restrictive, to prohibit access to drugs that the fda has authorized as safe and effective for women to use. we are also hearing from the justice department on the issue of access to abortion clinics and the fact that it's not legal under the freedom of access to clinic entrances act to block people's physical access to walk into an abortion clinic. the justice department saying it's going to make sure that that right is protected. as you can see, these are steps around the margins. this is not the biden administration saying we are going to enforce the ability for women across the country to get an abortion. that's something that only congress can do. that's why we expect a key element of what president biden will have to say to be about the election and making sure to elect politicians who will ensure a woman's right to choose in future. >> thanks to you, josh. this is "andrea mitchell reports" with our continuing breaking news coverage of the supreme court's decision overturning roe v. wade, the law of the land for nearly half a century. the first time in american history that the high court has taken away a constitutional right once it has been granted. saying the constitution does not confer a right to abortion. president biden, as we just said, is expected to be speaking about the 6-3 opinion to uphold the mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks with no exceptions for rape or incest. chief justice roberts joining the majority but issuing his separate opinion. the court was 5-4 saying he would not have gone so far as to ban roe outright. the decision came despite the fact that all three trump justices, gorsuch, kavanaugh and coney barrett, when questioned during confirmation about abortion, told the senate that they considered roe v. wade to be precedent. today, justice thomas went further, specifically writing in his opinion that he believes the court should reconsider other rights, including same-sex marriage, contraception and private consensual acts between two adults. the country will be split on abortion, becoming illegal in many states. other states will keep protections for a woman's right to choose. this morning, nancy pelosi with her immediate reaction to this unprecedented decision. >> this morning, the radical supreme court is eviscerating american rights and endangering health and safety. the republican-controlled supreme court achieved their dark, extreme goal of ripping away a woman's right to make her own reproductive health decisions. american women today have less freedom than their mothers. what this means to women is an insult. it's a slap in the face to women about using their own judgment to make their own decisions about their reproductive freedom. >> let's go to our panel, tom goldshtein, ken dilanian, kathy park, dasha burns and claire mccaskill. first, tom. let's break this down. confusing to some. 6-3 on overturning the mississippi law, which banned abortion after 15 weeks, not the 23 weeks that had been in roe, which was considered viability for nearly 50 years, then upheld by casey. then by 5-4 the justices deciding to ban roe outright. that was with justice roberts parting with the conservatives and joining the liberal four members now of the justices saying he would not have gone so far as to ban roe outright. tom, break it down. you are the expert. >> well, today, the conservatives on the day that roe was decided set out to get it overturned succeeded. they made it their mission. the presidents who are republican have committed to appointing justices who they believed would vote to overturn roe eventually. they did so today. in a very categorical and sweeping way. there is no constitutional protection for abortion in any circumstance, including rape or incest. only possibly to save the life of the mother. immediately, in a huge proportion of the country, abortion is now illegal. the one small glimmer for pro choice forces is that justice kavanaugh, who is a critical vote here, said the state cannot ban a woman from going to another state for an abortion, but the dissenters saying that's really not much of a solace at all because for the poorest women in america, they are not going to have access to it. >> tom, let me clarify that justice roberts certainly is taking a different stance, that doesn't mean there's a legal right, but it does mean that the court is divided in a slightly different way and it will affect the court going forward in terms of the way the court is viewed across the country. >> the chief justice would have gone slower. he said he would have upheld this significant abortion restriction, but left for another day whether to overrule roe entirely. probably in a few years after a few more cases, he would have voted to get rid of it. he thought that this was too aggressive, more so than the court needed to. but the more conservative justices have absolutely made this commitment. they view roe as an abomination, as inappropriate. they were committed to overturning it as soon as they could. the next questions are going to be about particular kinds of restrictions, like on travel, what states can do to prevent their own citizens from getting abortions elsewhere, abortion pills and the like. then as you suggest, new debates over other rights that we thought were settled, right to contraception, the right to same-sex marriage, all of those are thrown into question today, even though the majority says it doesn't necessarily mean that they will be overruled. >> stay with us, of course. we have ken dilanian at the justice department. merrick garland has just issued a statement saying he strongly disagrees with this and explaining what the justice department can or will do going forward. ken? >> i'm actually at the supreme court right now. i don't have visibility on merrick garland's statement. i'm here with about 2,000 people wedged into this first street area between the capitol and the supreme court. there were about 100 people when the decision was announced. folks from both sides have flooded in here. there are some carrying signs and wearing t-shirts. there are other people who just came over from the hill, it looks like staffers and members of congress, prominent people from both sides of the aisle. this has been a passionate, rowdy crowd but peaceful. the capitol police is here on the outer edges of the perimeter. they appear to have the situation in hand. we haven't seen anything approaching violence. it's been largely peaceful. a lot of passion on both sides here. >> let me just -- with you at that location, we can expand on that. i was there the day that -- the morning after the draft opinion was leaked, which was sotae. that's when we started seeing large protests and the fence going up around the court. similar to the fence that had gone up after january 6 around the capitol. that now is likely to become semi-permanent. access to the court is now going to be very controversial going forward. ken? >> i think that's a good bet. that black fence is keeping people away from a part of this building that used to be open to the public. now it speaks to the divisive nature of our politics. intelligence agencies have warned that this is one of the issues that extremists have seized on as a potential flash flashpoint for violence. right now it's peaceful. more and more people try to come into this very small space. there's not a security perimeter as far as we understand around this area. people can just walk in here. as i said, there are many, many capitol police officers on the outskirts. >> ken, i know you will remain there and reporting on all of the immediate reaction there. let's go to mississippi where this case began. it was clearly a case that was thought to be unconstitutional. it was deliberately written to challenge roe. this was a case, the dobdobs ca. kathy? >> here in mississippi, the law was a challenge to roe v. wade and it brought us to where we are today. we are right in front of the state capitol building. we have seen law enforcement activity. no demonstrations just yet. however, a few miles away, as you mentioned, the abortion clinic, it's the last remaining abortion clinic here in mississippi. the state has already been very restrictive when it comes to gaininging access to abortions. a crowd has gathered in front of the pink house. groups have both sides of the debate. we are being told that folks are being reminded this clinic is open for the next ten days, because here in mississippi, it's a trigger law state. every state has a different set of rules that they will be following when it comes to banning abortions here in mississippi. specifically, there's a ten-day window when abortions will be banned. essentially, the attorney general will have to weigh in. we actually saw a statement that was released by the attorney general, lynn finch, a few moments ago. she called this a victory for the state of mississippi, commended the court for their decision and said the work to empower women truly begins today and looking ahead she said they will work on bolstering resources for adoptions as well as foster care. you have abortion rights advocates, we spoke to a lot of them on the ground. they knew since may and even before then that this decision, this day would eventually be here. they have a lot of resources in play and funding that they have been able to pile up to help those women who will try to continue getting abortion access outside of the state of mississippi legally and safely. >> thanks so much. to michigan, which is a key state, dasha burns is there. michigan is one of the states. i can think of pennsylvania, wisconsin, other states have democratic governor races, open seats or democratic governors for re-election and republican legislatures. these are key states, not necessarily red states, where we are likely to have very tough bans if republicans are elected to the statehouses. dasha? >> that's exactly right. we have been talking about southern block states where there are trigger laws. we talked about the blue states where governors have tried to fortify abortion rights. you have states like michigan, a purple state where you have a democratic governor and you have a republican held legislature. you are seeing this battle grow and become really tough. we look towards november and an election where abortion rights will be on the ballot. michigan has a 1931 law that lay dormant for decades. after roe, it became irrelevant. now that roe has fallen, that law is going to take affect once again. it's a law that criminalizes abortion without exception. the governor filed a lawsuit to try to eliminate that law. the republican state legislature has intervened trying to defend that law. we will this play out in courts. we will see this play out on the campaign trail. in the meantime, i have been talking to women here this morning in michigan who are trying to grapple with what they have heard today. i spoke to one republican woman who actually voted for trump in 2016, did not vote for him in 2020. she told me she's having a hard time reconciling what the gop is doing here. she says she was against vaccine mandates, because she believed in medical autonomy and medical freedom for individuals. she says she doesn't see how that sort of wreckreconciles wie government telling women what to do with their bodies. as we were talking to voters, a woman named virginia walked up to me. she was in tears. she was 18 years old when roe took affect. she was struggling to comprehend what has just happened. take a listen to what she told me. >> i cannot -- i cannot put into words the fury that i feel and anger because this has nothing to do with the constitution. how do they have the right to tell me or any woman what she can do with her body? >> we are about to hear from attorney general danah nestle at 1:00. we will have more after that. >> dasha burns, thank you so much. claire mccaskill is with us, the former senator and prosecutor from missouri. a key state in this debate. senator, your fellow senators, specifically questioned all of these three trump justices and were told in terms -- amy coney barrett left out some academic loophole saying she's written about this. but saying they would uphold precedent and specifically saying in the case of roe, because that was the specific question in several of the cases, gorsuch, kavanaugh and coney barrett. >> yeah. i want to speak to that. give me a moment of personal here. >> please. >> i have taken tearful calls from -- i grew up in a house with a strong mother who worked very hard for women's rights. she told me before she died, i thought we had this covered for you. this was whether we were having the debate about birth control in missouri. today, i have taken calls from my family, the women in my family who -- that range from sobbing to just white hot anger and fear. fear for their daughters. i don't think we should leave out the human part of this, that it feels to most women in america that this is a violation. in my state, right now, as of right this minute, the young 13-year-old girl that i dealt with as a prosecutor, who had been raped repeatedly by her stepfather and was told she would be killed if she told anyone, finding out to her mother's horror that she was pregnant from that series of brutal rapes at the age of 13, that young girl is now going to be mandated by the government to carry that child in my state. if that doesn't motivate people for november, i don't know what it's going to take. i will tell you that, yes, die an feinstein and aimy klobuchar and many others did their very best to hold these nominees' feet to the fire. probably the senator that is frankly in the most pain right now is the one who was lied to and that is susan collins. i know there's a lot that people that watch our shows have to criticize susan collins about. but she's not a liar. when she said that kavanaugh assured her that he respected the precedent of roe v. wade, i believe her. which means not only is kavanaugh a politician masquerading in a row, he is a liar on top of that. which makes sense, since he was appointed by donald trump. >> let me follow up on that. i really appreciate what you are saying. i was an adult before roe v. wade. i lived as a young woman with the ramifications, i was fully aware of the issues and of the illegal abortions. and of what women went through. i know that there are very passionate feelings on both sides of this issue, which we cover. today is a day whereas you point out, where two if not three -- i concede coney barrett was more circumspect in the way she answered or equivocating in the way she answered that, but two out of the three said so under oath. let me read a statement from susan collins, since you brought that up. this was handed to me. decrying the fact that the supreme court abandoned a 50-year precedent whether the country is desperate for stability. she says, this decision is inconsistent with what justices gorsuch and kavanaugh said in their testimony and their meetings with me. reaffirming what claire mccaskill, what you just said, where they were both insistent on the importance of supporting long-standing precedence the country relied upon. we are seeing the anger by opponents of this decision right now outside the court, claire. earlier this year, senator collins points out that senator ma could you ski and her worked with senator cane on a bipartisan bill to do that. i'm not sure -- you are the lawyer. i have just covered this for decades now, for more than 50 years. whether the court's decision is so ironclad, claire, that it can't be legislative, i don't know. but i want to point out what tom goldshtein confirmed in my opening to this broadcast today which is that justice thomas in his writing today said that this now should take the court to reconsider same-sex marriage, contraception, which presumably would include in vitro feltization and other medical procedures and adult consensual sexual relations. claire? >> first of all, thomas' dissent was a clarion call. they are also written to signal people out in the country, bring a case. i think there will be cases that will be brought. in my state now, i believe when you look at two existing statutes taken together, that a woman can be prosecuted for ivf, a woman can be prosecuted for an iud, using an iud birth control device. i believe there's certainly questions about the morning after pill. in missouri right now. if there's a prosecutor that's crazy enough, which missouri there probably is, to try to prosecute someone under these laws, then clarence thomas might get his chance to affirm that the states have the right to limit women in such an extreme way. i don't know what to tell you about these justices that said one thing in the hearings and now are doing something much, much different. the irony is, the hypocrisy of the court, andrea, they just issued an opinion saying that the states cannot have rights when it comes to regulating guns and now they are saying the states can mandate pregnancy. forget about man dating masks. they are now giving the green light to states like mine that they can mandate pregnancy. that is a startling development in a country that doesn't believe that. they are way out of step with the majority of this country. i only hope that people will channel their anger into political activity. this can be fixed. yes, congress can pass a law codifying roe in spite of what the supreme court did today. >> claire, thank you so much. the former senator from missouri. joining us now, cecile richards and former president of planned parenthood federation of america. your reaction? >> this is a devastating day, andrea. i relate to what claire said. the calls that i have gotten this morning from not only my own daughters but other young women around the country who realize they are now no longer in charge of their own pregnancies. they no longer have -- are in charge of their own bodies. this was avoidable. had is the incredible thing. i think justice sotomayor's -- they believe that people should be able to make decisions about their pregnancy, not politicians. the only thing that changed was republicans put five justices on the supreme court who are now using the most outrageous justification for overturning a right that people have had for nearly 50 years. one of the things that struck me in this was to say that this is a sad day for the court, which it is. but this is a sad day tore millions and millions of american women who woke up this morning and just found out that the supreme court took away their right. you and i know that making abortion illegal does not mean that abortion goes away. it simply means it goes underground and becomes dangerous. talking to folks in texas, we didn't know when this opinion would come down. the terror that people feel not only the inability to provide safe and legal abortion access in the state of texas, but the criminalization now of anyone helping anyone leave the state to get the kind of health care they need, this is what we're going to see. this is what the republican party has meted out on american women. >> let me ask you about next steps for you. merrick garland's statement says this will not stop women from being able to travel to states where abortion is legal. that, of course, affects the poor women, the women who cannot afford that kind of travel or the women who have jobs and families and can't take the time to travel. what can planned parenthood and other groups do? what can they do to protect these women and the providers from what presumably will be an increase in the counter reactions? we have seen violence, particularly violence from the anti-abortion side over the years. >> i think that's really important. claire mentioned this. you take a state like missouri or a state like texas, it's one thing to say what you thin