[Hassan] This is central Kharkiv, and this is
what Russian bombs have done.
Residential buildings have been hit.
speaking Russian
We're very close to where the Russian separatists are.
speaking Russian Get down.
Putin says that this is not a war.
speaking Russian
[Hassan] What is your feeling
towards Russia now?
speaking Russian
[Paola] If I am knowingly driving someone
to get an abortion,
-can someone sue me? -You bet.
[Paola] SB 8 has created
this very dangerous culture.
We're seeing bodily autonomy be attacked.
That includes trans and nonbinary folks.
We've never been secretive about our family.
But this is a time when private citizens
can report you.
Will this stop you?
discordant electronic music
melancholy music
[Hassan] We're on our way to Kharkiv,
the second-largest city in Ukraine and currently one
of the most dangerous areas in the country.
It was one of the first places to be attacked by Russia
at the start of this all-out offensive.
Kharkiv is just 26 miles from the Russian border,
and many of the people who live here
are ethnically Russian.
Locals do business and have families
across the border,
so it wasn't uncommon to find
those who supported the Russian government.
Not anymore.
This is central Kharkiv, and there are streets
that have been completely destroyed,
like this, all over the city.
This is a region that has close cultural ties to Russia.
It's a Russian-speaking city.
Yet this is what Russian bombs have done to this area.
The fighting has started to intensify again.
We can hear a lot of explosions throughout the day.
This is a business center, and there are
buildings like this that have been destroyed
everywhere you go.
[jets roaring]
energetic music
When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th,
U.S. officials claimed that Vladimir Putin believed
he could take Kharkiv in just 48 hours.
But ethnic Russians didn't welcome the invaders.
Instead, locals, facing missiles and death,
rallied together.
The scale of the destruction
and the use of cluster bombs
led Ukraine's President Zelenskyy
to call the attacks on central Kharkiv
a war crime.
[Zelenskyy] speaking Ukrainian
[power tools whirring]
Every day, Kharkiv's rescue services
risk their lives
looking through the rubble for survivors
and recovering the bodies of civilians
who've been killed.
somber music
[Volodymyr] speaking Russian
[Hassan] At least half of Kharkiv's population
are thought to have fled the city,
but some of the older residents
remained in their homes,
like the woman who lived here,
73-year-old grandmother Natalia Balenko.
Her body has been under the rubble for ten days.
[Volodymyr] speaking Russian
[Hassan] So many people have left this city.
Was it ever something that you considered?
Fleeing from this war?
speaking Russian
[Hassan] You're speaking to me in Russian, not Ukrainian.
This city has
a historical relationship with Russia.
What is your feeling towards Russia now?
speaking Russian
[Hassan] The city has long shown
its conflicted identities
when it comes to Ukraine and Russia.
In 2014, the pro-European Maidan Revolution
engulfed Kyiv and spread to other parts of the country.
Kharkiv was no exception.
[people chanting]
But the pro-Russian opposition to the Maidan movement
was fierce.
Counter-protesters stormed government buildings
and clashed violently
with pro-Ukrainian demonstrators.
Pro-Russian separatists quickly took 1/3
of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk
with military and financial help from Vladimir Putin.
The conflict continued over the next eight years,
killing 14,000 people.
But throughout the fighting, Kharkiv has stayed firmly
under Ukrainian control, and it remains that way,
despite the devastation
it's witnessed since the invasion.
somber music
In January, before the Russian invasion,
we traveled to the front line in the Luhansk region,
southeast of Kharkiv,
where Ukrainian soldiers were still fighting
the separatists.
[soldier] speaking native language
[Hassan] We just have to run here,
really quickly, because we're very close
to where the Russian separatists are,
so this is a very dangerous point.
[soldier] speaking native language
-[translator] Get down. -[soldier] Get down.
[Hassan] They were poised for a new invasion
whilst also defending their posts
in the ongoing war.
How far away from here are the separatists right now?
speaking native language
[Hassan] But in towns like this,
the war divided communities and even families.
Do you believe that you have the support of the civilians
who live in Eastern Ukraine, or do you think some of them
might prefer to be under the control of Russia?
speaking native language
[Hassan] Russia thought those attitudes would aid it
in its mission to take Ukraine,
but in Kharkiv and across the east,
it was met by fierce resistance.
So Putin then turned
to his playbook, crafted in Syria,
where it was brutally used to prop up
the country's president, Bashar al-Assad.
There and in Ukraine, Russian troops
targeted civilian infrastructures
and tried to besiege and cut off cities
from water and fuel.
speaking Arabic
[Hassan] Those tactics have destroyed
any public friendly feelings towards Russia here.
[people shouting]
This hospital is one of the closest
to the front line.
We're only 30 kilometers away from Russia.
A lot of the injured civilians and soldiers are brought here.
We can also hear constant shelling
in the background.
With Russia attacking hospitals in other cities,
patients here are being held in corridors,
because they offer more protection.
[patient] speaking Russian
[Oleksandr] speaking native language
[Hassan] Dima Kisianov was injured
in a Russian rocket strike
which damaged his brain, lungs, and stomach.
Dr. Dukhovskyy is Kharkiv's chief pediatric surgeon.
He's been living at the hospital
since the bombardment began.
[Oleksandr] speaking native language
That's in his-- shrapnel in his spine?
[Oleksandr] speaking native language
-Sorry. -[Hassan] It's okay.
speaking native language
[Hassan] Despite Dukhovskyy's best efforts,
Dima died a few days later.
He was eight years old.
somber music
Kharkiv's morgues are overflowing,
so bodies are being stored outside.
There are just rows and rows of bodies here,
and there's even more in the basements.
The vast majority that we're seeing are civilians.
There are some soldiers, as well,
and we know that there are a lot more inside.
Even in their death, they can't escape this war,
because we can constantly hear the sound
of incoming and outgoing fire, as well.
[explosion]
[people] speaking Russian
tense music
We've just had to run inside
because of a huge explosion outside.
We don't know what it is.
That's what happened.
That's what we heard happen when we were filming.
Because this city is only around 30 to 40 kilometers,
at different locations, from the Russian border,
it's always within firing range,
and that means absolutely everywhere is a threat.
Two members of Ukraine's Territorial Defense Force
have been killed in the attack.
Rescue crews remove still-burning rubble
to try and find victims.
speaking Russian
speaking native language
[Hassan] As the war enters its third month,
Russia continues to claim it's carrying out
a clean special operation.
[civilian] speaking native language
So Putin says that this is a special operation, not a war.
What do you say about that?
speaking native language
[Hassan] Increasingly,
Russian president Vladimir Putin's tactics
appear to include indiscriminate bombings,
like they did in Syria.
And as his troops are withdrawing
from parts of Ukraine, more evidence is emerging
of potential Russian war crimes.
So far, Moscow has been denying these allegations,
but in a city that once had close ties to Russia,
the damage is done.
Nearly two weeks after she was killed,
the family of Natalia Balenko was finally able to bury her.
[pallbearer] speaking native language
[Hassan] This war has been so unpredictable,
and no one knows how it's going to end,
but the one thing we do know is that it's
the poorest and the most vulnerable
who will suffer the most,
and there'll be many, many more victims.
[mourners] speaking native language
dramatic music
suspenseful electronic music
We're about to meet a family with a transgender teenager
that literally had to flee the state of Texas,
and that's because in February,
Governor Greg Abbott of Texas
called on citizens to report
the parents of transgender kids
if it appears that the minor's receiving
gender-affirming medical treatment.
What's happening in Texas is part of a larger legal trend
of vigilante laws that are slowly making
their way across the country.
[Carrie] Bud, will you check and see
if the butter is melted?
Yeah.
[Paola] Do you like to cook?
[Carrie] I do.
Getting back into doing just some more cooking,
it makes me feel like bringing some normalcy back
under these really weird, surreal circumstances.
[Paola] Governor Abbott's order mandates that nurses, doctors,
and teachers, as well as ordinary Texans,
report parents suspected of seeking
gender-affirming medical treatment
for their trans kids
or face criminal penalties themselves.
ACLU Texas says it's been receiving an uptick in calls
from concerned parents of trans youth.
Abbott and Paxton went so far as to say that this care
should be categorized as child abuse.
[Paola] Carrie Jackson,
a former school guidance counselor
and mother of a 17-year-old transgender teen, Cass,
is one of thousands of parents facing a difficult choice:
stay in Texas and risk being reported for child abuse
or leave the state.
Were you scared that people would actually target you
and report you?
[Carrie] Yes.
I knew that there were a lot of people
that were aware of our family's situation
and also that are mandatory reporters.
[Paola] Cass, what was it like for you when you heard
about the governor's directive?
I've sort of dealt with feeling
like the world and people around me,
like, dislike me, distrust me,
but to have that, like, actualized,
and then to see neighbors, friends, family members
support that publicly?
It's definitely the worst I've felt
probably ever before.
Like, I felt like I needed
to take myself out of the world.
About a week before we moved,
I got hospitalized for that,
and I got, like, institutionalized.
And we couldn't go to a hospital in state.
They could just take me and put me in foster care.
[Paola] What did that feel like, for you, too, to manage,
as a mom?
[Carrie] I think that is one of the hardest things
that I've ever had to deal with.
I was like, "This is my breaking point."
dramatic music
[Paola] State courts have temporarily blocked
Governor Abbott's anti-transgender order,
but vigilante justice
is still alive and well in Texas.
Last year, the state passed two major bills
that also empower ordinary people
to take the laws into their own hands.
SB 1 is a sweeping restrictive voting bill
that allows partisan poll watchers
who have a history of intimidating voters of color
to sue election workers for as little of an offense
as blocking your view in polling stations.
And SB 8, one of the most restrictive abortion bills
in the country, offers a $10,000 bounty
to private citizens who successfully sue
anyone who aids or abets an abortion
after roughly six weeks.
[anchor] It is the strictest law in the nation
and leaves women seeking abortions with few options.
[reporter] Many providers in the state
have halted procedures
in fear of getting sued.
[Paola] That not only includes doctors, but family, friends,
and even Uber drivers who take patients to a clinic
and those who help fund their procedures.
So we're on our way to meet Kamyon Conner.
She's the executive director of the Texas Equal Access Fund,
which is this grassroot organization
that helps people pay for their abortion.
There's anti-abortion legal groups
that are interested in pursuing a civil lawsuit against her.
She's asked us not to show you where she lives,
and that's because SB 8 has created
this very dangerous culture of vigilantism
where her safety could actually be at risk in this moment.
[knocks at door]
[Kamyon] Just follow me down here.
So here's one you can see.
"Every one of your employees, volunteers, board members,
and donors will be charged." That's a blatant threat.
[Paola] What does it feel like for you to have to read
those tweets and messages?
It feels overwhelming.
These folks not only don't care about us,
but want to harm us
and the people that we're serving.
[Paola] As a result of an ongoing litigation,
Conner went on record stating that her organization
has helped pay for at least one abortion
that was in violation of SB 8.
A Texas citizen named Ashley Maxwell
enlisted conservative lawyers to depose Conner
based on her statement,
with the goal of suing anyone in Conner's organization
that may have been involved in the illegal abortions.
Do you know Ashley Maxwell?
I don't know Ashley.
-[Paola] Have you ever met her? -Never met Ashley,
and if I have, I don't remember.
So are now members of your staff
exposed to civil lawsuits?
Are people scared of being potentially sued?
There's a risk for us to operate every day.
It's about weighing the risk versus the benefits.
We have had some donors be hesitant to donate to us
because they are fearful of being sued.
How do you make sense of someone like Ashley Maxwell?
Is it perhaps a financial incentive
to sue someone like you?
Is it a moral incentive?
I can't guess to, like, what her motives are,
but I know that anti-abortion extremists
will do a lot to ensure people don't have access to abortion.
And it's not just abortion, right?
Like, ultimately, it's an attack
around bodily autonomy.
These are attacks on people's personhood.
[Paola] Maxwell did not respond
to numerous requests for comment,
but average citizens like Maxwell
hold more power than they ever have,
and now, other states are following Texas' lead.
[DeSantis] We are gonna be including in this legislation
giving parents a private right of action,
to be able to enforce
the prohibition on CRT.
[Newsom] If Texas can use a law
to ban a woman's right to choose,
we will use that same law to save lives.
[Paola] Across the country, state legislatures
are advancing their own controversial agendas,
from banning critical race theory in Florida
to enforcing gun control in California.
suspenseful electronic music
David Noll, a legal scholar and law professor
at Rutgers Law School,
has been tracking bills across the country
that incorporate what he calls vigilante federalism
and sounding the alarm about the fundamental dangers
they pose to our democracy.
How many, approximately, are you tracking?
So laws that literally copy SB 8--
we're up to 32 right now.
[Paola] And what about different versions of SB 8?
I would say a little north of 100 right now.
-All across the country? -That's right.
[Paola] How would you describe
the current legal and political environment we're in?
I would say that we're in a crisis of democracy.
The best historical precedent for this
is also incredibly alarming,
and that's the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
Any person could apprehend an alleged fugitive
and then literally haul that person
in front of a commissioner.
The commissioners got $10
if they found that a fugitive was indeed a fugitive
and had to be returned to slavery.
And SB 8 is doing the exact same thing.
But typically, right, ordinary people
understand civil lawsuits as having, in some way,
felt the damage.
What damage are plaintiffs feeling in this scenario?
As the statute is written, absolutely none at all.
So it's basically moral outrage...
[David] Precisely.
...that is driving someone to do this?
Dating back to the Tea Party movement,
there's incredible frustration among hard-right voters
that they can't get what they want.
SB 8 is finally able to deliver
the restriction on abortion access
that anti-abortion activists have long wanted.
It galvanizes the base,
which is numerically diminishing.
And so if you put them into the role of citizen enforcer,
you're giving them power.
[Paola] In a country that is increasingly diverse
and approaching a majority minority,
these vigilante policies may be the GOP's last resort.
So we're in the Texas state capital,
and we're about to meet Republican State Senator
Bryan Hughes.
Now, Bryan Hughes is considered
one of the most influential voices
among Texas Republicans
and really among Republicans across the nation.
He's authored SB 8, he's authored SB 1,
but the reason why Hughes is so influential
is because he's crafted
a very unconventional mechanism to enforce the law.
The definition of a bounty hunter
is a person who pursues a criminal
for whom a reward is offered.
So is it fair to say that SB 8 encourages bounty hunters?
Someone filing a suit, under Senate Bill 8,
it sounds like, would qualify under that definition.
I think that's fair.
So it's fair to say that SB 8
deputizes bounty hunters to enforce the law?
[Hughes] Well, it doesn't deputize anyone.
They don't have any government authority.
They're bringing suits as private citizens.
Do you see any danger in that?
We're comfortable with it. We believe it's working.
[Paola] Support for political violence is rising.
Trust in public institutions, in the government,
is almost at an all-time low.
And trust between citizens is also at an all-time low.
Can that not lead to violence?
We're always concerned about that.
In Texas, we believe that that little baby
growing inside her mother's womb
is a human being
worthy of the full protection of the law,
and so once we settle that,
then we have to be very, very careful
and very thoughtful in the way we implement the law.
But the bill specifically bans state and local officials
from enforcing the law, right?
Was that a legal maneuver to protect the state
from being challenged?
We realized that by doing this,
this could allow the law to go into effect more quickly
than other pro-life laws, in the past,
so yes, you bet.
And when you designed this bill,
did you ever imagine
that it would have such a ripple effect
across the country, on both the Republican
and the Democratic side?
[Hughes] So we knew that it would work, on paper,
but of course, we didn't know, until we passed the law,
until it took effect, so--
[Paola] Were you surprised?
We've been encouraged.
It's been more effective than we expected it to be, yes.
[Paola] As more and more states copy the blueprint
that Hughes and his colleagues spearheaded in Texas,
in this United States of vigilantes,
it's hard to let your guard down,
no matter where you are.
This is the downstairs.
So this is where you spend most of your time?
[Cass] Yes. I sleep down here.
[Paola] How has the adjustment been like in school?
Finding new friends and, like, getting
into the groove of things has not really been easy.
Lately, I've been very, like, nervous
about being attacked in, like, bathrooms
and, like, just on the street.
That's way more than I was in Texas.
[Paola] Vigilante federalism is disrupting
the lives of thousands of people across the country.
[all] Happy birthday, dear Tasha
[Paola] It's slowly transforming
democracy as we know it,
empowering bounty hunters to govern,
ordinary civilians to police,
and extremists to undermine
our constitutional rights.
Does the paranoia ever leave you?
It is not as intense as it was,
but even here, I just feel like I'm looking around to see,
and I'm afraid.
What if that type of legislation happens here?
It just feels like it's spreading like a wildfire.
A couple of times, it's crossed my mind,
like, what if we actually have to leave the country?
You know, so we'll do whatever we have to do
to protect our family.
dramatic music