--:-- Shamita Bassu: Good morning. It's Monday, June 27th. I'm Shamita Bassu. 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: I regret to inform you that as of today, Friday, June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade. What that means is we are no longer able to provide abortion care. That's now the outgoing voicemail message at Houston Women's Reproductive Services.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: We believe that abortion is health care, and we want abortion to remain available and accessible for all. Several Democratic governors said they would help women travel to their states for abortions.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: Michigan has a law on the books, predating 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams was on CNN's State of the Union. 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: 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. 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: A CBS poll in the wake of this ruling shows that around 60 percent of Americans disapprove of the court's decision on abortion.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: Politico reports on what this all means for the midterm elections. It found some swing state Republicans are trying to avoid questions about abortion.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: The U.N. 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: The greatest danger is no longer medical, it's legal. Gia Tolentino has been writing about this at The New Yorker.
--:-- Gia Tolentino: What is going to happen is that in the prohibition states, there will be an extreme increase in surveillance and criminalization of ordinary pregnancy.
--:-- Gia Tolentino: 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.
--:-- Gia Tolentino: Pregnancies end early, and it is not always possible to tell from the outside whether the pregnancy ended early because of miscarriage or because of abortion.
--:-- Gia Tolentino: Tolentino writes that some doctors are refusing to treat women who are in the middle of a miscarriage. They are afraid that treatment could be classified as abortion.
--:-- Gia Tolentino: She cites the example of a woman in Texas with an ectopic pregnancy, meaning that it was non-viable and could have killed her, but she had to drive 15 hours to New Mexico to have it terminated.
--:-- Gia Tolentino: 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.
--:-- Gia Tolentino: 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.
--:-- Gia Tolentino: 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.
--:-- Gia Tolentino: If an embryo is a full person, IVF becomes possibly an instrument of murder. So does the morning after pill. So does an IUD.
--:-- Gia Tolentino: 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: But Tolentino says, for now, we're headed somewhere much worse.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: Unemployment is near a half-century low. Lots of people are getting offers for new jobs and quitting their old ones.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: But the Wall Street Journal points to signs that things may be cooling off.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: Some job seekers say that companies are rescinding offers that they made recently.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: One person who was planning to start a new job in July told the journal he had this position lined up for months. He was really counting on it, and he couldn't believe it when his offer got revoked.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: A recruiting expert points out canceling an offer was practically unheard of six months ago.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: When this happens, it's usually a sign that a company's business outlook has changed quickly.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: These canceled offers might mean that executives are finding it harder to predict the future, with rising inflation and fears of a recession.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: Now, recruiters say it's not like we're seeing a huge wave of canceled job offers.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: And for the most part, hiring is still highly competitive.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: But some people told the journal they're going to be more cautious about jumping ship.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: You might recognize the name Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: One of the longest manhunts in FBI history ended when he was finally arrested at his off-the-grid cabin in Montana.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: I wanted to think about the relationship between ideas and violence and kind of what had driven him to this.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: That's Eric Benson. He's the host of the podcast Project Unabomb from Apple TV+.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: This 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: Benson says it is much more than just a story about the Unabomber. It's about a relationship between two brothers.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: So David Kaczynski set in motion the events that would lead to Ted Kaczynski's arrest and imprisonment for the rest of his life.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: Benson even had a chance to talk with David himself.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: I remember he was back home from college and he said to me, most really smart people, you know, they have a sadistic streak about them.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: And that sort of seems strange to me, like intelligence goes with cruelty.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: 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.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: Benson says he wanted to understand how a person like Kaczynski managed to terrorize the nation for nearly two decades.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: Why did someone with such abilities in some ways end up kind of resorting to almost random violence? How did that happen?
--:-- Shamita Bassu: If you want to hear more exclusive reporting, check out Project Unabomb on Apple Podcasts.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: The first three episodes are out now. And you can find all the day's big stories in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: That includes Supreme Court rulings expected today, as well as a hockey recap of the Colorado Avalanche winning the Stanley Cup.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: I'll talk with you again tomorrow.
--:-- Shamita Bassu: Thanks for listening to Apple News Today.
