The 2026 Alabama Legislative Session kicked off Jan. 13, with lawmakers in the state House of Representatives and Senate beginning to debate and vote on legislation. As the session gets underway, here are some pre-filed bills that you’ll want to watch this year as they make their way through the legislature.
Health care:
Bill Name: HB12
Sponsors: Reps. Ernie Yarbrough, R-Trinity; Ben Harrison, R-Elkmont; Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City; Arnold Mooney, R-Indian Springs; Ritchie Whorton, R-Owens Cross Roads; Phillip Pettus, R-Killen; Jim Carns, R-Vestavia Hills; Shane Stringer, R-Citronelle; Mark Gidley, R-Hokes Bluff
Summary: HB12 seeks to protect individuals who refuse to receive vaccines or wear facial coverings from discrimination by employers or prospective employers, businesses, healthcare providers, insurance providers or occupational licensing boards. The bill, known as “the Alabama Conscientious Right to Refuse Act,” also enables the attorney general to bring about civil suits in cases of alleged discrimination.
Similar legislation was filed in 2025 and 2023, but failed to progress past the House Health Committee both years.
Bill Name: HB24
Sponsors: Reps. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City; Mark Gidley, R-Hokes Bluff; Ben Harrison, R-Elkmont
Summary: HB24 looks to ease vaccination requirements in the state by making it easier for students to be exempted from vaccination and by expanding vaccine exemptions to institutes of higher education in the state.
Under current Alabama law, K-12 students in the state can be exempted from required vaccinations or medical testing for medical or religious reasons. HB24 seeks to expand this rule to public institutions of higher education in the state as well.
The bill also adds that K-12 students can also be exempted from vaccination and medical testing requirements if their parent or guardian submits a written statement saying they do not wish to vaccinate their child. According to the bill, there will be no requirement to “explain the reason for the exemption, certify the exemption with any third party, or otherwise receive approval from the local board of education or any other entity.”
Sponsors: Rep. Jeremy Gray, D-Opelika, and Sen. Steve Livingston, R-Scottsboro
Summary: These bills, pre-filed in the House and the Senate, seek to make prostate cancer screenings more accessible and affordable by eliminating deductibles, copayments and other forms of cost-sharing from screenings. If passed, men in the state older than 50 would be able to receive prostate cancer screenings free from cost-sharing.
The bill targets African American men, who have been shown to be disproportionately affected by prostate cancer. In particular, the bill covers men who are considered at high-risk of prostate cancer; which includes those who have had a father, brother or son who have received a prostate cancer diagnosis or another cancer diagnosis that is associated with higher risks of prostate cancer. African American men older than 40, regardless of their family histories of cancer, can also receive these reduced-cost screenings under these bills.
Bill Name: HB46
Sponsors: Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham
Summary: HB46 seeks to expand access to abortions in Alabama by legalizing abortions in the case of rape and incest — under Alabama’s current law, abortion is only legal if giving birth poses serious health risks to the pregnant person.
HB46 also would require that the father of the aborted fetus in a case of rape or incest would be required to pay for pregnancy care and the abortion itself, as well as undergo a vasectomy or castration, as determined by the court. Pregnant women who undergo an abortion due to health risks would also be able to petition the court to require the fetus’s father to pay for their medical expenses as well under this bill.
The bill also provides stipulations saying that fathers who have been required to pay expenses under this HB46’s provision may also petition the court for relief on the grounds that they undergo a vasectomy.
Bill Name: HB68
Sponsors: Rep. Kenyatté Hassell, D-Montgomery
Summary: HB68 seeks to create a new designation to be included on Alabama driver’s licenses indicating that the driver has autism spectrum disorder or other condition that may limit their communication. Under this bill, Alabama motorists would be able to voluntarily add this designation to their driver’s license by providing a proof of diagnosis.
Criminal justice:
Bill Name: HB34
Sponsors: Rep. Ron Bolton, R-Northpoint
Summary: HB34 seeks to make refusing to give information to a law enforcement officer a misdemeanor offense.
The bill outlines that law enforcement officers must be acting with reasonable suspicion and identify themself as a law enforcement officer. The bill also only applies if the officer is asking about the person’s name, address, date of birth, or an explanation of their actions — the bill says “nothing in this section shall require a person to give any information that would be deemed self-incriminating,” a right protected under the Fifth Amendment.
Bill Name: HB48
Sponsors: Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham
Summary: HB48 would establish an “Ebony Alert System,” a system that would function similar to the existing Amber Alert system but instead focused specifically on missing and endangered Black youth.
Black women are shown to go missing at higher rates than other races, but a 2016 Northwestern University study shows that white women and men account for more of the American media coverage about missing people.
“It’s a known fact, and it’s been very well reported, that when it’s someone of color, in many instances, and if they don’t live in the right zip code, that that investigation sometimes goes under the radar versus above the radar,” Givan told AL.com.
If passed, the bill would require the Alabama State Law Enforcement Agency to send a missing persons alert in the case of a missing Black youth if certain criteria are met. The criteria outlined in HB48 include: if the missing person is between 12 and 25 years old; if they suffer from a mental or physical disability; if the missing person is suspected to be physically endangered, be a kidnapping victim or be a trafficking victim; if law enforcement believes the missing person is in danger or in the company of a potentially dangerous individual; or if there is information available that may help in recovery of the missing person.
California created an Ebony Alert system in 2023, becoming the first state in the country to do so.
Bill Name: HB54
Sponsors: Rep. Rolanda Hollis, D-Birmingham
Summary: HB54, known as “the Alabama Women’s Childbirth Alternatives, Resources, and Education Act,” would allow women who are pregnant at the time of receiving a jail sentence to defer their incarceration until after they give birth. The bill allows for up to 12 weeks of supervised probation after giving birth. To be eligible for probation, women would have to take a pregnancy test and the court must determine that she does not pose a danger to herself or others.
Rep. Rolanda Hollis, D-Birmingham, has introduced the CARE Act in previous legislative sessions, including in 2024 and 2025. Both times, the CARE Act failed to get past the House.
Bill Name: HB70
Sponsors: Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa
Summary: HB70 calls for Alabama death row prisoners who were sentenced to death through a practice known as judicial override to undergo resentencing processes.
Judicial override is when judges hand out a death sentence in a capital case, even if the jury does not recommend the death sentence. Judicial override was legal in Alabama until 2017, but individuals sentenced to death in judicial override cases still remain on death row. Research from the Equal Justice Initiative shows Alabama has executed 12 prisoners who received the death sentence in judicial override cases since 1986, with the most recent execution in a judicial override case occurring in 2024.
Bill Name: HB71
Sponsors: Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa
Summary: HB71 seeks to establish felony penalties for medical examiners who retain a deceased person’s organs without notifying the deceased’s next of kin. Under this bill, keeping a deceased person’s organs without notifying or receiving consent from the next of kin for any other reason than determining the deceased person’s cause of death, would be considered a Class C felony.
HB71 comes on the heels of an organ harvesting controversy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. UAB has been accused of harvesting the organs of deceased inmates from Alabama prisons whose bodies were sent to UAB for autopsies.
Bill Name: SB24
Sponsors: Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham
Summary: SB24 would require the Board of Pardon and Paroles to provide more information to formerly incarcerated individuals regarding their voting rights. Under current Alabama law, certain formerly incarcerated individuals can have their voting rights restored after they serve their prison sentence. SB24 would require the Board of Pardon and Paroles to post on their website instructions on how to request voting rights restoration and an application form to do so.
Sponsors: Sen. April Weaver, R-Brierfield, and Rep. Phillip Pettus, R-Killen
Summary: These bills, prefiled in both the House and the Senate, would not allow judges to grant youthful offender status to individuals older than 16 who have been charged with capital murder or murder. Under current Alabama law, a judge can grant youthful offender status to any individual younger than 19 years old.
Elections:
Bill Name: HB45
Sponsors: Rep. Adline Clarke, D-Mobile
Summary: HB45 would allow disabled voters to receive help in submitting absentee ballots. Under current Alabama state law, only a voter can submit their own absentee ballot to their absentee election manager. Under HB45, disabled voters would be able to designate another person who can submit their ballot for them.
Bill Name: HB95
Sponsors: Rep. Joe Lovvorn, R-Auburn
Summary: HB95, named “the Alabama Post-Election Audit Act,” would require each county in the state to carry out post-election audits after each county and statewide general election to “determine the accuracy of the originally reported results of the election.”
These audits would be carried out by each county’s judge of probate. The county’s canvassing board would select at least one precinct and at least one statewide or countywide race to audit. The judge must then complete an election audit report which details any discrepancies that were found, a description of likely causes of any discrepancies and recommendations for corrective action for any issues.
A nearly-identical bill was introduced during the 2025 legislative session, but failed to pass.
Education:
Bill Name: HB8
Sponsors: Reps. Mark Gidley, R-Hokes Bluff; Rolanda Hollis, D-Birmingham; Ben Harrison, R-Elkmont; Phillip Rigsby, R-Huntsville; Susan DuBose, R-Hoover; Kenneth Paschal, R-Pelham; Leigh Hulsey, R-Helena; Ginny Shaver, R-Leesburg; Brock Colvin, R-Albertville; Arnold Mooney, R-Indian Springs; Patrick Sellers, D-Pleasant Grove; David Standridge, R-Hayden; Jim Carns, R-Vestavia Hills; TaShina Morris, D-Montgomery
Summary: HB8 would allow school boards to vote to allow volunteer chaplains in schools in their districts. The bill stipulates that these chaplains “may be made available to provide support, services, and programs at the request of any teacher in the local school district.”
Under HB8, volunteer chaplains would be required to complete a chaplain training program as well as undergo a background check.
Bill Name: HB23
Sponsors: Reps. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City; Mark Gidley, R-Hokes Bluff; Ben Harrison, R-Elkmont
Summary: HB23 seeks to extend Alabama’s current “Don’t Say Gay” law. Under current Alabama law, discussions about sexual or gender identity that aren’t “age appropriate or developmentally appropriate” are banned in public school classrooms from kindergarten through fifth grade. HB23 would expand that ban up for all K-12 classes, as well as remove language about age appropriateness to basically ban all forms of discussion about sexuality and gender identity in public school classrooms.
HB23 also includes provisions banning public school employees from displaying pride flags or “other insignia relating to or representing sexual orientation or gender identity” on school grounds. Additionally, HB23 prohibits school employees from referring to students by their preferred pronouns if those pronouns are “inconsistent with the student’s biological sex at birth.”
A similar version of this bill was filed during 2025’s legislative session. That bill made it to the Senate floor, but failed to pass.
Bill Name: HB43
Sponsors: Rep. Reed Ingram, R-Pike Road
Summary: HB43 recommends a constitutional amendment requiring public K-12 schools to conduct the Pledge of Allegiance every day at the beginning of the school day as well as a voluntary daily moment of prayer.
The bill stipulates that individual school boards would have to vote to adopt “a policy allowing employees and students to voluntarily participate in a daily prayer and a reading of the Bible or other religious text” within 90 days if HB43 is passed. If a school board fails to hold a vote on prayer within 90 days of the law going into place or if it fails to enforce recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, HB43 enables the State Superintendent of Education to withhold 25% of its state funding.
If this bill is passed during the legislative session, it will have to be approved by a majority of Alabama voters in November’s election in order to become a constitutional amendment.
Bill Name: HB78
Sponsors: Reps. Jeana Ross, R-Guntersville; Susan DuBose, R–Hoover; Bill Lamb, R-Tuscaloosa; Arnold Mooney, R-Indian Springs; Rick Rehm, R-Dothan; Mike Kirkland, R-Scottsboro; Ginny Shaver, R-Leesburg; Jennifer Fidler, R-Silverhill; Donna Givens, R-Loxely; Rex Reynolds, R-Huntsville; David Faulkner, R-Mountain Brook; Jamie Kiel, R-Russelville; Chris Sells, R-Greeneville; Scott Stadthagen, R-Hartselle; Alan Baker, R-Brewton; Terri Collins, R-Decatur; Leigh Hulsey, R-Helena; Frances Holk-Jones, R-Foley; Brock Colvin, R-Albertville
Summary: HB78 would establish screen time limits in prekindergarten and kindergarten classrooms in the state as well as create a training program for pre-K and kindergarten teachers about screen usage in the classroom.
HB78 stipulates that children younger than two years old should have no screen time while in a daycare facility, while for children aged two through four can only have 30 minutes of screen time per day and no more than 90 minutes per week. The bill also says that screen time in daycare facilities must feature “high-quality programming,” which it leaves to the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education to fully define but which the bill outlines as age-appropriate, slow-paced programming that is free of violence and advertising.
Bill Name: SB3
Sponsors: Sen. Shay Shelnutt, R-Trussville
Summary: SB3 seeks to make several changes to sex education in the state, including in how sex education units are taught and who can teach them.
The bill would require public schools to “exclusively teach sexual risk avoidance and encourage abstinence from all sexual activity.” It would also ban discussion of certain subject matter in sex education units, including information on how to obtain an abortion, demonstrating the use of contraceptives or “misrepresenting the efficacy” of contraceptives and “using images that are sexually explicit.”
Additionally, SB3 would ban school systems from utilizing any outside organization to teach sex education if that organization “does not endorse sexual risk avoidance” or advocates for abortion rights. Parents of students would also have to be informed of and be able to opt their child out of any sex education curriculum being taught in schools.
A similar bill was filed by this bill’s sponsor, Sen. Shay Shelnutt, R-Trussville, during the 2025 legislative session. That bill failed to move out of the Senate.
Sponsors: Sen. Wes Kitchens, R-Arab, and Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur
Summary: Both the House and Senate versions of this bill seek to make Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library a permanent program in Alabama by creating the Imagination Library of Alabama program.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a program that mails free children’s books to families with children under the age of 5 regardless of their income. The program started in Tennessee, but has been mailing books in Alabama since Gov. Kay Ivey established a partnership with the program in 2023.
These bills would create a permanent partner organization as part of the Department of Early Childhood Education, the Imagination Library of Alabama, that would work with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to distribute books in the state. The bills outline that half of the program’s funding will come from the state, while the other half will come from local partner programs.
Environment:
Bill Name: HB25
Sponsors: Reps. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City; Mark Gidley, R-Hokes Bluff; Bill Lamb, R-Tuscaloosa; Ben Harrison, R-Elkmont; Jennifer Fidler, R-Silverhill; Ron Bolton, R-Northpoint
Summary: HB25 would make it illegal to artificially manipulate the weather by injecting, releasing or dispersing any chemical compounds or other substances meant to affect the temperature, climate or intensity of sunlight.
The bill seems to address concerns that artificial means, such as cloud seeding, are being used to negatively impact weather and climate patterns — claims which have been largely debunked. One of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Bill Lamb, R-Tuscaloosa, told the Tuscaloosa Thread, “My main objective is to create transparency. I don’t want to restrict anything that is beneficial scientifically, but I just want whoever is doing it to be honest and above board with what they are doing and why.”
A similar bill was introduced during the 2025 legislative session, but did not pass. If HB25 passes this session, Alabama would become the third state to ban artificial weather manipulation, joining Florida and Tennessee.
Recreational drugs:
Bill Name: SB1
Sponsors: Sen. April Weaver, R-Brierfield
Summary: SB1 seeks to classify substances such as Delta-8, Delta-9 and other psychoactive cannabinoid products as Schedule I drugs.
SB1 seems to come in response to last year’s HB445, an enacted law that created Alabama’s first framework for consumable hemp products, though the bill did gain considerable criticism for its strict limits on what hemp products could be sold and by whom. HB445 did, however, maintain that consumable hemp products were legal in the state for anyone older than 21.
SB1 would place even stricter limits on the sale and consumption of hemp products, outlining that only hemp products that contain non-psychoactive cannabinoids could be sold solely by licensed pharmacies that obtain certification from the Alabama State Board of Pharmacy.
Bill Name: SB9
Sponsors: Sen. Gerald Allen, R-Tuscaloosa
Summary: SB9, also known as the “Vivian Davis Figures Clean Indoor Air Act,” would ban vaping in most public spaces. The bill classifies vaping in the same category as other smokable tobacco products, such as cigarettes.
Public resources:
Bill Name: HB31
Sponsors: Reps. Reed Ingram, R-Pike Road, and Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City
Summary: HB31 would prohibit purchasing soda, energy drinks, candy and prepared desserts while using SNAP benefits.
In order for this ban to go into place, the Alabama Department of Human Resources would have to submit a waiver to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, who would have to accept the waiver to allow the ban to go into place. There has been a trend of states banning the purchase of these products with SNAP benefits, with the USDA approving similar waivers from 18 states in 2025.
Bill Name: SB26
Sponsors: Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Josephine
Summary: SB26 would make removing members from local public library boards easier. The bill would establish that library board members would be able to be removed from their position by a two-thirds vote of the body that appointed them, such as a local city council.
The bill also adds stipulations about challenged books in library collections, saying that each local library board must produce an annual report for the state government “regarding the review or removal of items in their collection.”
Bill Name: SB27
Sponsors: Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Josephine
Summary: SB27 seeks to overhaul the structure of the Alabama Department of Archives and History by doubling the number of members on its board of trustees and giving the governor the power to appoint to its board.
The bill increases the number of members on the board from eight members to 17. The bill stipulates that the governor would be able to appoint seven members of the board, with one representative from each of Alabama’s congressional districts. The speaker of the house and the senate president pro tempore would have the power to appoint the other members of the board.
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