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This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Ifill its the Supreme Courts biggest Abortion Case in nearly a quarter century. By fivetothree, the justices struck down a texas law that forced many abortion clinics to close, by requiring doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. It had since been widely copied in other states. Opponents of the law celebrated, but both sides vowed the fight will go on. Todays Supreme Court decision is a gamechanger. In the unrelenting assault on Womens Health and rights that has been going on in state legislatures for years. This is a tremendous victory, and we will go forward in making sure that all of the laws that are blocking womens access to Constitutional Rights will be overturned. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court sided with abortion. So we stand here as members of the Prolife Movement saying we will not give up, if anything, were more resolute. This next election is about between one and four Supreme Court justices, hundreds of lower court justices, and 5,000 appointees for our government. We as a prolife Community Must vote. This is a call to action. We will not give up. Woodruff ifill also today the court overturned the bribery conviction of former Virginia Governor bob mcdonnell. The unanimous decision is likely to make it harder to prosecute elected officials for corruption. Well explore todays court action after the news summary. In the days other news, britains vote to quit the European Union weighed on World Markets again, and on wall street. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 260 points on top of the 600 points it lost friday, it closed today at 17,140. The nasdaq fell 113 points, and the s p 500 dropped nearly 37. Meanwhile, two debt rating agencies standard and poors and fitch stripped britain of its top credit rating. A new round of storms rolled over West Virginia today, as more than 20 counties braced for new flooding. Since last week, floods across the state have killed nearly two dozen people and destroyed scores of homes. And, police warned today of looting in some of the hardest hit towns. We will be stepping up patrols in that area now that were able to get in there easily. And the citizens have armed themselves. If you decide to loot and steal from people who have already been ravaged by these flood waters, youll be lucky if were the ones that catch you. Ifill theres no damage estimate yet, but it could be the states worst in 30 years. A wildfire in Central California has now destroyed 250 homes and other buildings, and killed two people. The blaze has burned across 45,000 acres in kern county, about 110 miles north of los angeles. The fire is about 40 contained. It was stoked by recordbreaking heat and the states ongoing drought. Another 165 pages of emails have emerged from Hillary Clintons tenure as secretary of state. They include 34 that the democratic president ial hopeful had not turned over to the state department. Instead, the department obtained them from huma abedin, clintons deputy chief of staff. A federal Court Ordered them made public in a lawsuit by a conservative group. The governments of israel and turkey agreed today to normalize relations, ending a bitter, six year diplomatic rift. Turkey severed ties with israel in 2010 after ten turkish activists were killed trying to run the Israeli Naval blockade of gaza. Even today, the two sides appeared at odds over future access to gaza. Im sure this is an agreement that is good for both sides so i dont want to start quibbling on that, but i will say this the security naval blockade remains in place. translated our first ship carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid will set sail. Therefore the blockade there in gaza will have been lifted with turkeys leadership. Ifill the agreement does call for delivery of relief supplies to gaza, plus an exchange of ambassadors. And, israel will pay compensation for the deaths of the turkish activists. Turkey also moved today to improve relations with russia. The turkish government announced it will prosecute a man who allegedly killed a Russian Military pilot shot down at the syrian border. In a letter to russian leader vladimir putin, turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan also apologized for downing the jet. Still to come on the newshour the Supreme Courts momentous ruling on abortion access, were on the ground in london and in scotland, as the reality of brexit remains foggy, politics monday Elizabeth Warren goes to bat against donald trump, and much more. Ifill we return to the historic day at the Supreme Court. Abortion rights advocates claimed a huge victory as the eightmember court came down fivetothree against a restrictive texas antiabortion law. For more on endofterm decision, we turn to newshour regular marcia coyle, chief washington correspondent of the national law journal. Just to be clear, were talking about two different antirestrictive laws that were returned today. Right. Ifill how did this case get to the dismownchts a group of abortion clinics in texas challenged the two texas regulations that were contained in a law now noun as h. B. 2 enacted in 2013. The two regulations required clinic doctors to have admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 miles to have the clinic. The second regulation required the clinics to meet the building safety and other standards of ambulatory Surgical Centers that are almost hospitallike. Ifill what was the practical effect of the law as it stood before the court waited . When the admitting privileges requirement went into effect, roughly 20 of the 40 existing texas abortion clinics closed. The clinics estimated that when the ambulatory Surgical Center requirement would go into effect which it hadnt, that the 20 remaining clinics would go down to seven or eight. Ifill weve seen this happen with other cases that have made it to court, whether it was actually a group looking for a challenge . No, i mean, this was actually a reaction to what texas had enacted. Texas claimed that these regulations were designed to protect the health of women. The clinics claim that the regulations were designed to stop abortions. So the clinics challenged them. They lost in the lower federal Appellate Court but won in the trial court, but because they lost in the lower federal Appellate Court, they had to go to the Supreme Court, and in the Supreme Court they claimed that these regulations were unconstitutional under the courts 1992 test that asks whether the regulations or restrictions impose an undue burden on a womans access to abortion. So, you know, what is an undue burden . This is why this case attracted so much attention and concern. What was the court going to say . House of it going to apply that test . Well, the court in 92 did say that unnecessary regulations that have the purpose or effect of imposing a substantial obstacle in the path of the woman constituted an undue, unconstitutional burden, and thats what five justices found today the way the two restrictions were implemented. Thats the effect of those. Ifill we talk all the time about how there are normally nine justice but in this case there were eight and in the affirmative action last week there was a 5 to 3 decision on something this important and hot button. How did it come act and what was the reasoning of the court . First of all, i dont think that Justice Scalias presence on the court, had he lived, would have made a difference in the outcome. I think he would have been in the dissent and itould have been a fivefour decision. Justice breyer wrote the majority opinion and took the two requirements one by one, the admitting privileges requirement. Abortions, he said, have very rare complications, you dont need the hospital at happened within 30 miles. He also said that clinic doctors already had working arrangements with other physicians who did have admitting privileges in case it was needed. Then he looked at the effect here, when the privileges requirement went into effect, 20 of 40 clinics closed, the result, fewer doctors, increased crowding, longer waits, longer drive distances, and he said there was just no Health Problem that this lawn was seeking to cure. On the Surgical Centers requirement, there he looked and he said, okay, abortion has fewer complications than many of the procedures that texas law allows to be done outside of Surgical Centers, in homes, in offices, and the risks there, he said, ordinary birth, childbirth is 14 times the risk. So whats the impact, then, of that requirement . He looked at that. The 20 remaining clinics would go down to seven or eight. Ifill but the surprise, at least for we novices, was Justice Kennedy ended up on the same side more or less as Justice Breyer. Justice kennedy was in the 1992 decision that reaffirmed rowe v wade. He expressed some unhappiness of how the coward applied the 1992 position when it took up some of nebraskas partial birth abortion act, but Justice Breyer said as long as the court continued to follow rowe v wade in the 1992 casey decision, this is the way they should interpret the undue burden. Gwen, Justice Kennedy was the senior justice in the majority in this case so he had the right to assign the opinion to anyone who was in the majority. Ifill by assigning it to Justice Breyer, he knew what he was getting. He did and he got a very factladen, straightforward opinion from Justice Breyer. Ifill marcia coyle, thank you and thank you for the term. Its been exciting. Its been an unusual term. Thanks, gwen, my pleasure. Expwrfntl ifill we are now joined by advocates on both sides of the courts abortion decision. Nancy northup is president of the center for reproductive rights, which helped bring the challenge against the texas law to the courts. And favoring the texas law, steven aden. Hes senior counsel for Alliance Defending freedom. Big victory today, well start with you. Tell us what the effect is of this ruling in a small sense, what happens in texas and in a broader sense what happens around the country . This was a tremendous victory today. It was just a clear out win. What that means for texas is that the clinics that are currently open in texas can stay open, they were threatened to be closed by this underhanded law, and also that other clinics would be able to reopen. You know, one of the things that happened with h. B. 2 was that it devastated abortion acts in texas closing half which the court said was unconstitutional because they werent justified on medical grounds. Ifill what tried to limit the scope of the abortion clinics. We believe its a big disappointment and loss for Womens Health and safety. All texas was trying to do is regulate abortion the same way and manner as other similar outpatient abortion procedures. If you or i go in for a colonoscopy or a laparoscopy chances are our doctor will have admitting privileges because if something goes wrong you want the best standard of healthcare available to help you. Thats all texas was trying to do. The fact the Supreme Court would strike this law by one vote does not argue well for Womens Health. Ifill werent you hoping for a fourtofour. Thats right, if Justice Kennedy would have come along it would have been a fourfour split but that didnt happen. Ifill what about the argument that this was something affecting Womens Health and in fact tha that the law was desigd to protect Womens Health . Well, i think the Supreme Court made clear today this was a pretext, the idea that it was about Womens Health because as the American Medical Association and others saw, it didnt advance Womens Health and hurt it by putting so many women out of reach of being able to get abortion receivables. Its a game changer, the decision from the Supreme Court today, which is why were excited about it because we have been fighting these kind of sham laws for years and the Supreme Court has made clear that you have got to have a justification to regulate abortion and you have to make sure that the burden does not overwhelm the justification the law has or it cant stand. Ifill steven aden, was this a game changer . Was this landmark historical . It remains to be seen if this was a oneoff. This was a decision of one justice that went the other way. Ifill isnt that how most things get decided in the court . Sure. What well find out in years to come with many cases like this coming before the court which is whether the Supreme Court is in earnest makeig it more difficult for most states to regulate abortion the same as similar state providers. The fact it close add number of clinics says two things, as the the lead plaintiff in one of the cases, amy said shes more about planned parenthood closing her down because theyre cornering the market for abortion in texas than about regulation themselves. So we dont know why many of the clinics closed, we just know they did. That was the argument texas made. Unfortunately, again, the Supreme Court by one vote did not accept the argument. Ifill i want you to respond and ask yor about the singlevote majority. I think the decision today is the response to that. The court could not have been clearer that was no justification for these laws. This is what we have been facing in scores of laws passed around the country and in court after court after court after court in jen have blocked them because theyre not justified. They see them for what they are which is an attempt to do by the back door what you cant do by the front which is ban abortion. The Supreme Court reiterated today as it has for 40 years, women have the right to make the important personal decisions for their lives, and with this decision today, the reason its so monumental is that it protects for the next generation of american women the right to make these decisions for themselves. Ifill lets talk ability how the decision got made. You mentioned a couple of times steven aden that Justice Kennedy decided basically to tip the balance. Were you surprised by that . A little bit. He made no secret of his antipathy for abortion. He spoke strongly against it the last time the Supreme Court made a pronouncement on the practice before. When you talk about women making decisions, this law was upheld twice by two fifth circuit panels. Open those fifth circuit panels were five different women, and i think that says a lot for how women view this law. By and large when they get a chance to look at the facts, they uphold it, but in this case one man, Justice Breyer writing for the court, decided the law imposed an undue burden, which is a shame. Ifill what about that, the idea one man writing for the court turned this upside down in terms of interests for women . The Supreme Court obviously is five justices ruled today in our favor, and the issue is not whether its men or women sitting on the court. Americans differ in their views about abortion. Whats important and the courts recognize while people of good faith can disagree about abortion, the constitution protects our decisions that we make about whether or not to end a pregnancy. The decisions about our family and our lives and our health. And thats what matters. So people can make their own decisions, but what the Court Protects and the rule of law was vindicated to