This is the newsletter of OptOut, a free news aggregation app for exclusively independent media that's available for Apple and Android devices. Find out more about the app at optout.news.
The United States had a federally-guaranteed right to legal abortion for half a century when the Supreme Court struck down the legal precedent that guaranteed the right. Now, in response to the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, states are taking action to restrict reproductive freedom.
This week, an Arizona judge revived a Civil War-era law banning abortion in almost all cases. Under the law, which was enacted by the 1st Arizona Territorial Legislature in 1864, the state may prosecute and imprison doctors who perform the procedure, except in life-threatening circumstances. Read more on what is happening in Arizona from THE APPEAL.
What is happening in the Copper State is indicative of a larger trend. Before the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson came down, overruling Roe v. Wade, multiple states had trigger laws in place to ban abortion in the event of new precedent. As of the end of last month, many have taken effect. At the federal level, Sen. Lindsay Graham (R–S.C.) has even proposed a national abortion ban.
Although these efforts have been Republican-led, GOP candidates have been distancing themselves from the topic of abortion, fearing midterm repercussions. While Democrats might find some comfort in that, there is no guarantee of any outcome in November.
Check out DAME MAGAZINE’s take.
Experts are warning that the efforts to ban abortion—and the growing rightwing extremism it portends—are a troubling sign for American democracy. In MICHIGAN ADVANCE:
More on Abortion
Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland discuss the GOP chairwoman’s awkward answer to a question about abortion on THE MAJORITY REPORT.
MAKING CONTACT did an episode this week with scholar and writer Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs to talk about her book Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Frontlines, which recounts her experience as a teenager during the formation of the reproductive justice movement.
Your Independent News Roundup
BIPOC in the Press
This month’s episode of “Meet the BIPOC Press” aired on THE LAURA FLANDERS SHOW today. Guest Dr. Kyle T. Mays said the following:
This special feature for Indigenous People’s Day explores the forces that have both facilitated and thwarted collaboration and movement-making among Black and Indigenous people in the United States.
It’s imperative to not only center blackness, but also to center Indigenous peoples because upon whose land were African Americans exploited? This is Indigenous land.
FAIR’s COUNTERSPIN podcast this week focused on the idea of media reparations. News organizations should
do the work of not just acknowledging that US news media have supported and inflicted racist harms throughout this country’s history, but shedding critical light on the hows and whys of those harms—and taking seriously the idea of repairing them and replacing them with a media ecosystem that better serves us all.
JACOBIN digs into historical racism in the press as it interviews author Kathryn Olmstead about her 2022 book The Newspaper Axis: Six Press Barons Who Enabled Hitler, which details how the owners of the six largest papers in the U.S. and Britain supported or advocated a neutral stance towards Hitler in the 1930s.
Welcome back to LGBTQ+ with Liana!
We’re thrilled to welcome THE BUCKEYE FLAME, a digital publication focused on the news and stories impacting LGBTQ+ Ohioans, to the OptOut team! To get you familiar with some of their important work, here’s a recent story of theirs.
This week they chatted with Nan Whaley, an Ohio gubernatorial candidate who thinks this upcoming election is the most important one to date, especially with the recent extremist, homophobic, and transphobic bills that have been supported by Ohio’s current governor, Mike DeWine.
Catherine Shen at THE CT MIRROR reports on the backlash and support a Connecticut English teacher received after utilizing a list of “inclusive terms” in her classroom. The backlash came from some parents in the district who said that students shouldn’t be learning anything but “math, English, and social studies.” One can only assume these same parents fail to realize that these inclusive terms could easily fall under “social studies” jurisdiction, though are not approved or mandated in school curriculums. In a breakaway from many school boards in states like Florida, Tennessee, and Texas, the Southington Board of Education supports this English teacher’s utilization of these terms (such as cisgender, transgender, and white privilege), since they want to promote an inclusive learning environment.
For STATES NEWSROOM via KANSAS REFLECTOR, Jennifer Shutt walks us through Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s latest efforts to introduce a bill that would criminalize gender-affirming care for minors.
"How on earth can this be happening in America? It’s hard to even understand," said Greene," speaking about how appalling it is to her that trans kids are getting the life-saving and life-changing care they need. We, too, are struggling to understand how on earth this could be happening in America, for much different reasons. —Liana DeMasi
Extremism
The Young Turks’ Ana Kasparian debated rightwing radio host Dennis Prager, whose Prager “University” nonprofit rakes in millions per year from GOP megadonors, and schooled him on the economic realities that most Americans face.
WHOWHATWHY’s latest podcast episode interviews Brookings Institution senior fellow William Galston about the rise of national conservatism, a new and extreme “counter-revolutionary force that wants to harness the full power of government to defend against what it sees as the inroads of immigration, cultural liberalism, globalization, and the activities of transnational corporations.”
In their drive to establish Christianity’s primacy as a state religion, they look to Hungary’s authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán as a hero of their cause.
Please consider donating $20, $100, $1,000, or whatever you can here!
Indigenous Affairs
Also in JACOBIN, Taiwanese journalist Itamar Waksman writes about Taiwan's indigenous people, who number roughly 600,000. The article covers capitalism’s ill effects on the population and the new Paiwan National Assembly, an indigenous effort to engage directly in politics to advocate for the rights of their communities.
In his term so far, President Biden has restored three national monuments that Donald Trump shrunk significantly, but he hasn’t established any new ones.
Organizations and tribal nations across the West have proposed three entirely new national monuments and one extension through legislation that is currently pending in Congress, though Biden could act sooner by using the Antiquities Act.
STATES NEWSROOM via IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH reports on the first federal bill to address a July Supreme Court ruling that complicated state-tribal criminal jurisdiction.
Climate
As Democratic senator and coal baron Joe Manchin tries to get his fossil fuel permitting bill through Congress, GRIST reports on a new study showing that per-acre revenue from federal offshore wind lease sales is 125 higher than for oil and gas. In federal waters, this would be a boon for taxpayers.
CT MIRROR’s environment and energy reporter has a longread about the harmful effects of extreme heat on Connecticut residents.
Did you read our latest climate-focused newsletter? OptOut Climate Editor Cristian Salazar rounds up the best independent reporting about climate change, energy, and the environment every other Wednesday.
To get next week's climate newsletter in your inbox, sign into your account and click "Manage" to subscribe to OptOut Climate!
Elections
The U.S. House this week passed a bill that would update the Electoral Count Act in an effort to shore up elections against efforts to overturn their results. STATES NEWSROOM via OHIO CAPITAL JOURNAL reported on the story.
PENNSYLVANIA CAPITAL-STAR released a voter guide this week for the state’s gubernatorial and senate elections.
Thanks as always for following the OptOut independent news network! See you soon. And please consider donating to the OptOut Media Foundation so we can continue challenging corporate news narratives into 2023!
The OptOut Media Foundation (EIN: 85-2348079) is a nonprofit charity with a mission to educate the public about current events and help sustain a diverse media ecosystem by promoting and assisting independent news outlets and, in doing so, advance democracy and social justice.
Download the app for Apple and Android
Sign up for OptOut's free newsletters.
Learn more about OptOut.
