with rising inflation and fears of a recession. Now, recruiters say it's not like we're seeing a huge wave of cancelled job offers. And for the most part, hiring is still highly competitive. But some people told the "Journal" they're gonna be more cautious about jumping ship. One woman who recently got burned said next time, she might hold off on resigning from her old job until she's already being onboarded for the new one.
[PENSIVE MUSIC]
[MUSIC FADES OUT]
You might recognize the name Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. Starting in 1978 all the way until he was captured in 1996, he sent bombs to targets including academics and business executives in a campaign against industrialization, modern technology, and environmental destruction. One of the longest manhunts in FBI history ended when he was finally arrested at his off-the-grid cabin in Montana.
[START PROJECT UNABOM ARCHIVAL CLIP]
I wanted to think about the relationship between ideas and violence and kind of what had driven him to this.
[END PROJECT UNABOM ARCHIVAL CLIP]
That's Eric Benson. He's the host of the podcast "Project Unabom" from Apple TV+. The series has new, original reporting on who Kaczynski was and his path from Harvard-educated mathematics professor to domestic terrorist who killed three people and injured 23 others. Benson says it is much more than just a story about the Unabomber.
[START PROJECT UNABOM ARCHIVAL CLIP]
It's about a relationship between two brothers. Famously, David Kaczynski, Ted's younger brother, probably the person who was closest to him in the world for his entire life, is also the person who came to the FBI with his concerns that his brother was the Unabomber. So David Kaczynski set in motion the events that would lead to Ted Kaczynski's arrest and imprisonment for the rest of his life.
[END PROJECT UNABOM ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Benson even had a chance to talk with David himself.
I remember he was back home from college, and he said to me, "You know, most really smart people, they have a sadistic streak about them." And that sort of seemed strange to me. Like intelligence goes with cruelty? Benson ended up speaking with many other people connected to this story, including FBI agents who worked to solve the case and some of the people who were suspected of being the Unabomber.
Benson says he wanted to understand how a person like Kaczynski managed to terrorize the nation for nearly two decades.
[START PROJECT UNABOM ARCHIVAL CLIP]
Why did someone with such abilities, in some ways, end up kind of resorting to almost random violence. How did that happen?
[END PROJECT UNABOM ARCHIVAL CLIP]
[MUSIC FADES IN]
If you want to hear more exclusive reporting, check out "Project Unabom" on Apple Podcasts. The first three episodes are out now. And you can find all the day's big stories in the Apple News app. That includes Supreme Court rulings expected today, as well as a hockey recap of the Colorado Avalanche winning the Stanley Cup. I'll talk with you again tomorrow.
[MUSIC FADES OUT]