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Retired engineer and Lyft driver Rachel Brown came out as transgender at age 68. She’s been using her time as a driver to educate her passengers in Massachusetts about an alarming referendum on the ballot this fall that could repeal transgender legal protections in the state. This is her story.

Transcript (PDF)

The post CHOICE/LESS: Massachusetts Activist Takes the Wheel for Civil Rights appeared first on Rewire News Group.

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Season 4 of CHOICE/LESS is all about teens, sex, abortion, and the law. In the season finale, host Jenn Stanley talks to youth activists, artists, and their allies about putting abortion on center stage to fight stigma and change policy.

Christabel Donker: I think it was one of the most challenging things for us, honestly; that we all wanted to inject our special storytelling thing into it, or our own opinions of whatever was going on with the situation. I think it was something that really checked us when we were able to go back to the transcripts and say “OK, is this something that is actually authentic to the story, or is it something that is a little bit of our own propaganda, if you will.” So I think centering those [personal abortion] stories was the most important thing.

“This Boat Called My Body” was devised and written by Nik Zaleski, Quenna Lene, Jessamyn Fitzpatrick, Danielle Litman, Claire Fuller, and Christabel Donker. Here is a complete transcript of the six playwrights together talking about their work with CHOICE/LESS host and producer Jenn Stanley. 

Transcript (PDF)

 

The post CHOICE/LESS 405: Their Bodies, Their Boats, Their Play appeared first on Rewire News Group.

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Season 4 of CHOICE/LESS is all about teens, sex, abortion, and the law. So far this series has posed the question, if adults and children have a hard time talking about even the most basic sex stuff, then why do 38 states force minors to tell their parents if they’re seeking an abortion?

This episode explores what role schools should play in educating young people about sex.

Nicolette Pawlowski: Some parents view their children as pure, and that means asexual. It’s devoid of connection to their bodies and other relationships outside their family. That’s just not the reality. Whether or not [sex] is something the parent wants them to do or not, it’s about dealing not with ideology but reality. It’s about meeting children where they are at. Whether or not they stay abstinent until marriage, they need this information for after they get married.

Transcript (PDF)

 

 

The post CHOICE/LESS 404: Sally vs. Sex Education appeared first on Rewire News Group.

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Season 4 of CHOICE/LESS is all about teens, sex, abortion, and the law.

Roni Washington and her 19-year-old daughter Niky both describe Roni as a “cool mom” who encourages her children to communicate openly about everything, including sex. Sometimes those conversations go better than others. 

In this episode, host Jenn Stanley asks what it takes to have open and healthy family communication, especially around polarizing topics like abortion.

Roni: There has been an incident where she has done something that I did not totally agree with. I cried and I stepped away for two weeks, and I kind of hung up on her—not kind of, I did hang up on her. And I had to really re-evaluate myself again, going back to what I taught my daughter about being open, about being a critical thinker. Ummm … I’m not going to bring it up but …

Niky: Mom, you can say it.

Transcript (PDF)

 

The post CHOICE/LESS 403: The Talk appeared first on Rewire News Group.

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Season 4 of CHOICE/LESS is all about teens, sex, abortion, and the law. In this episode, host Jenn Stanley talks to legal experts, including a former Cook County judge, about how teenagers in Illinois (and 37 other states) end up in court trying to prove they’re mature enough to have an abortion:

Judge Susan Fox Gillis: A young woman and her attorney come into my chambers. I would greet them, say hello. I would call her Miss Doe. Sometimes they would start to tell me their names and I would interrupt and say, “No, I don’t need to know your name; in this case, you are Jane Doe.” And I’d introduce myself. “I’m Judge Susan Fox Gillis,” and say, “this is how we’ll proceed. You’re going to be sworn in, this lady over here is the court reporter, she’s taking everything down. Your attorney is going to ask you the questions …

The questions teenagers can be asked include:

• When did you have sex?
• With whom did you have sex?
• How many times?
• How many partners?
• Weren’t you using contraception?

Listen to learn more about what happens to young people when they find themselves before a judge for seeking an abortion.

Transcript (PDF)

 

The post CHOICE/LESS 402: Welcome to Abortion Court appeared first on Rewire News Group.

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Season 4 of CHOICE/LESS is all about teens, sex, abortion, and the law. In episode 1, Jenn Stanley takes you back to her own adolescence and talks with a former classmate about their experiences attending a small, all-girls Catholic high school.

Transcript (PDF)

The post CHOICE/LESS 401: How Did You Keep That a Secret? appeared first on Rewire News Group.

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With the news of Justice Anthony Kennedy retiring, CHOICE/LESS creator and host Jenn Stanley shares a few thoughts about what it means, where we’re headed, and how the upcoming season fits into the picture.

Transcript (PDF)

The post CHOICE/LESS: On Kennedy, ‘Roe,’ and Season 4 appeared first on Rewire News Group.

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Niky was called “the slut” in high school for her reproductive rights activism. Jane had to cross state lines to get an abortion at 15 without involving her parents. Veronica thought her grandparents would make her continue an unwanted pregnancy as punishment for having unprotected sex.

Thirty-eight states require minors to involve a parent in their abortion decision. In some cases, parental consent is required with no exceptions, essentially banning abortion for many teens. Yet most of these states are doing little to nothing to teach teens about sex and how to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Season four of CHOICE/LESS unpacks a simple question awash in complexity: If adults won’t talk to young people about sex, how can the law mandate that teens involve parents in their abortion decision? This summer, host Jenn Stanley will help teens, parents, lawmakers, activists, and anyone who cares about young people find some answers—and raise their own questions about what’s right.

The post Teens, Sex, and the Law: CHOICE/LESS Season Four Arrives Later This Year appeared first on Rewire News Group.

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This is Part II. Click here for Part I.

UPDATE: December 14, 2017: Kentucky State Rep. Dan Johnson died of apparent suicide on December 13, 2017, two days after the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting and Louisville Public Radio published an investigation that alleged that Johnson sexually assaulted one of his parishioners when she was only 17 years old.

Roy Moore lost, but barely. And his theocratic vision for the country lives on through Operation Save America (OSA), an organization committed to a United States in which abortion, homosexuality, Islam, and anything else its leadership considers “ungodly” is a criminal offense. In this two-part audio documentary, CHOICE/LESS host Jenn Stanley and Rewire investigative reporter Sofia Resnick team up to reveal the alarming ways OSA’s far-right ideology is worming its way into state and federal government. While often dismissed as a group of fringe extremists, OSA has a path to power–and even after Roy Moore’s loss, it’s farther along that path than you think.

An edited excerpt from Part II:

Jenn Stanley: [Operation Save America] started stalking abortion providers at their homes and offices under [former OSA director] Flip Benham’s leadership. And they’re still doing this. They have large wanted-style posters and fliers with local abortion providers’ photos on them. Under each photo they’ve printed the doctors’ addresses and that they murder babies. They hand the fliers out door to door to the doctors’ neighbors and protest outside their homes in quiet residential neighborhoods.

Cal Zastrow typically organizes the groups that protest in front of abortion providers’ homes

Cal Zastrow: Ma’am, can we talk and pray with you? We’re here because we want abortionist [named redacted] to stop murdering babies and turn to mercy and love and compassion and healing with his medical gifts?

[…]

Jenn: I ask one of the protesters how he would feel if people were protesting like this outside of his home.

He’s not officially a member of OSA, but he’s part of a local organization that he says is even more confrontational.

[…]

Jenn: Would you mind if they had your address and knew where your kids lived?

Local protester: Nope, not at all. We’re heavily armed.

Transcript (PDF)

WARNING: Some photos below contain graphic anti-choice imagery.

Joseph Spurgeon, an Indiana pastor and a local leader of Operation Save America, at the Grace Community Church of the Nazarene in Louisville, Kentucky, for OSA’s national conference, For Such a Time as This, on July 22, 2017.

Sofia Resnick/Rewire

Matt Trewhella, a pastor of Mercy Seat Christian Church in Wisconsin, presents on the idea of interposition and the Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates during OSA’s leadership meeting on November 2, 2017.

Jenn Stanley/Rewire

Jenn Stanley interviews OSA’s Cal Zastrow as he protests outside a doctor’s home on November 2, 2017.

Sofia Resnick/Rewire

OSA members sign pledges to be non-violent before heading into a rally at the Grace Community Church of the Nazarene in Louisville, Kentucky, for OSA’s national conference, For Such a Time as This, on July 22, 2017.

Jenn Stanley/Rewire

OSA members pray at the Grace Community Church of the Nazarene in Louisville, Kentucky, for OSA’s national conference, For Such a Time as This, on July 23, 2017.

Jenn Stanley/Rewire

The post CHOICE/LESS – Marching Toward Gilead: The Rise of American Theocracy, Part II appeared first on Rewire News Group.

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Roy Moore lost, but barely. And his theocratic vision for the country lives on through Operation Save America (OSA), an organization committed to a United States in which abortion, homosexuality, Islam, and anything else its leadership considers “ungodly” is a criminal offense. In this two-part audio documentary, CHOICE/LESS host Jenn Stanley and Rewire investigative reporter Sofia Resnick team up to reveal the alarming ways OSA’s far-right ideology is worming its way into state and federal government. While often dismissed as a group of fringe extremists, OSA has a path to power–and even after Roy Moore’s loss, it’s farther along that path than you think.

This is Part I. Click here for Part II.

An edited excerpt from Part I:

Jenn Stanley: After the opening-night rally in Kentucky, we introduce ourselves to Rusty [Thomas]. … It was really loud in the church; it was packed from earlier that night. There were kids running around everywhere. So, we were really just looking for a quiet spot. But the only room open is the nursery. Rusty makes a comment that it’s fitting that we’re in the nursery, given that this is an interview on OSA’s attempt to close down the last [abortion] clinic in Kentucky.

But that’s only a fraction of what we talk about in that nursery.

The only chair for an adult is a rocking chair, and Rusty sits there. And Sofia and I sit in these desk chairs that were made for children no older than 5 or 6. So, we look a little ridiculous.

And Rusty starts by telling us his testimony, how he gets involved in the movement

Rusty Thomas: […] Honestly, I had murder in my heart. I was filled with rage. And when God intervened, right before he intervened I was literally plotting the murder of my mother.

Transcript (PDF)

U.S. Marshals monitor abortion protests outside Kentucky’s only abortion clinic on July 22, 2017, the first day of Operation Save America’s planned week of rallies and protests. On May 13, OSA members had blocked the clinic’s entrance and were later charged with violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

Jenn Stanley/Rewire

Protesters from around the country gather at the Grace Community Church of the Nazarene in Louisville, Kentucky, for OSA’s national conference, For Such a Time as This, on July 22, 2017.

Jenn Stanley/Rewire

Operation Save America Director Rusty Thomas delivers an animated sermon at the Grace Community Church of the Nazarene in Louisville, Kentucky, for OSA’s national conference, For Such a Time as This, on July 23, 2017.

Jenn Stanley/Rewire

Rusty Thomas speaks outside the federal courthouse in Louisville, Kentucky, on the day of a hearing in the federal lawsuit USA v. Rusty Thomas, in which Thomas and other OSA members face felony charges for allegedly violating the FACE Act.

Jenn Stanley/Rewire

Abortion rights protesters dress as characters from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and counter-protest OSA outside the federal courthouse in Louisville, Kentucky, on July 24, 2017.

Jenn Stanley/Rewire

The post CHOICE/LESS – Marching Toward Gilead: The Rise of American Theocracy, Part I appeared first on Rewire News Group.