Human Rights Backsliding • Meet the BIPOC Press • Indigenous Resistance

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.

Almost All Abortions Are Now Banned in Arizona

A judge allowed a Civil War-era law to go back into effect today. The law requires two to five years in prison for people who provide abortions, except to save the life of the pregnant person.

The AppealMeg O’Connor

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.

Beware the Suddenly “Moderate” Republican | Dame Magazine

GOP candidates know their anti-abortion positions are unpopular, so they’re burying their extremist rhetoric and hoping voters will fall for it.

Dame MagazineLauren Rankin

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:

Why experts say the fall of abortion rights is a key sign of a troubled democracy ⋆ Michigan Advance

The floodgates opened in 2011. That year, increasingly right-wing Republicans – who had weaponized gerrymandering and racism (think: birtherism) during President Barack Obama’s tenure to sweep the 2010 midterm elections and flip state legislatures across the nation – passed 92 anti-abortion bills th…

Michigan AdvanceAnna Gustafson

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.

Revolutionary Mothering and Reproductive Justice - Making Contact Radio

In the mid 1990s, the Reproductive Justice movement was formed by Black and indigenous women as a response to the limitations of the “reproductive rights” movement. Movement leaders argue, “rarely do we find ourselves fighting for just one aspect of reproductive justice such as abortion rights” –…

Making Contact RadioRadio Project

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.

Alicia Bell and Collette Watson on Media Reparations - FAIR

US news media need to not only acknowledge inflicting racist harms, but take seriously the idea of repairing them.

FAIRCounterSpin

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.

Fascist-Sympathizing Newspaper Barons Were the Blueprint for Today’s Right-Wing Media

In the 1930s, six right-wing oligarchs used the US’s and UK’s largest newspapers to spout sensationalist xenophobia, and at times even boost fascist propaganda. Today, Fox News and other right-wing mass media outlets are using the very same blueprint.

Kathryn Olmsted

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.

Gubernatorial candidate Nan Whaley on Ohio’s “extreme legislature,” LGBTQ+ Ohio & why you *must* vote

“This is the most important election ever in our state,” says Whaley about the upcoming November election.

The Buckeye FlameKen Schneck, Editor

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.

Southington school leader defends teacher who used vocab sheet featuring inclusive terms

Officials with Southington Public Schools say they support a high school English teacher who used a vocabulary list including terms like cisgender, transgender and white privilege.

CT MirrorPaul Stern

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

Marjorie Taylor Greene leads GOP drive to criminalize gender-affirming care for transgender youth - Kansas Reflector

Conservative Republicans gathered outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday to commit to bringing legislation to the floor that would make it a felony to perform gender-affirming care on transgender youths, should the GOP take control of the U.S. House following the November midterm elections.

Kansas ReflectorJennifer Shutt

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.

National Conservatism Is Coming for Us - WhoWhatWhy

A look at how “national conservatism” wants to use the full force of government to curtail individual liberty, impose christianity, and destroy its enemies.

WhoWhatWhyJeff Schechtman

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.

How Indigenous Taiwanese Are Fighting Corporate Domination

Taiwan’s indigenous people have long been subject to mistreatment by companies seeking to extract resources from their land and integrate Taiwan into the world capitalist system. Now their resistance takes a new form: an organized political assembly.

Itamar Waksman

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.

What new national monuments are likely under Biden?

New designations could help meet conservation goals set by the administration.

High Country NewsAnna V. Smith

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.

Tribal law enforcement boosted under bill proposed by members of Congress from the West - Iowa Capital Dispatch

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers have reintroduced legislation to provide more resources for tribal law enforcement.

Iowa Capital DispatchJacob Fischler

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.

Compared to oil and gas, offshore wind is 125 times better for taxpayers

A new report finds per-acre revenue from offshore wind blows oil and gas out of the water.

GristJessie Blaeser

CT MIRROR’s environment and energy reporter has a longread about the harmful effects of extreme heat on Connecticut residents.

How heat affects health: An overlooked outcome of climate change

Health tends to get second-class consideration. But climate change-induced impacts are gaining traction as a primary concern.

CT MirrorJan Ellen Spiegel

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.

Pakistan’s Catastrophic Flooding • Fossil-Fueled Beauty • COP27

All you need to know about climate from the OptOut independent media network.

OptOutCristian Salazar

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.

U.S. House passes bill reforming Electoral Count Act to stop Jan. 6 repeat - Ohio Capital Journal

The U.S. House passed on Wednesday a bill updating a 19th-century law in an attempt to prevent the subversion of future presidential elections.

Ohio Capital JournalAriana Figueroa

PENNSYLVANIA CAPITAL-STAR released a voter guide this week for the state’s gubernatorial and senate elections.

Voters Guide 2022: What to know about Pa.’s races for governor and U.S. Senate - Pennsylvania Capital-Star

The eyes of the country are on Pennsylvania this midterm campaign cycle, with a pair of major races on the ballot.

Pennsylvania Capital-StarCapital-Star Staff

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.

Merch
Events Calendar
DONATE

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.