A new report from Reproductive Health and Freedom Watch has called for greater transparency and oversight of crisis pregnancy centers amid the federal government’s effort to promote these centers as resources for pregnant patients.

The report finds that, among Alabama’s 56 crisis pregnancy centers, there are only six publicly disclosed medical directors working at five of the centers — despite the fact that 80% of these centers perform medical procedures such as obstetric ultrasounds. Of those six medical directors, all were licensed OBGYNs.

Crisis pregnancy centers are nonprofit organizations that tend to offer medical procedures such as pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, as well as counseling that seeks to discourage pregnant patients from seeking abortions. Many of these centers are affiliated with anti-abortion groups such as Heartbeat International and Care Net. 

In May, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched Moms.gov — a website focused on connecting pregnant people with resources. The website includes a pregnancy center locator, which directs users to crisis pregnancy centers in their area. The website does have another locator that directs patients to Federally Qualified Health Centers, which are more traditional healthcare providers that offer more robust medical services.

The Trump administration’s embrace of crisis pregnancy centers coincides with its effort to reframe sex and pregnancy education around “reproductive goals counseling.” DHHS is pivoting its sex and pregnancy education to focus on abstinence and tracking hormonal cycles — known as the rhythm method — as ways to prevent pregnancy, rather than using contraceptives such as birth control pills. 

Studies have found that abstinence-only sex education is less effective at preventing teen pregnancies. The rhythm method is also one of the least effective forms of birth control, with as many as 24 out of 100 people who used it as their means of birth control becoming pregnant within one year, according to the Mayo Clinic.

In their report, Reproductive Health and Freedom Watch calls for requiring crisis pregnancy centers to publicly disclose if they have a medical director and what their medical credentials are.

“Organizations listed on federal and state referral platforms such as

Moms.gov should meet minimum transparency standards regarding medical

Leadership,” the report concludes.

This report coincides with calls from Alabama officials to increase access to adequate pregnancy care in order to improve infant mortality rates.

Data from the Alabama Department of Public Health shows the state’s infant mortality rate for 2024 was 7.1 deaths per 1,000 live births — an improvement from 2023’s 7.8 deaths per 1,000 births, but still below the national average of 5.5 deaths per 1,000 live births.

“Lack of access to care, closure of labor and delivery services, poverty, poor nutrition and chronic disease play significant roles in the health of mothers and infants,” State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris wrote in the Fiscal Year 2025 Perinatal Report.

“It is essential that we address the factors that contribute to maternal and infant poor health outcomes,” he added.

Of Alabama’s 67 counties, 41 lack a hospital with a delivery unit. ADPH’s data found there were 42 hospitals total in the state that were equipped to deliver babies in 2024. Only 30% of the state’s rural hospitals have labor and delivery units.

Alabama top stories in brief

University of Alabama removes sexuality, gender identity from nondiscrimination statement

• The University of Alabama system quietly removed language protecting LGBTQ students from its nondiscrimination policies.
• Reporting from the campus’s newspaper, The Crimson White, found university officials removed “sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression” from the list of protected classes in its nondiscrimination statement in November 2025.
• University spokesperson Alex House told The Crimson White that the policy changes were made to “reflect the current language of relevant federal laws.” The Trump administration rescinded LGBTQ-focused protections added to Title IX by the Biden administration in April.
• The policy changes affect the University of Alabama’s flagship campus in Tuscaloosa, as well as the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
• Other public universities in Alabama still include language protecting LGBTQ students in their nondiscrimination statements, including Auburn University, the University of West Alabama and the University of South Alabama.

New execution date set for death row inmate who stopped nitrogen gas execution

• Gov. Kay Ivey has set a new execution date for death row inmate Jeffery Lee. 
• Lee successfully prevented the state from executing him using nitrogen gas earlier this year by challenging the constitutionality of nitrogen gas executions in court. Lee’s legal challenge resulted in a permanent injunction against nitrogen gas executions. 
• Lee’s new execution date is Sept. 17. The state plans to execute him by lethal injection.
• The move comes a week after a federal court rejected an argument from Lee challenging the state’s use of lethal injection. 

New bill in Congress could end mud dumping in Mobile Bay

• A new bill in Congress could help end the practice of “mud dumping” in Mobile Bay — a practice environmental groups say decreases water quality to the detriment of seagrasses, oysters and other animals that live in the bay.
• U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Mobile, has included an amendment in the Water Resources Development Act of 2026 that would ban the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from using thin-layer placements, more commonly known as mud dumping, in most circumstances.
• Mud dumping is a way of disposing dredged materials by releasing the dredged sediment back into the water, allowing the sediment to settle. 
• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who have been dredging a deeper ship channel in Mobile Bay, says they plan to distribute six to 12 inches of sediment across the bay as part of the project.
• Alabama legislators passed a law curtailing mud dumping by requiring the Army Corps to use 70% of dredged material for beneficial projects. If passed, the federal law would go further than this bill by only allowing mud dumping in emergency cases. 

ADOC: ‘Reasonable concern’ new Elmore County prison will be delayed

• The Alabama Department of Corrections last week said there is a “reasonable concern” that the opening of the $1.25 billion Gov. Kay Ivey Correctional Complex in Elmore County will be delayed.
• Contractors working on the 4,000-bed men’s correctional facility may not meet an Oct. 15 deadline to complete work on the project, the department warned.
• ADOC says the state has “implemented contractual remedies” with the project’s main contractor, Caddell, that would require the company to hire additional workers in an attempt to complete work on time.
• The prison was initially scheduled to open in May of this year, but state officials pushed the opening to October last year. 

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