LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Tonight on PBS News Weekend, the Supreme Court's credibility is called into question after a photo emerged of a stop the steel flag outside of justice's home, then the potential long term effects of Lyme disease and what more can be done to treat the stability, the illness.

WOMAN: That we can all band together and do the research to share the findings and, you know, focus on helping these patients then we might be able to solve a lot more if we're working together.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: And a new book examines how the reversal of Roe v Wade has reshaped American life.

(BREAK) LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Good evening.

I'm Laura Barron-Lopez.

John Yang is away.

In Iran tonight a frantic search and rescue effort is underway after a helicopter carrying the country's president Ibrahim Raisi and his foreign minister apparently crashed.

State media described it as a hard landing somewhere near the country's northern border with Armenia and Azerbaijan.

President Raisi had traveled to the border to inaugurate a new dam.

Conditions were foggy and rainy as rescue teams scoured mountainous terrain and dense forests for the helicopter.

Elsewhere in the region, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met today with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the war in Gaza.

Their meeting follows Sullivan's visit with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman yesterday and comes as Israeli leaders are split over their plan for the war.

Amid the debate, Israeli airstrikes on Gaza continued.

27 people were killed in an urban refugee camp in central Gaza.

Hospital officials reported most of the dead were women and children.

Back home, President Biden told students at Morehouse College in Atlanta today that he hears their concerns over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The Commencement Address gave Biden a chance to both court young black voters at one of the nation's oldest historically black colleges and to acknowledge the protests railing campuses across the country.

There were no major disruptions during his remarks, but the class valedictorian called for a permanent ceasefire, and some students and faculty draped themselves in the symbolic Coffea scarves.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. President: I support peaceful nonviolent protest.

Your voices should be heard.

And I promise you I hear them.

This is one of the hardest, most complicated problems in the world and there's nothing easy about it.

I know that anger and frustrates many of you, including my family.

But most of all, I know it breaks your heart, breaks mine as well.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The President will continue his appeal to black voters this evening, speaking at an NAACP dinner in Detroit, and America's first black astronaut candidate finally made it into space, Ed Dwight was chosen in 1961 by then President John F. Kennedy to train to be an astronaut, but wasn't picked for the 1963 class.

Today, at the age of 90, he got his chance.

Dwight joined five other passengers aboard one of Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rockets for the 10 minute flight.

Dwight is now the new record holder for oldest person in space.

Still to come on PBS News Weekend, spreading awareness on the dangers of Lyme disease and the difficult decisions prompted by the overturning of Roe v Wade.

(BREAK) LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The lie that President Biden stole the 2020 presidential election which led to the violent January 6 insurrection is alive and well.

A CBS investigation found that there are nearly 80 officials overseeing elections across seven battleground states who don't believe the 2020 election results or supported the actions of January 6.

On the campaign trail Saturday, former president Donald Trump again lied about his 2020 defeat.

DONALD TRUMP, Former U.S. President: But they want to rigged that just like they rigged the presidential election of 2020.

They want to rig it.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: And we also learned this week that a symbol of the Stop the Steal movement reached the highest court in the land.

The New York Times reported that in January of 2021, an upside down American flag and emblem now widely associated with the lie of a stolen 2020 election was flying at the home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, I spoke with Jody Kanter, The New York Times reporter who broke the story earlier today.

We discussed the implications of such a symbol flying Alito's home 11 days after rioters stormed the Capitol.

JODI KANTOR, The New York Times: I kind of want to start with the neighbors and what they saw.

They're walking down the street during this very fret period, as you say, right after January 6, but also critically, it's three days before President Biden's inauguration.

And they see this upside down flag hanging outside the Alito home.

At this point, that flag had really become a symbol of the Stop the Steal campaign.

And neighbors are just having a kind of what the heck reaction.

Because first of all, these are Washington DC area people they know that federal judges are never supposed to make political displays.

That is a very bedrock rule.

And second of all, they're looking at and saying wait a second, are the Alito's insurrectionists who oppose the peaceful transfer of power?

It leads to these bedrock questions about law and trust and rules and democracy.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In response to your reporting, Justice Alito said that he had, quote, no involvement in placing the flag that his wife, Mrs. Alito put up the flag in response to a neighbor of theirs a display that they had.

So I just want to dive into this because what are the implications of his response?

Did he not know that this upside down flag was flying outside of his home for multiple days?

JODI KANTOR: Well, the response is a fascinating one, because first of all, he's not denying that it was there.

He's not denying knowledge that it was there.

And he's not denying that this was a Stop the Steal symbol.

He's making a kind of surprising argument, which is to say, even though this was my home, and even though judicial ethics rules are all about the impression of a lack of fairness, they're not only focused on what you actually do as a judge.

They're focused on the impression you give other people.

And he's saying despite all of that, this was, you know, just something my wife did and part of a neighborhood spat.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Why does this revelation matter?

Now, as the Court prepares to rule on two cases involving the January 6 insurrection?

JODI KANTOR: In the next few weeks, we are going to get two major decisions from the Supreme Court that are going to shape the legacy of January 6, the accountability for January 6.

Former President Trump's scope of accountability, it may shape the future criminal trial, if one takes place, it could really also directly affect the next election because polls are showing that whether or not former President Trump is convicted might have some impact on what voters think of him.

So, the court already had an enormous challenge in getting these decisions kind of accepted by the American people.

It's such a partisan time.

Everything is so fractured.

These cases are so politically fraught.

It makes it much more challenging for the court to earn broad acceptance of whatever their legal reasoning is, and whatever the outcome is.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Alito isn't the only Supreme Court justice with apparent ethics violations.

Justice Clarence Thomas's wife, Ginny Thomas was directly involved in the efforts to overturn the 2020 election and he has refused to recuse himself from any related cases.

Do you think that this time will be any different?

JODI KANTOR: So recusal is an interesting question.

On the one hand, so there are two categories of rules we're dealing with.

One is the code of conduct for judges.

That's really the ethics code.

That's voluntary.

The court recently adopted a new one, it's pretty loose.

It's not that strong.

That is what govern things like political displays.

The second set of rules we're dealing with is a federal recusal statute that binds all federal judges, including Supreme Court justices.

But at the Supreme Court, it's essentially self-administered.

And the Court has said that justices have to police their own recusal.

So, I don't think Justice Alito has spoken directly to this.

But as you know, he was already involved in the case.

And I don't see any sign right now that he's planning to recuse himself halfway through the process.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Jodi, finally, the Stop the Steal lies about a stolen 2020 election haven't gone away.

Donald Trump continues to say that he won in 2020.

Election denialism is essentially a litmus test for entrance to the GOP.

What do you think this flag incident means looking forward to the 2024 election?

JODI KANTOR: So first of all, I think we have to see, we just broke this news a few days ago.

Let's see how it enters the bloodstream.

But the idea of a Supreme Court justice flying this flag outside his home, even if it was his wife, as he says, I think does connote a kind of mainstreaming of stop the steal, it says that, you know, this was accepted by a lot of people, a lot of people in power, and that even if it was his wife who did it, that flag didn't come down for a couple of days.

So I think you're right to ask the question, and let's see how this becomes part of the bigger story of what happened in the last election and what will happen in the next one.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Jodi Kantor of The New York Times, thank you for your time.

JODI KANTOR: Thanks for having me.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: As summer weather approaches people are spending more time outdoors, but in certain parts of the country, that could mean an increased risk of tick bites.

And with that the spread of Lyme disease.

According to the Center for Disease Control, as many as 476,000 people in the United States contract Lyme disease every year.

Ali Rogin speaks with one person who's been battling Lyme disease for years, all while mounting an effort to improve both diagnosis and treatment.

ALI ROGIN: For most people who get Lyme disease symptoms go away after a two to four week course of antibiotics.

But for five to 10 percent of patients debilitating symptoms like cognitive impairment, muscle aches, joint pains, and brain fogginess can stick around much longer.

Many people who have these long term symptoms refer to it as chronic Lyme disease, but the Centers for Disease Control does not recognize that term.

The CDC says it's unknown whether long term symptoms are caused by the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.

The Chronic Lyme disease community believes much more research needs to be done to improve diagnostics to detect Lyme disease, and the extent to which the bacteria remains inside the body after treatment.

One of the people advocating for more awareness and research on Lyme disease is Lindsay Keys.

Lindsay received a Lyme diagnosis in 2015, and has directed a documentary called The Quiet Epidemic, partly to spread awareness and partly as a way to process her own health journey.

Lindsay, thank you so much for being here.

And let's start there with your own journey.

You were diagnosed with Lyme disease yourself.

Tell me about that experience.

LINDSAY KEYS, Co-Director, "The Quiet Epidemic": Yeah, in 2015, my health completely unraveled after years of mysterious symptoms.

I was living in New York City at the time, I was 26 years old, and I was losing my memory.

I lost my ability to read, I was experiencing neurological pain, joint pain, it would migrate throughout my body.

My mom actually tipped me off to the fact that I had had Lyme disease two years prior, received the short course of treatment.

And it appears that I wasn't actually cured, and my health just completely tanked at 26 years old.

ALI ROGIN: In your documentary, you show that even the experts who originally found the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, they eventually then went on to disavow the notion that the bacteria stays inside the body and can cause these chronic symptoms.

But I'm just curious based on your research and reporting, why is it that this issue of chronic Lyme disease has become so controversial?

LINDSAY KEYS: So the debate is over whether there's an active infection in the human body or if there's this damage that was done from a previous but treated infection and because of the currently over is over whether there's an active infection.

And because of the currently available diagnostic test, we don't know if it's an active infection or a past infection.

And in lieu of having an accurate diagnostic and a treatment for all stages of the illness, people really need to know what's at risk.

ALI ROGIN: The notion of faulty diagnostics, that seems to be a very basic thing that you want to try to improve.

LINDSAY KEYS: Yeah.

ALI ROGIN: Why is that not happening?

LINDSAY KEYS: I am still so confused about why there hasn't been more of a push to improve the diagnostics.

I think the progress that we are seeing is hopeful.

And it's mostly because of the work of advocates of people who are personally impacted.

I think some of the early experts who were tasked with solving this underestimated the scale, the severity, and the intelligence of Lyme disease.

ALI ROGIN: You were on Capitol Hill talking to lawmakers, what did you tell them?

What was the response?

And what do you hope to get from some of these meetings?

LINDSAY KEYS: Yeah, so we told them about our personal experiences, and they expressed their unanimous support, and many possibilities moving forward.

Ultimately, we do want to call for a congressional hearing, to discuss publicly on the record how we got to this point, the work that is being done now at the CDC and the NIH, and how do we keep people safe in the meantime, and those who are currently suffering how do we deliver them the treatments that they desperately need.

ALI ROGIN: I want to talk for a minute about what the CDC has said they do not recognize chronic Lyme disease.

They say it's a syndrome related to a panoply of symptoms that present themselves, but we cannot definitively derive it back to the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.

But they do say that more research needs to be done to understand the impact of prolonged symptoms.

They also added the bacteria that causes Lyme disease to a list on their website of what they call disease agents linked to chronic symptoms.

What do you make of that?

LINDSAY KEYS: That's a step in the right direction, acknowledging that the Lyme bacteria can lead to chronic symptoms.

But, you know, the scientific evidence does suggest that maybe not in all cases, but in some cases, it is a persistent infection, that these short courses of antibiotics that we're expecting to cure humans are not curing mice or not curing monkeys, horses, dogs.

And there is some research that shows that the Lyme bacteria in the absence of antibiotics starts growing back in the body.

For some people, yes, maybe they don't need more antibiotics, for other people like myself.

It wasn't the only answer.

But it was definitely a stopgap measure.

And if not, for them, I definitely would not be sitting here talking to you today.

I would be amazing if there if there were other alternative therapies available that were backed by the science.

And, you know, we need clinical trials.

The last Lyme disease clinical treatment trial funded by the NIH was 18 years ago, and there's never been a clinical trial funded to explore overlapping tick-borne infections.

When we say chronic Lyme in many cases, people are infected with more than just Lyme.

And that may be why they're not getting better with this short course of treatment, because some of these infections are viruses and parasites.

ALI ROGIN: One of the things I wanted to ask you, we have talked a lot in the last few years about long term symptoms of COVID.

And I wonder if that's changed the conversation at all?

LINDSAY KEYS: Enormously.

So we do know now because of the scale of suffering from long COVID that acute infections can induce chronic conditions and illnesses.

So I think that with long COVID other chronic conditions that have been associated with infections, if we can all band together, and do the research, share the findings and you know, focus on helping these patients then we might be able to solve a lot more if we're working together.

ALI ROGIN: Lindsay Keyes, director of The Quiet Epidemic and herself, a chronic Lyme disease activist, thank you so much for joining us.

LINDSAY KEYS: Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: It's been nearly two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade and eliminated the federal right to abortion.

The reversal marks the start of a new era in the U.S. as some states rush to prohibit abortion.

But the new laws didn't just affect those states that implemented them.

Shefali Luthra is a health reporter at the 19th News.

She has spent the last two years traveling the country speaking to people from very different backgrounds, about how their lives have been upended by the court's decision.

Her book "Undue Burden, Life and Death Decisions in Post-Roe America" is out on Tuesday.

Shefali thanks for being here.

SHEFALI LUTHRA, 19th News: Thanks so much for having me.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Many of the abortion stories highlighted since Roe fell have been some of the scariest, ones about people who would die if they didn't get an abortion and you say in this book that it's your attempt to correct that narrative, that people get abortions for all kinds of different reasons, and that those stories equally deserve to be told, what are some of those stories in the states that have either banned or severely restricted abortion?

SHEFALI LUTHRA: The most common reason people get abortions is simply they can't afford to have another kid.

Very often people who get abortions are already parents.

They know intimately how much it costs, the emotional, the physical, all of the energy it takes to raise a child.

They are often in their 20s.

They are often women of color.

It is women of all ages, people of all gender identities, trans people as well.

And they have all sorts of reasons for not wanting to be pregnant.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: You traveled the country for years before Roe was overturned.

And since it was overturned, how has it changed for health care providers in states where the procedure is still legal.

SHEFALI LUTHRA: Even in states where abortion is legal, there is really intense fear and pressure and burnout on the physicians who are caring, not only for people in their own state, but for the people who have traveled, sometimes hundreds of miles to get there.

I can think of doctors I've met in Florida and in Kansas who are just overwhelmed because they are caring for patients sometimes going up until midnight, because they know that if people don't get an abortion in their clinic today, they will never have the opportunity.

It's really a tremendous burden placed upon these providers because they come home, carrying their patients fears their patients groups and their own stress about what they're doing the physical burden of traveling, the emotional knowledge that what you are doing, what you have been taught is safe medical care, is in so many places no longer allowed.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: You write about so many of those patients in the book, one of those people is Angela, a young Latina mother in her 20s living in Texas.

She already had one kid and she was concerned about the fact that that could drive her into even further debt.

She had to travel to New Mexico to receive two abortion medications.

And again, she didn't know how she and her boyfriend were going to pay for bills.

I bring that up because that story sounds a lot like the story of a young transgender girl that I interviewed last year.

You write that these two issues, abortion access, and gender affirming care for transgender people are connected.

Why?

SHEFALI LUTHRA: If we look at the Venn diagram of states that have banned abortion, and of states that have restricted access to gender affirming care, especially for minors, it's largely a circle.

They are outlining healthcare that is life affirming, and in some cases, life-saving, and they're doing so often in the face of medical guidance.

What we also know is that many health care providers who provide abortion also provide gender affirming care.

They are under dual attack by lawmakers unable to provide what they believe and know to be the best medical care because of the political reality that many people view gender based healthcare as needing to be regulated or outlawed.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Patients living in states that have restrictive laws, not where abortion is fully banned.

But severe restrictions are worried about missing that window based on their state's law.

So how have they been affected and all of this?

SHEFALI LUTHRA: There's a young man in the book named Jasper who lives in Florida and gets an abortion.

And when he got an abortion, it was legal up to 15 weeks in Florida.

He found out very close to that deadline.

He had about one week to make his appointment to go through Florida's two mandated state visits, and to decide that he wanted an abortion to begin with.

This is a really personal decision that he wanted to spend time with.

And instead he had to rush through it.

He didn't want to tell his family because they didn't agree with abortion.

So he had to sit with this secret for a week, wondering for months afterward if this was actually what he wanted to do but knowing that if he didn't decide quickly, he wouldn't have had a choice.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Speaking of Florida, it was previously a state where a number of people went to receive abortions, but Republicans there implemented a six week man earlier this month, what does it mean for Floridians as well as people all across the south?

SHEFALI LUTHRA: That ban is one of the most important bands who have taken effect since Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Florida was the premier access point for abortion in the South.

There were more than 84,000 abortions in the state last year, a large share from people from neighboring states who had nowhere closer to go.

Even though Republicans in the state said they wanted to settle at a 15-week compromise.

That wasn't the reality.

And it also shows us that we are living in a country where roughly half of the nation does not live anywhere near an abortion and has to travel as far say from Miami to Virginia or North Carolina or even New York to get healthcare.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Polls often say that abortion is maybe not as salient as it was immediately after the fall of Roe.

But as you travel across the country, do you hear fears about a national abortion ban amongst the people that you speak to?

SHEFALI LUTHRA: The people I interviewed did not think that much about abortion as a political issue until it affected them.

And now that it has, it is something that they think about constantly.

They feel as if they are not equal citizens in this country.

They feel as if they are treated as less because of their gender.

This absolutely will shape how they vote.

I think the question is, as you pointed out, whether that same prioritization and level of concern will extend to people who don't realize what they have, which is that this really could affect any one of us.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Shefali Luthra of the 19th News, thank you for your reporting and this fascinating book.

SHEFALI LUTHRA: Thank you so much for having me.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: And that's our program for tonight.

I'm Laura Barron Lopez.

For all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us.

Have a good week.