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SCOTUS Ends Roe; Civilian Volunteers Supply Ukrainian Troops; Diego Maradona's Medical Team to Be Tried for His Death. Aired 1-1:30a ET

Aired June 25, 2022 - 01:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to CNN NEWSROOM, everyone, I am Michael Holmes, appreciate your company.

Up ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, shockwaves over decision by the U.S. Supreme Court being felt around the world as the justices overturned a woman's right to abortion.

Ukraine's president at the opening act at the U.K.'s Glastonbury Music Festival. Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowing to keep up the fight against Russia. Asking concert goers for support.

We'll take a look at why the U.K. summer of discontent could get a lot hotter.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Michael Holmes.

HOLMES: Welcome, everyone. Dozens of demonstrations are expected around the U.S. this weekend over Friday's abortion ruling. Galvanizing groups on both sides. The emotions, extremely high, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that legalized abortion in 1973.

Abortion advocates, even liberal justices on the court, warning that same-sex marriage and other issues could be next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Supreme Court issued an illegitimate, fascist ruling. This decision is an outrage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: That ruling, already being felt across the country. Abortion clinics in some 26 states will have to shut down within days; some of them, immediately.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been waiting my entire adult life for this day. It is one important victory. It's not the end but we are dancing on the grave of Roe versus Wade. Thank God for President Trump. Thank God for President Trump because he appointed these three justices, who had the backbone and the integrity to overturn Roe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: That decision was leaked weeks ago. But the ruling itself was still a shock. Some states like California, already moving to shore up abortion rights in response to the decision. U.S. President Joe Biden saying that the lives and health of women are now at greater risk than ever.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's a sad day for the court and for the country. Now with Roe gone, let's be very clear, the health and life of women in this nation are now at risk.

It was three justices named by one president, Donald Trump, who were at the core of today's decision to upend the scales of justice and eliminate a fundamental right for women in this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Democrats and women's rights advocates vowing to make abortion rights front and center in the upcoming midterm congressional elections. Manu Raju has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Casting aside 50 years of settled law, the Supreme Court ended a woman's constitutional right to an abortion. And in the process, broiled the nation's political landscape.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): I am spitting mad over this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roe versus Wade belongs on the ash heap of history with Dred Scott and Plessy.

RAJU (voice-over): Justice Samuel Alito writing for the conservative majority in a fight for opinion called Roe v Wade "egregiously wrong and deeply damaging."

The three liberal justices dissenting warning the ruling will lead to "the curtailment of women's rights and of their status as free and equal citizens." On Capitol Hill, the reaction was swift.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: Disgraceful, disgraceful judgment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is absolutely a major issue on the ballot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Largest governmental overreach in the history of our lifetime.

RAJU (voice-over): House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy told CNN he supports codifying a 15-week abortion ban at the national level. The Supreme Court upheld Mississippi's 15-week ban and its ruling overturning Roe with the support of Chief Justice John Roberts, who oppose overturning Roe entirely.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): The right to life has been vindicated. The voiceless will finally have a voice.

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RAJU (voice-over): Congressional Democrats left with little recourse given they lack 60 votes in the Senate to overcome a GOP filibuster.

REP. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-AZ): The senator from my state, the senator from West Virginia, senators from everywhere, if you say that you're for women then do not use an old law that was not even, again, in the country's United States to stop protection for them.

RAJU (voice-over): But two Democratic senators stand in the way of changing the filibuster rules fearing future GOP majority would enact an even more conservative agenda. At the White House, President Biden called for electing more Democrats to Congress.

BIDEN: This fall Roe is on the ballot. Personal freedoms are on the ballot. The right to privacy, liberty equality, they're all on a ballot.

RAJU (voice-over): While Democrats hope the issue motivates voters in November, many Republicans believe the midterms will turn on the economy.

REP. BILL HUIZENGA (R-MI): Most people are pretty entrenched with what they believe on this particular issue and what ought to happen.

RAJU (voice-over): But the fight ultimately maybe on the state level, 26 states likely to ban abortion completely, including 13 that set abortion bans into motion as soon as Roe is overturned. The emotion palpable in the streets.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This decision is an outrage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is one important victory. It's not the end but we are dancing on the grave of Roe versus Wade.

RAJU: Reaction from two key senators who played a decisive role in ensuring that Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court, Susan Collins and Joe Manchin, both of whom said what both Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch said to them in private meetings and in their testimony was inconsistent with how they ruled in the abortion case.

Collins saying plainly this decision is inconsistent with what justices said in their testimony and meetings with me and say they both insisted they would uphold long standing legal precedent -- Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill. (END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights called the Supreme Court decision, quote, "a huge blow to women's human rights and gender equality." Michelle Bachelet said, quote, "Access to safe, legal and effective abortion is firmly rooted in international human rights law and is at the core of women and girls' autonomy and ability to make their own choices about their bodies and lives free of discrimination, violence and coercion."

It goes on, "This decision strips such autonomy from millions of women in the U.S., in particular, those with low incomes and those belonging to racial and ethnic minorities."

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HOLMES: Joining me now from Tuscaloosa in Alabama is Robin Marty, communications director for the West Alabama Women's Center.

Thanks so much for being with us. First of all, what is going to be the ground level effect for women's reproductive health and rights in those states outlawing abortion now?

ROBIN MARTY, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, WEST ALABAMA WOMEN'S CENTER: So we have already seen what this is going to look like.

Today the moment that the decision came down and we were told that Roe v. Wade was initially overturned, we had to immediately talk to the patients that were in our clinic, who were having appointments, all of them were having appointments for their first days.

In Alabama, you have to have an appointment in a clinic where you will have an ultrasound, counseling, you will receive state mandated abortion materials. And then you have to wait for 48 hours before you can return to the clinic to actually have your pill or your procedure.

We had 21 patients that were in our lobby today, all while the courts let down their decision. And I was forced to call the staff and let them know that they had to let each patient know that there would be no abortion for them, that abortion was now illegal in the state of Alabama.

And that all we could do was try to help them find the nearest clinic that was available that could take them in.

HOLMES: That is extraordinary. No doubt, very distressing for those people in your clinic. You saw this coming. You in fact, wrote a guide for what to do if and when Roe is overturned, and states made abortion illegal.

What is your brief advice for women in states where abortion is now illegal?

MARTY: The best advice that I can give, at this moment, is that the first thing they should do is make sure that they have the type of contraception that they want. Most abortion happens because people have pregnancies that they are not prepared for.

(INAUDIBLE) term and being able to prevent pregnancy is the most important way to reduce abortion. It's far more effective than actually banning abortion because, when you ban abortion, people of means will leave states in order to get abortion.

And people without means will seek out less safe or less legally available ways to terminate pregnancies. Actually, preventing pregnancy is something that these states who are banning abortion could be doing.

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MARTY: But, unfortunately, the same states that automatically banning abortion are also states that have refused to expand Medicaid under Obamacare.

These are states that had the fewest number of reproductive health care clinics. They have rates in Mississippi and Alabama, where 50 percent of all pregnancies are unplanned. So the first thing to do is find out where you can get birth control, find the most reliable birth control and use it.

HOLMES: You meet a lot of women who are in this position of needing an abortion or wanting one. Many women, of course, don't necessarily want an abortion. But I'm thinking of cases like where they might find, quite apart from economic considerations, that their child is going to be severely disabled and want to terminate.

In many states, they're not going to be able to, which raises the question, who was going to look after what will presumably be a boom in unplanned and possibly unwanted children?

MARTY: Oh, that is an excellent question. And honestly, it's one that I have been watching in Texas right now, because Texas has had essentially most abortion made illegal 10 months ago.

So we are now starting to see what happens when those who wanted abortions are not able to have them, are suddenly giving birth. This was an opportunity, in all honesty, for the so-called pro-life movement to implement all sorts of programs in order to help people who are carrying pregnancies determine and who want to raise their children, whether those are children they don't feel economically able to have or they don't have the resources to deal with a special needs child.

All of these programs could have been introduced in Texas over this period of time. And not a single one has. We have been hearing for the last 1.5 months, since the Supreme Court did their leaked memo, that the Right was somehow going to offer all of these supports once we finally had this pro-life nation and they were going to ban abortion.

We've seen in Texas that they can promise that as much as they want. But when push comes to shove, they never offer it.

If there were these programs and they really were going to offer these resources, why, if they believe in life (INAUDIBLE) are they holding off on such things until the point in which abortion is banned?

Those were children that they could have saved beforehand, for all the people who wouldn't have gone ahead and carried their pregnancies to terms if they had just felt that they had been supported in some way.

HOLMES: Yes. Yes. It's an extraordinary decision in a country without universal health care or mandatory maternity leave for starters. Robyn Marty, good luck. Thank you.

MARTY: Of course. Anytime, Michael.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Celebrities worldwide are weighing in on the Supreme Court decision. So far, most have opposed the ruling.

Taylor Swift tweeting, quote, "I'm absolutely terrified that this is where we are. After so many decades of people fighting for women's rights to their own bodies, today's decision has stripped us of that."

From actor Alyssa Milano, "Today's Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade will have deadly consequences with the harm falling hardest on people of color who already face disproportionate discrimination in our country and grapple with a severe maternal mortality crisis."

Author Stephen King issued a tweet, mocking the court, saying, quote, "It's the best Supreme Court the 19th century has yet produced."

Basketball legend Sue Bird posted simply the word, "Gutted," followed by an emoji of a broken heart.

Call it a special transport, away from Ukraine's front line, some four-legged evacuees getting a ride to safety. That is still to come here on the program.

And more misery for parts of Afghanistan as an aftershock rocked an area near Wednesday's powerful quake. We'll have the latest on efforts getting aid to the hardest hit areas.

You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. We will be right back.

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HOLMES: Russia's slow but steady advances in Eastern Ukraine are paying off. At least in the city of Sievierodonetsk. Ukrainian troops now pulling out of the city after weeks of grinding street battles.

Western military experts say it's a symbolic win for Moscow but by no means a decisive victory in this war. The fighting now shifting across the river to Lysychansk, the last city in the Luhansk region, still in Ukrainian hands.

Ukraine says Russia is stepping up airstrikes south and southeast of that city with the eventual goal of cutting off its defenders.

Meanwhile, President Zelenskyy made an appeal for support in a video message played at the U.K.'s Glastonbury Music Festival, saying Ukraine is holding the line against Moscow for many others.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: The pandemic has put on hold lives of millions of people around the world but has not broke. We in Ukraine would also like to live the life as we used to and enjoy freedom and this wonderful summer.

But we can't do that because the most terrible has happened. Russia has stolen our peace. But we will not let Russia's war break us. And we will want to stop the war before it ruins people's lives in other countries of Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America. They are all under threat now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Ukrainian troops fighting on the front lines know there is always someone who has their back with groups and civilian volunteers helping deliver crucial supplies. And along the way, they also give a helping hand to some of man's best friends. Ben Wedeman with that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

Yulia and her friends are loading up their armored van, food, medicine and water for front line villages.

That and protective gear for the troops.

Before the war, Yulia was a model and worked in local government (ph). Now she is a volunteer.

"I didn't consider leaving as an option," she says. "Of course, I'm staying in my country to help as much as possible."

During the drive back from the front in May, Yulia was badly injured when her truck crashed under shelling. She spent two restless months in the hospital.

"They were holding me in hospital, and I told them, 'I have work to do,'" she recalls. "I was coordinating deliveries on the phone. I had no right to sit on my hands."

First up on this, day a military position by the road. All of this has been donated by people in Ukraine. Here, the troops offer a quick appraisal of world leaders.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boris Johnson.

WEDEMAN: Boris Johnson?

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Joe Biden.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Joe Biden, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Joe Biden.

WEDEMAN: Olaf Scholz?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scholz...

(Speaking foreign language).

WEDEMAN (voice-over): The next stop, a village perilously close to the fighting.

WEDEMAN: They have to hand out the aid as quickly as possible because they don't want people to get together, because we're just a few kilometers from Russian lines.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): Spirits here still buoyant.

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WEDEMAN (voice-over): "I stayed because of the animals," Natasha tells me. "I'm responsible for all the abandoned animals on the street, more than 50 cats and around 20 dogs."

At our final stop, they drop off more supplies for the soldiers and feed stray dogs. They had planned to evacuate a family fleeing from behind Russian lines, but they did not show up.

The soldiers here say overnight there was heavy shelling, Russian drones often on the prowl overhead.

"My mind tells me I should be afraid," says Yulia, "but we can't leave them behind."

"Them" is a dog and two litters of puppies born in the trenches. One of the mother dogs was killed by Russian artillery; the little, one's orphans. Once loaded, we're off to the city of Zaporizhia.

WEDEMAN: We're out of the danger zone. Once we get to the city, they'll take the mother, who's been injured in the blast, to a vet. They found homes for some of these puppies but not all -- Ben Wedeman, CNN, Zaporizhia, southern Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: The U.S. Geological Survey is reporting that a 5.6 magnitude earthquake has hit Iran. The quake's epicenter was in southern Iran near Kish (ph). Please stay with CNN for more details on this when we get them. Meanwhile, an aftershock has killed five people near the Afghanistan-

Pakistan border. It happened Friday, just days after a powerful earthquake killed more than 1,000 people in the Afghan provinces of Paktika and Khost.

While some aid is making its way into the area, far more is needed. Atika Shubert has more on why it's so hard to get help to the area.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, JOURNALIST: It is quite a large aftershock on Friday, measuring 4.3. That is smaller than the original earthquake of 5.9 but still traumatizing for survivors who are now sleeping out in the open, for their own safety.

And remember, a lot of the homes that survived the initial earthquake were very severely damaged. This caused quite a few to collapse even further. And a small number of people were actually killed in the aftershock.

In the meantime, the U.N. and other aid agencies are slowly able to get to the area. The U.N. says they have been able to provide shelters and food aid to at least 4,000 people of Paktika and Khost provinces.

The World Food Programme says that it has now secured food stocks to feed at least 14,000 people. A big concern is also the spread of disease, particularly cholera, which was already on the rise before the earthquake.

And the World Health Organization says it has dispatched 10 tons of medical supplies. That includes everything from supplies for major surgeries to first aid and hygiene kits. But even though the wheels of aid are in motion, the resources on the ground are still very thin.

And the reason for that is because very few countries, very few international aid agencies are willing to work with the Taliban. Remember, when the Taliban took over control of Afghanistan last year, many aid agencies left the country for their own safety and security.

And now, as a result, there're actually very few aid agencies on the ground that can help coordinate all of this aid. Turkiye, for example, is one of the few countries that actually has an embassy in Kabul. And the Turkish Red Crescent has a team there. They have been able to help several hundred people with the help of the Afghanistan Red Crescent.

But there are only a few of these kinds of teams working in the area. So much more help is still needed -- Atika Shubert, CNN, Istanbul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: A shooting at a gay night club in Oslo, Norway, has left at least two people dead and 14 others wounded. According to Reuters, citing police. It took place at the London Pub, which describes itself at the largest gay and lesbian venue in Oslo.

A witness says a man arrived with a bag, picked up a gun and started shooting. The suspect was apprehended nearby. It's not immediately clear what the motive was for the attack.

Eight members of football legend Diego Maradona's medical team have been charged over his death. They've been charged with simple homicide. Prosecutors alleging that they violated their duties and didn't take any saving action, as they put it.

Maradona died of heart failure in November 2020 at the age of 60. One of the defense lawyers told CNN they reject the charges and will appeal. The date of the trial has not been set.

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HOLMES: A child once considered the youngest political prisoner in Saudi Arabia was released on Friday as an adult. CNN first highlighted the case of Murtaja Qureiris during an exclusive report back in 2019.

Saudi authorities arrested him when he was 13, three years after he was accused of participating in a bike protest during the Arab Spring in 2011. He was accused of belonging to a terror group, convicted and sent to prison. International pressure mounted and human rights groups condemned his detention after CNN reported on this case.

People in Europe facing a long and angry summer as the cost of living keeps rising and wages don't keep up. Labor shortages and walkouts threaten more chaos for airports and travelers and unions in the U.K. are gearing up for a possible, national strike. CNN's Anna Stewart with the story.

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ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Workers in Europe are angry. Prices are rising faster and faster. But their wages aren't.

CORINNE MARTIN, CHRISTIAN WORKERS UNION (through translator): The crisis that workers are currently experiencing in order to travel, go to work, live, it has become difficult to reach the end of the month.

STEWART (voice-over): All flights were canceled at Brussels airport on Monday. As security staff joined a national strike for higher wages.

And staff at easyJet, British Airways and Ryanair are all planning walkouts over working conditions and pay this summer, adding to an already chaotic situation for Europe's airports and the holidaymakers going through them.

In the, U.K. inflation just hit a 14 year high of 9.1 percent whilst real wages are falling at the fastest rate in two decades.

FIONA CURROW, PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER: Everything else is going. Up I'm struggling. I'm considering taking a second job, on top of my full- time job, just to make ends meet.

STEWART (voice-over): Rail workers in the country just took part in the largest walkout in decades and union leaders are gearing up for the possibility of a general strike. CHRISTINA MCANEA, GENERAL SECRETARY, UNISON: I would like to think

that we could get another this year. I think each union has its own priorities. But I wouldn't rule it, out that's for sure. And I think the Tories in the government ought to be really worried about how angry people are to be about what happened to them.

STEWART (voice-over): It's a delicate balancing act for policymakers. Raising wages to keep up with inflation could simply push inflation even higher in what is known as a wage price spiral.

KEMAR WHYTE, SENIOR ECONOMIST, NIESR: Each employee will look at the situation and say, OK, my cost of living is increasing. If I'm supposed to get a 5 percent increase in my salary, this might not add much to inflation. But it will help me out a lot with my cost of living.

So these are all of the things that we have to contend with now, bringing inflation down. But of course, try not to add or exasperate that squeeze on household incomes and to plunge the economy into recession.

STEWART (voice-over): And, yet if the cost of living crisis is not tackled soon, another economic risk looms. More and more of Europe's workforce could soon be on the picket line -- Anna Stewart, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Thanks for watching everyone, spending time every day with me. I'm Michael Holmes, "QUEST'S WORLD OF WONDER" is up next. I'll see you in 30 minutes.