justice clarence thomas where he writes, quote, in future cases, we should reconsider all of this court's substantive due process precedents, including griswold, lawrence, and obergefell. he is talking about reconsidering decisions on gay rights and the right to contraception. joining me now inside the growing protests, nbc's julia ainsley. josh letterman is at the white house where the president just spoke and barbara mcquaid former u.s. attorney and msnbc analyst. julia, i've watched the crowd grow bigger by the minute. what is it like there and what is the mood? what are people telling you? >> reporter: well, here, chris, if you saw that, what we got from the leak just a few weeks ago would take any steam or pressure off this situation when the final decision came you would be wrong. i was there that day. it is even more fraught today. we're seeing a lot of intense emotions. some women are crying. people who had an abortion and some people who feel directly, personally violated by this decision today. actually the pro life group has by and large left this area. a lot of them were here to celebrate early on. now they have moved off. there is still a large number -- a lot of security. we have barricades all around me here. it has really brought the crowd in to a really dense situation. that is where we are now. i've been speaking to people on both sides of the issue. we've heard from women who say they felt motivated as soon as they saw the news to come here. i spoke to at least one person on the pro life side who said they think this is now a cause for celebration and they hope more states will start to enact laws that would restrict abortions. as you can see this is growing louder, bigger, and more fraught by the moment, chris. >> we'll check in with you. thank you so much. barbara, i know you've had a chance to read through some of this opinion and we'll talk about the far reaching changes this could bring, the things clarence thomas touched on from same sex marriage to contraception. let me start by asking you about abortion and how this will fundamentally change the landscape. >> for every woman of child bearing age until today, she had a right to an abortion in this country and suddenly that has been yanked away. that means any state that wants to can ban abortion making it a crime for the provider or even the mother. as you highlighted at the top of the hour we have about a dozen states with trigger laws and another dozen or so with zombie laws. for those fortunate enough to live in a state with protections life continues but for others who will have to travel or face other hardships, they may be forced to have births they don't want to give. >> that is a range, right, from state to state to state? as we just said, there are places where a doctor who performs an abortion now could go to prison, right? >> a doctor could and i think we could even see mothers being subjected to criminal laws. what is tricky about this, is that the laws sometimes make exceptions for the life of the mother or for rape or incestt. how do you prove that? what doctor will take on that risk? it will have a chilling effect i think of shutting down abortion providers in any state. >> josh, we just heard from president biden. it was a forceful criticism. what is next for this white house? one of the things he said that struck me was this is not over. >> that's right, chris. >> the court has done what it has never done before -- expressly take away a constitutional right that is so fundamental to so many americans that already had been recognized. this is a sad day for the country in my view but it doesn't mean the fight's over. we need to restore the protections of roe as law of the land. we need to elect officials who will do that. this fall roe is on the ballot. >> chris, president biden is making an explicit political argument. we don't often hear him talking that directly about elections and politics particularly from the cross hall of the white house in a presidential address. but the president clearly making the point to people watching him that this is something they have to elect people to restore the constitutional right to abortion that the supreme court has just said does not exist, president biden saying there is no executive order he can sign today or any other day that would restore that right. that is something congress has to do and people have to vote for lawmakers who are going to do that. but there were two other very significant messages from the president today. one was about what his administration specifically will try to do and we know that while the white house has been looking at those options for weeks now, ever since that draft ruling came out, these options are fairly limited. they are things the white house and the justice department and other agencies can do around the margins to try to enforce other laws that may help facilitate women seeking access to abortion. so the president talked about the justice department, protecting the ability for women to cross state lines to seek abortion and in other places talking about how the justice department will not allow states to essentially throw out the judgment of the fda. that certain abortion medications are legal and safe. and, also, what his administration is going to try to do to make sure people are not physically blocked from accessing abortion sites in places where it remains legal. but then the third pillar of the president's remarks, also so important, had to do with the fear that many officials have right now of the possibility of unrest and even violence in the wake of this decision. president biden saying, peaceful, peaceful, peaceful, encouraging people to use their first amendment rights to express their dismay with this opinion but not to take it into a violent direction. that is something the white house is going to be watching very closely as the world and country react to this supreme court decision. >> to his second point, barbara, for folks who look at the supreme court and think it often settles a thorny question, the range of lawsuits that can come out of this abortion ruling is extraordinary, right? >> it is. this is unlikely to be the last word ever on abortion rights in america. it certainly is a seismic shift from the right that had been protected for the past 50 years. there are other challenges that could come along. one that comes to mind is a religious challenge. the free exercise of religion. this law in these states are based on the idea life begins at conception. for others life begins at birth for those who are not part of religious faith. we could see those challenges and they might actually have some merit with this court. >> let's talk very briefly if we can about the other rights justice clarence thomas talked about that he thinks need to be reassessed in terms of things like gay marriage, things like contraception, could we very quickly be seeing some action on those fronts? >> we would need states to actually pass laws that ban those things. i don't know. i don't know that there is the popular desire to do that. gay rights strike me as the one that might be the most in danger, gay marriage. we could see a law enacted in some court and it could come before the court and based on this idea there is no substantive due process right to privacy that could put the reasoning of the oberefeld decision in some jeopardy. >> thank you so much. appreciate that. joining me now new york's attorney general letitia james. thank you so much for being with us. obviously we knew this was coming because of the draft that was leaked. but what does overturning roe, first let me ask you, mean for you as a woman and as a woman of color? women of color as we know disproportionately affected by these kinds of rulings. >> this is a dangerous decision. it will upend the lives of individuals seeking safe abortions. it will harm individuals seeking safe abortions. and the reality is that there is no law. at the time of fertilization the rights of women will not be respected and no government is bound to respect the rights of women at the point of fertilization. it is a travesty, but new york i want individuals to know that new york is a state that will still allow safe abortions so i urge everyone to contact our office and also to contact planned parenthood. we will continue to provide safe abortions. we have established a fund in new york to pay for individuals traveling to new york to seek abortions for lodging, for daycare. this is a state that respects the right of women to choose, that respects the autonomy of individuals over their own bodies. this is a political decision and lies at the feet of a republican congress and the only response to this is a political response and that is why i urge everyone to vote their conscience and to vote for the fact that this united states supreme court, radical united states supreme court has overturned 50 years of precedent that individuals seeking abortions have relied upon. it is unconscionable. all we can do is stand up, fight back by using the power of our vote. >> i know this is something new york state has been looking at the whole idea of it being a place as it has in the past for reproductive rights refugees for lack of better term. what plans have you put in place? do you believe you are ready to help women who may need your help from other states where already as of now their right to abortion has gone away? >> we anticipated this decision. the decision from the right wing radical united states supreme court and so we've been organizing advocates, organizing medical professionals. we've been organizing the 20 largest law firms not only in new york state but across this nation to respond to this decision. we are ready. we want everyone to know that here in the state of new york, we respect the women's right to choose. we respect the 14th amendment which will apply not only to women but also to the right to marry, the right to interracial couples to marry, the right to contraception, the right to privacy. it is important that individuals understand this will upend and dramatically transform the lives of americans and women in this country. here in the state of new york we respect the right to choose and a woman's autonomy over her own body. >> i know there have been -- there has been talk of an amendment to enshrine the right to abortion in your state's constitution. where does that stand right now? have you been having conversations with attorneys general from other states? >> yes. just yesterday we had a meeting with the vice president of these united states kamala harris. she met with some attorneys general in this nation to discuss efforts to address this decision in anticipation of this decision. in addition to that, we've been organizing with other, with attorneys general all across this state and all across this nation to address this issue and to respond. it is really critically important that we be prepared and because democratic attorneys general represent the majority of attorneys general in this nation we are prepared to respond and make sure that the woman's right to choose is respected in various states across this nation, in democratic states across this nation. >> if i'm right i think the proposal from state senator kruger is an amendment that seeks to provide comprehension, given the way that justice thomas wrote about griswold and lawrence and oberefel has it changed any way you would view an amendment like that or the need for it? >> i know the governor of the state of new york has called a special session. i know the senator has introduced legislation which calls for a constitutional amendment to enshrine the right to have abortion. at this point the legislative session is in discussions as we speak and new york must pass the equality amendment in the state of new york and i fully support it and efforts by the state legislature to do so as soon as possible. it is my understanding the special session will be called next thursday. >> new york attorney general letitia james, thank you so much. appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. joining us the director of the public policy program at hunter college, also nbc news political analyst and republican strategist, good to see both of you. we've seen pictures of people protesting, protests in other places around the country. how can becomes harness this outrage? clearly, it is there. >> it certainly is. certainly letitia james and governor hochul of new york, my friends who do extraordinary work and that is the crux of this. elections matter. we used to use that line and it was viewed as somewhat trite, voting for the lesser of two evils. we sort of dismissed the importance of what we do. but the truth is, there is no better example of why voting matters than what we are experiencing right now. >> how do you get that message out and use it to animate people? >> one thing we have to do is focus on state elections. everybody is talking about the u.s. senate. that is important. democrats lost over 1,000 legislative seats across the country. the republicans flipped legislatures. we have to go to ground and focus on every election, contest every seat. everything is being pushed to the states whether abortion today, gun laws, voting rights. if we do not focus on state elections and flipping governorships, we won't make a dent. >> who do you mean by we? i ask this question because i covered a lot of that on the ground. i've covered state legislative races for msnbc and what i almost heard from democrats was we do not get the support from our national party and our state party that we see our republican opponents getting. >> that hasn't changed. the fact this is being pushed to the states now is not an accident. this is decades in the making. flipping the judgeships under trump, the fact that he got all of those supreme court justices. this is not accidental. we cannot be a party that has a strategy from one year to another. we have to have a multi year, decades long strategy. if not now, then when? >> susan, republicans on the other side of this issue are as passionate as democrats seem to be but i guess the question is did this happen because we have been more consistently passionate and that is how this conservative supreme court decision came to be? >> pretty much, chris. it is basically something that has been taking 50 years in the making. i think he is absolutely right. you have to focus on the states. but i will also add we also have seen so little governance out of washington, d.c., i don't care if it was a republican administration, democrat administration, house, senate flipping, they are not getting the job done. it should not be left to nine people on the supreme court every single time. we are the united states of america. half of us now do not have control or our government says we do not have control over our bodies. we need to, yes, i agree, at the state level i've been saying that for a very long time, but, damn. we have to get governance back in washington because otherwise who are we? we should not have individual rights in individual states. we need to come together and right now my biggest fear is not only will we not come together but we're going to see political violence we haven't seen in over a hundred years. >> well, that is a conversation we should. but i do want to, to your point, about who would go along with this, there is an nbc poll conducted just early last month, susan. 63% of americans did not believe roe v. wade should be returned so that is republicans. that is men. some of those people obviously are republicans. will the gop take an overall hit here? >> i think they will. we talked about the republicans getting to this point in the judiciary as a long term effort. they wanted to fight to overturn roe. now it is up to the democrats to mobilize to fight to get rid of those legislators who support banning abortion and even in the case of rape and incest. it should happen at the state, city, and national level for sure. i think independent women are now back up for grabs. >> i want to take a look at the ages of the conservatives, all of whom voted to overturn roe on the supreme court. some of whom may indeed serve for another what, 30 years? with so many as you point out, so many decisions going on in the supreme court is realistically really governorships and state legislatures, at least the only thing in the near term people outraged by this can change. >> we can affect these decisions for a generation to come because of the ages of the justices. what happens at the state level really does matter. this issue of states' rights and local control has been around for 100 plus years. when there were folk that were concerned about women having rights, people of color having rights. they always try to create this local control as this issue and nationalize it. that is all we're seeing right now. yes, what you do in the states really does matter if we're going to be focused on this era of local control. i would also say this. that, and susan is absolutely right in bringing this to the forefront. fact of the matter is there were a lot of people that voted for donald trump because they were saying, we'll -- it may not be as big a deal as we think it will if the judgeships flip, if he gets a couple supreme court justices. right now we can't focus on racializing and urbanizing or getting them to do that. cannot have these issues racialized and urbanized. this particular issue affects a lot of suburban white women. you talk about republican women as well. what are they going to do right now? that is a concern for democrats as well. we need to reach out to those women as well. if we are going to turn the tide and flip this narrative we can't allow republicans to racialize and urbanize these issues and suburban white women quite frankly, a lot of them have supported trump. where are they right now? >> history will tell us, susan. you know this better than i do. if people are happy with their lives, their economic situation, then that helps the party in power, right? the economic situation was largely considered to be the issue that was going to impact the november elections, midterm elections. often when something like this happens there is this outcry but we have short term memories. months from now do you believe that this will still bring people to the ballot box? >> i do think it will be a motivating issue, chris. i also think that during the primaries that we've seen the question of republicans going so extreme on abortion rights meaning eliminating it in the case of rape, incest, and the life of the mother, has put them into a really narrow box that is worth fighting. women do see that and men do see that as something worth the fight. and you also have gun violence, another issue combined with roe that can really motivate the voters. suburban white voters. there is something more and we can be going down a really bad road and need moral authority here. always good to have you both on the program. joining us now the vice president of communications for the susan b. anthony pro life america group. their mission has been for decades to end abortion. you and i spoke the day of the draft of the opinion was leaked. you didn't want to assume anything you told me at the time but now it is here. what has this done to activate your base and what is the reaction you are hearing over these past few hours? >> this is an historic moment for the pro life movement. we worked so hard for 50 years engaging in the political process peacefully to change who represents us, to change the law, to challenge this unjust supreme court case. and now we have this finally, the court has taken its thumb off the scale and is going to allow the american people to decide through their elected representatives where they have con