Three years after Alabama’s abortion ban, many must make tiring trips for care

  About every other day in Alabama, a woman suspecting she is pregnant seeks abortion counseling at an Alabama clinic without knowing how far into the pregnancy she is. She may be a mother with three young children at home. She might be in an abusive relationship. Or perhaps she is a student who someday wants children — just not now.

  Once a clinic nurse determines the approximate stage of the pregnancy, she will refer the patient to an out-of-state abortion facility where the procedure is still legal. Meanwhile, staff at the Birmingham-based Yellowhammer Fund would work to guarantee a financial contribution for her travel, hotel, and child care costs, if necessary, and cobble together funding for the abortion care from additional funding sources. Yellowhammer’s work is a lifeline for pregnant people in Alabama, providing grassroots support and resources when they need it most.

Struggle for control of public libraries in full swing across the Deep South

  No one used to envision libraries as battlefields. But in 2025, that’s what they have become.

  Across the South over the last decade, control of what happens on bookshelves has turned into a pitched battle, with white supremacist and Christian nationalist groups on one side facing off against an unlikely coalition of progressives, educators, Black leaders, and drag queens on the other.

  Just two months into a second Trump presidency and its scorched-earth policy against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), the culture wars are heating up the stacks.

Civil asset forfeiture — guilty until proven innocent

  Jamey Vibbert had owned his car dealership in Dothan, Alabama, for over a decade when authorities seized $25,000 from one of his bank accounts.

  One of Vibbert’s customers had allegedly used illegal drug profits to buy two cars from him. A prosecutor later told the local newspaper that Vibbert, by extension, had committed something “kind of akin to money laundering because you know you’re taking dirty money.”

Amy Crawford: White nationalists are targeting college campuses, and these students are fighting back

  In January, the night before alt-right figure Milo Yiannopoulos was scheduled to speak at the University of California, Berkeley, two members of the white supremacist group American Renaissance got in a fistfight with other young men after they were caught plastering trees and buildings around campus with posters that proclaimed, “Embrace white identity!”

  In February, a spoofed faculty email address sent hundreds of University of Michigan students messages that threatened black and Jewish people, using the phrase “Heil Trump.” The emails, which the FBI is investigating, followed the appearance of racist flyers around campus the previous fall.

SPLC, others file federal consumer fraud complaint against conversion therapy group

  A Virginia-based group is committing consumer fraud by offering services it claims can convert people from gay to straight – deceptive practices that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) must stop, according to a federal complaint the Southern Poverty Law Center and other civil rights groups filed with the FTC Wednesday.

  The complaint describes how People Can Change (PCC) has offered these services known as “conversion therapy” despite the lack of scientific evidence to support their claims. It urges the FTC to investigate the group under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, which prohibits unfair and deceptive acts and practices.

Human rights groups ask federal court to order Alabama probate judges to issue same-sex marriage licenses

  The Southern Poverty Law Center and a group of leading civil rights organizations yesterday asked a federal court to expand a lawsuit challenging Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriage and to order all of the state’s probate judges to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

  The action comes amid a confrontation between the Alabama Supreme Court and the federal judiciary.

SPLC files ethics complaint against Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore

  The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a judicial ethics complaint Wednesday against Alabama

Roy Moore

Chief Justice Roy Moore over his public statements urging the governor and Alabama judges to defy federal law and enforce Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriages.

  The complaint was filed with the Judicial Inquiry Commission of Alabama, which could recommend that Moore face ethics charges in the Alabama Court of the Judiciary. That court removed Moore from the office of chief justice 12 years ago after he refused to comply with a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building.

Steve Flowers: Inside The Statehouse: Come hell or high water

  As promised, the Alabama Legislature revisited their much publicized immigration law during the just completed regular session. They said they were going to revise the original 2011 act and that is precisely what they did.

  This Republican dominated legislature does what they say they are going to do. They may not be deliberative but they are truly disciplined, organized, productive and conservative.

  Their original act was much maligned by liberal groups throughout the state and nation. It brought a great deal of negative media attention from every corner of the country and the globe. This adverse publicity did not deter the legislative leadership or the governor. They are determined to rid Alabama of illegal immigrants regardless of the cost in dollars to defend the law or adverse publicity affecting our national image. Their efforts have already proved costly in both venues. The law is being and will continue to be challenged in court by the ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center.