Alabama top stories in brief

• On Feb. 28, the Alabama House Judiciary Committee passed a bill that creates legal definitions for men and women. The definitions would be based on reproductive systems at birth. HB111, sponsored by Rep. Susan DuBose, R-Hoover, is similar to SB92, “What is a Woman.” HB111 also allows agencies to create separate spaces for men and women and mandates state and local agencies to collect identifiable information on people at birth to determine their sex, in accordance with the bill. Opponents to SB92 and HB111 claim that they do not make sense because they are applying legal definitions to social categories. Other opponents claim that these bills are creating a culture of fear around gender. Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, cited concerns that HB111 would come into conflict with a 2020 Supreme Court case decision, Bostock v. Clayton County. The 6-3 vote ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees against discrimination on the basis of sexuality or gender. Now that the bill has passed committee, it will be voted on by the full House.

• The Alabama Legislature has passed bills in both the house and senate to offer criminal and civil immunity to in vitro fertilization providers to address the recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos can be considered children in lawsuits against the clinic. Several IVF clinics across the state halted operations after the ruling. Last week, a second wrongful death of a minor lawsuit was filed against an IVF clinic for the destruction of a frozen embryo.

• The Alabama Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee passed SB31 on Feb. 28. The bill changes a previously passed law, Distressed Institutions of Higher Education Revolving Loan Program. The law was initially passed to provide aid to Birmingham-Southern. The main revision of the law moves oversight of the program from state treasurer, Young Boozer, to the executive director of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education. The revision is being made after months of Birmingham-Southern College failing to make petitions and appeals to Boozer for their application to the loan program. The proposed bill also removes discretionary approval from the administrator of the program, but requirements within the application will remain. 

• In Alabama, undocumented immigrant students are not allowed to attend public higher education institutions. A new bill, HB210, would change the law so that students who have attended an Alabama high school for at least three years and earned a diploma, GED or completed an educational equivalent can attend a public institution. The law would also allow undocumented immigrants to attend if they had applied for legal status. According to the bill’s sponsor Rep. Reed Ingram, R-Pike Road, the bill originated with the task force focused on studying Alabama’s low workforce participation rate. Ingram chairs the committee. 

Our articles you might have missed

• In case you missed it, The Longleaf Hiker came out last Friday. In this first issue of The Longleaf Hiker, Xander Swain travels to the Kathy Stiles Freeland Bibb County Glades Preserve, home to many rare and unique species of plants. Xander gives readers advice on traveling to the glades, describes some of the unique sites he found and shares his love for identifying species while hiking. 

• In her latest edition of The Breathing Room, Hannah Irvin writes about the importance of finding your strength when you don’t have a large community to lean upon for help and how we can all choose to be the positive change we want to see in the world.