September 8, 2024 - PBS News Weekend full episode

JOHN YANG: Tonight on PBS News Weekend, why more OBGYN residents are getting less training in abortion care in post-Roe America.

Then a new book explores how Gen Z is shaping American politics.

WOMAN: I think for those in Generation Z, both many young men and young women as well, they know that climate change will affect their generation more than older generation, and so it's galvanized many of them to become involved.

JOHN YANG: And high demand for avocados around world is driving deforestation in Mexico.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: Good evening.

I'm John Yang.

Violence spread in the Middle East today, as a Jordanian gunman killed three Israelis at a sensitive crossing between the West Bank and Jordan.

It was at the Allenby Bridge, which spans the Jordan River and is the main route for West Bank Palestinians to travel abroad.

Israeli officials said the gunman approached from the Jordanian side, got out of a truck and opened fire at Israeli security guards who killed him in a shootout.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attack was due to the war in Gaza.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Prime Minister, Israel (through translator): It's a hard day.

A despicable terrorist murdered three of our citizens in cold blood at the Allenby Bridge.

On behalf of the government, I send my condolences to the families of the murder.

JOHN YANG: And in Gaza, an Israeli air strike killed five people, including two children and a senior official in the Civil Emergency Service, which handles Gaza's first responder operations.

The mother of the 14-year-old accused of killing four people last week, at that Georgia High School has told family members that she called the school the morning of the shooting to warn of an extreme emergency.

Teen's aunt said her sister related in text messages that she told the school counselor her son was having homicidal and suicidal thoughts.

The Washington Post reports a call log from the family's phone plan shows a call to the school about a half hour before the shooting began.

Ukraine and Russia are trading blame for attacks that injured civilians in two border regions.

In Russia air attacks from Ukraine injured two people in Belgorod and in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, two people were killed and four others injured, including two children.

Ukrainian officials say Russia is stepping up its attacks and targeting more populated areas.

Cleanup efforts are underway in Vietnam, where the typhoon Yagi has left a trail of death and destruction.

The massive storm is blamed for at least 14 deaths and nearly 200 injuries there.

Officials say the typhoon was one of the most powerful to hit Vietnam in the last decade.

Yagi, which is now downgraded to a tropical depression, has left 3 million people without power.

Venezuela's opposition presidential candidate has fled the country, days after the government ordered his arrest.

Edmundo Gonzalez is now in exile in Spain after being granted asylum.

The 75-year-old ran against President Nicolas Maduro in an election that independent observers say Gonzales won.

Today his political partner Maria Corina Machado said Gonzales felt his life was in danger.

And Paris said farewell to the Paralympics today.

Before the closing ceremony, Team USA closed out the day with three more medals, a silver in women's wheelchair basketball and a bronze each in men's paracanoe and women's marathon.

United States finished the game's third in the overall medal count, behind China and Great Britain.

Still to come on PBS News Weekend, a new book looks at how Gen Z's politics is different from previous generations and the environmental impact of avocado production in Mexico.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: There has been a flood of state laws restricting abortion since the Supreme Court said access to the procedure was no longer a constitutional right.

Currently, abortion is totally banned in 14 states and 27 states prohibit abortions past a certain point in the pregnancy.

As Ali Rogin reports, those laws are affecting how medical residents and obstetrics of gynecology are trained in performing abortions and in counseling patients on their reproductive choices.

ALI ROGIN: A recent survey published in the Journal of Graduate Medical Education showed residents said they feel like they're participating in the enactment of injustice.

Another resident said there's a big conflict of interest between the patient's well-being and what we feel is right for the patient, and then trying to cover ourselves from a legal standpoint.

Dr. Sarah Osmundson is an OB-GYN and a board member of the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine.

Dr. Osmundson, thank you so much for being here.

In addition to practicing as an OB-GYN, you're also a professor teaching the next generation of OBGYN.

What are you hearing from the students that come through your programs about the future that they have and whether they're getting enough training?

DR. SARAH OSMUNDSON, OB-GYN: Yeah, thank you so much for having me and for talking about this topic.

You know, I think I'm hearing a lot of echoes of that statement that the sort of incoming generation of clinicians, medical students and residents, are very concerned about the type of training that they can receive, both in OBGYN and just in reproductive health in general, and they're very concerned about practicing in states that restrict reproductive Health.

ALI ROGIN: So it's not really just about whether they have access to the training during their residency, but their abilities to continue to practice once they're done with their with their training.

SARAH OSMUNDSON: Yeah, absolutely.

And I think it's also important to understand that there are, you know, there are technical procedures that that our residents learn during training.

And you know, these are procedures that we use for all types of health care dilation and curitage is used for miscarriages.

It's also used for abortion care, for the full spectrum of reproductive health care.

But I think the bigger picture is being able to have open and frank discussions with patients and being able to really offer them all the care within our states and within our institutions.

ALI ROGIN: You're in a state with a total abortion ban.

What are the conversations like with those students that are worried about the type of training they're going to receive.

SARAH OSMUNDSON: Yeah, a lot of -- I've had several discussions with medical students who are kind of at a point where they can determine where they're going to practice, and many, I would say, most of those medical students have chosen not to apply to residency programs in restrictive states because of the concern that there are just overall limitations on the type of reproductive health care training that they receive.

ALI ROGIN: And what is that going to mean for the future of OB-GYN care in general in these states?

SARAH OSMUNDSON: Yeah.

I mean, I am very concerned.

I mean, I think we still attract wonderful and talented residents.

But you have to consider that if your pool of students who are willing to go to restrictive states is smaller, we are just going to get, you know all of our programs in these states are going to get less and less talented students, or students that are less interested in providing this full spectrum of care.

So I'm very concerned that this is going to affect the quality of the residents that we are able to attract.

And many residents stay in their states, and they practice in the states where they train, they practice in the institutions that they train.

So the trickle down effect is less and less OB-GYN in these restrictive states.

ALI ROGIN: What are you seeing from hospitals?

Are they trying to pursue any workarounds to make sure that students have the training that they need, that their residents have the training they need?

SARAH OSMUNDSON: Yeah, and I think a lot of training programs are trying to find those workarounds.

And there certainly are options to send trainees out of state to receive specific like concentrated time periods where they learn skills.

But I think you know, if I reflect back on my residency training, you know, reproductive health care, including abortion, was a part of every element of training that I had, and it wasn't just something that I did in a span of, like a month rotation.

It was part of every single rotation.

And And so I'm concerned that even if we are able to provide sort of the technical expertise, we lose out on certainly the full volume of care, but also on the counseling and decision making that comes around being able to offer that care within our institutions.

ALI ROGIN: And how do you feel about students like the ones that we read about in the intro, who are feeling like they have to choose between what's right for their patients and shielding themselves from legal liability?

SARAH OSMUNDSON: I completely understand this.

I think this is exactly what physicians like myself are feeling.

They are just reflecting kind of what we experience every day, where there is definitely a tension between what we know is the right medical decision for patients, and then what type of decisions could impact our freedom and our profession in general.

ALI ROGIN: Dr. Sarah Osmundson, O-BGYN and a board member of the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine.

Thank you so much for joining us.

SARAH OSMUNDSON: Thank you.

JOHN YANG: Younger voters have already made their presence felt.

The last three elections' turnout has hit record highs among those born after 1997 that's the generation known as Gen Z, their votes were critical in electing Joe Biden and maintaining the Democrat Senate Majority.

This year, both the Harris and Trump campaigns are heavily courting them.

A new book looks at how Gen Z is different from other generations and the effect they're likely to have on American politics for years to come.

It's called "The Politics of Gen Z: How the Youngest Voters will Shape Democracy."

The author is political scientist Melissa Deckman, who is CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute.

Melissa, you write, not only are they going to be changing the future, but you write that they're already making changes that, for instance, long term trends have flipped in terms of political participation.

MELISSA DECKMAN, Author, "The Politics of Gen Z": Yes.

So in my book, I chronicle how Gen Z women are now participating in politics at higher levels than their male counterparts.

And this is really unique in American history.

I demonstrate how in earlier generations, younger women were not as likely to participate as men.

But today, you see a surge of activism among young women, and I think it's carrying over into 2024 in this election cycle too.

And you talk about how there are more critical of the parties, and they're less partisan than their older counterparts.

MELISSA DECKMAN: Yeah, that's true on both sides.

We find at PRI when we ask young Americans about their partisan identity, they're more likely to say that they're independent or that they're neither party or no party at all.

And I think it's a reflection of the fact that Gen Z is very distrustful of institutions more generally in society, but they're also far more likely to care about issues.

We find among Gen Z, especially Gen Z women, they care passionately about climate change, about gender equality and also about preventing gun violence.

Those are things that have really galvanized them in ways to march in the streets, to form their own organizations and to really lobby elected officials on those issues too.

JOHN YANG: Talk about political participation.

Is it different from older generations?

MELISSA DECKMAN: Yes, it is.

I think one of the things that helps us to understand Gen Z's politics is really the influence of social media.

We find that PRI, for example, that generation Z is actually outperforming their older counterparts with respect to political engagement, and part of that is really due to social media, which allows them to learn about politics, but also to actually facilitate political engagement in all kinds of ways.

JOHN YANG: And what are the forces that have led them to these issues?

MELISSA DECKMAN: Well, I think with Generation Z women in particular, they came of age during the Trump presidency.

Many Gen Z women activists I spoke with were really alarmed that someone like Donald Trump who says misogynistic things, could defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016 coupled that with the MeToo movement, and it's raised a lot of feminist consciousness among young women, and those values have propelled them to be more involved in politics today.

I think also we see that Gen Z really cares again about climate change, about gun violence prevention, and I think for those in Generation Z, both many young men and young women as well, is that they view these as existential threats.

They've had to live through these experiences.

They know that climate change will affect their generation more than older generations, and so it's galvanized many of them to become involved.

JOHN YANG: It used to be in politics that people said that younger voters were unreliable voters compared to older voters.

The fact that their voter participation is rising.

What do you account for that?

MELISSA DECKMAN: Well, It is notable that in the last three election cycles, we've seen a surge of turnout among Generation Z.

Now, to be fair, Generation Z still votes at lower levels than older Americans, but I think what has drawn them to the polls really again, are those issues, not just climate change they talked about before gun violence prevention that really produced this surge in 2018 in the midterm, but in 2020 for example, during the presidential election, you had Black Lives Matter, and it really again galvanized and encouraging people to go and vote.

And in 2022 it was the Dobbs decision, where you saw more young women voting than young men in that election cycle.

JOHN YANG: You point out that this generation is the most diverse generation in history.

How is that affecting them politically?

MELISSA DECKMAN: Absolutely.

Demographically, Gen Z is very different.

They're more diverse from a racial, ethnic perspective.

They're also more likely to identify as LGBTQ, and both of those ways, I think Gen Z cares passionately about having an inclusive democracy.

So they look at, for example, with gun violence prevention as an issue.

They often look at how gun violence disproportionately impacts members of the Black community or members of the Latino community.

And there's an awareness that a lot of these problems in societies proportionally impacts those communities of color.

Again, that reinforces, for them, a desire to want to participate at higher levels compared to earlier generations of Americans.

JOHN YANG: All these changes, all these characteristics of Gen Z you've talked about, how is that likely to affect November and even many Novembers beyond, when this generation is in charge?

MELISSA DECKMAN: Well, you know, no generation is politically monolithic, but I think with respect to this election, especially with the change from Biden being the presidential nominee of the Democrats to Harris, there's a renewed enthusiasm happening among Generation Z.

And so all of a sudden, you see, I think polling showing that generation Z is going to be probably voting far more democratic compared to, you know, maybe earlier in the year, when Biden, again, was a presumptive nominee.

But there also is some data suggesting that young men might be trending a little bit more Republican in their vote choice.

And so I think that's something that we have to kind of bear in mind.

But I think, generally speaking, with all of that in mind, we should expect Generation Z, I think, to move our politics in a more center left, left direction, moving forward, because those are the issues that they really care about, those issues including climate and reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights and racial equality, all of those things are really critical to understanding Gen Z's political priorities.

JOHN YANG: Melissa Deckman, thank you very much.

MELISSA DECKMAN: Thank you.

JOHN YANG: Demand in the United States for one popular food is driving deforestation in Mexico.

Stephanie Sy speaks with a researcher about what can be done to stop it.

STEPHANIE SY: Green Gold, midshipman's butter, the alligator pair, or as most of us know it, the avocado.

It's become a staple in a lot of our diets, and in recent years, sales have skyrocketed.

The U.S. alone imports around 80 percent of Mexico's crop.

That's $3 billion of avocados.

But the growing demand for avocados on toast in guac is having a steep environmental and human cost.

Daniel Wilkinson is Senior Policy Advisor at Climate Rights International.

Daniel, thanks so much for joining us.

You have this report out about the avocado industry in Mexico.

It's called Unholy Guacamole.

How much first of all, has demand for avocados grown in recent years in this country and around the world?

DANIEL WILKINSON, Climate Rights International: Well, it's been skyrocketing.

The consumption of avocados in the U.S. has tripled since 2020 and we also see similar sort of growth in Europe and in other markets around the world.

STEPHANIE SY: So as a result of that, I understand that over 25,000 acres of land in Mexico has been illegally deforested for avocado production.

Explain what is happening and why enforcement measures aren't in place.

DANIEL WILKINSON: Well, what's happening is that there are enormous profits to be made selling avocados to the U.S. market, and so people are clearing forests illegally to install avocado orchards.

There's some estimates as much as 70,000 acres just in the last decade, and there's many more, tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of acres of forest land currently standing but that are at risk of clearing.

The deforestation is almost entirely illegal, and much of the water use as well is unauthorized.

It's basically water theft which is also illegal, but the laws simply are not being enforced.

The perpetrators, the people who are profiting off this, are not being held to account.

And there's no shortage of Mexican officials at the local level, at the federal level, who want to do the right thing, who want to enforce these laws.

But if they try to enforce the laws, they themselves are exposed to intimidation, sometimes acts of violence, and at the end of the day, they find that they just can't compete with the enormous economic incentive, the profits that are to be made selling avocados in the United States.

STEPHANIE SY: There's a confluence of environmental problems from this, not just deforestation, but the report also talks about how it exacerbates existing water scarcity in that area.

DANIEL WILKINSON: So forests play a very important role in replenishing the aquifer, the water underground in a watershed, you cut down the trees, and you deplete the water that's there underground, and then you install avocados, which is a plant that consumes as much as four or five times as much water as the natural vegetation.

And the result of all this is very serious water shortages in avocado region that's having a real impact on local communities, on local farmers, and is simply not sustainable.

STEPHANIE SY: That demand, because it comes from the U.S., begs the question, what can we as American consumers of avocados do, and what can U.S. lawmakers do, if anything, to address these issues?

DANIEL WILKINSON: Consumers right now can't really do much, unfortunately.

If you buy avocados in the United States, nine out of 10 times it's coming from Mexico and the companies that are making those avocados available, the importers, the distributors, the supermarkets, simply have not been taking the steps necessary to make sure the avocados that they're buying are not coming from the orchards with illegal deforestation, but are coming from orchards from law abiding farmers.

So in that context, there's not much consumers can do, but it really does not have to be like this.

If you go to any supermarket in the United States, you'll see on those avocados stickers that say avocados from Mexico.

And if they have the cartons that the avocados came in, which they often do under the display, the carton will have an 11 digit number, which indicates the specific orchard that in Mexico that the avocado came from.

Now, what we did our organization, Climate Rights International, was get access to all those codes for all 50,000 orchards that are certified to export to the United States, and uploaded them just onto Google Earth, and using that, we were able to see which ones were on recently deforested land.

It's something that I wouldn't expect your average consumer to do, but there's no reason that the major supermarket chains can't do what, what our organization did.

But if we really want to eliminate this incentive, we what's needed is regulatory action to basically bar the sale of avocados from the orchards on recently deforested land.

And this is an idea that's been put out there by Mexican officials.

There's been some interested in this in Washington.

This is something that could be done, and we're hoping that it will be done.

STEPNANIE SY: That is Daniel Wilkinson at Climate Rights International.

Thanks so much.

DANIEL WILKINSON: Thank you, Stephanie.

JOHN YANG: You now online, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump both tout plans to end taxes on tips, but experts say the issue is much more complicated.

All that and more is on our website, pbs.org/newshour.

And that is PBS News Weekend for this Sunday.

I'm John Yang, for all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us.

Have a good week.