Efforts by anti-choice advocates to redefine and limit contraception

  The U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 landmark decision in Roe v. Wade was a critical step forward for women’s equality, establishing vital, constitutionally protected privacy rights that enable women to access abortion services. However, the ruling also became a target for anti-choice politicians and advocates to organize around. Since the Supreme Court’s decision, these groups’ attacks on abortion access have become an everyday reality that reproductive health advocates, providers, and patients must face. From targeted regulation of abortion provider (TRAP) laws to mandatory waiting periods and biased counseling, there is a well-organized and widespread effort to limit a woman’s ability to make decisions about her own reproductive health when it comes to pregnancy.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1607: Women are powerful!

  Women are powerful. We don’t really appreciate the power of women. We don’t understand or even perceive the real power of women. Even women don’t fully understand their power. We are all weaker for our failure to understand and value the power of women. The month of March is Women’s History Month. Therefore, I want to lift the power of women.

  I began to appreciate the power of women when I was a child. I was in constant conflict with my mother, Ola Mae Sanders. We clashed over and over. I did not prevail in any of these clashes. This woman was too powerful.

Are high schools teaching students to devalue free speech?

  It seems like every few months we’re treated to the results of a new survey that has something dismaying to report about how young people approach free speech. Last fall, the Brookings Institute reported that college students have a number of misconceptions about how the First Amendment works — a significant percentage believes that it doesn’t protect hate speech and that it requires that an offensive speaker at a public university be matched with another speaker with an opposing view. A recent survey conducted by Gallup and the Knight Foundation found that 37 percent of college students think that shouting down an offensive campus speaker is acceptable; even more troubling, another 10 percent said that violence is also an acceptable tactic for silencing an offensive speaker.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Sizing up the 2018 statewide races

  Every Alabama constitutional statewide office is up for election this year. Just like the governor’s office, you can serve two consecutive four-year terms and then you are through.

  Kay Ivey would have been term-limited as lieutenant governor. She could not have run again for that post even though she ascended to the governorship last year. Young Boozer has served his two, four-year term limit as Alabama Treasurer. Young has chosen to not run again for anything. John McMillan has exhausted his eight years as Alabama's Agriculture Commissioner. He is running for State Treasurer and is favored to win that post. John Merrill can run for another four-year term as Secretary of State, which is what he is doing. The same is true for State Auditor, Jim Zeigler.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1606: My last legislative session is coming to an end

  My last legislative session is coming to an end. By the time you read this Sketches there will only be a few meeting days until we adjourn sine die (indefinitely). I am debating what to write about in this Sketches #1607. Should I write specifically about this session? Should I write about my service over the last 35 years? Should I just write? I don’t really know. I just know my last legislative session is coming to an end.

Taylor’s Top Four: Alabama Legislative review for week 11

  The countdown is on! What’s happening as the session winds down? Read below to find out!

1. Gun bills might be finished for this session

  With time quickly winding down in the legislative session, the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee had a meeting scheduled on Tuesday to consider several things: a bill that raises the age to by an AR-15 from 18 to 21; a bill that would allow judges to take firearms away from individuals who might use them for self-harm or harm to others; and a bill that would ban the sale of AR-15s and other similar guns. The meeting was canceled due to lack of participation—only 4 of the 11 representatives on the committee showed up for the meeting. Additionally, the house, on Tuesday, left without debating Rep. Will Ainsworth’s (R-Guntersville) bill to arm teachers. With the session expected to end this week and with no action on the bills last week, it appears that time has run out for these bills this session. Speaker Mac McCutcheon (R-Monrovia) has said that Ainsworth’s bill will come up again next session, while Ainsworth has called on Governor Ivey to call a special session to consider school safety proposals.

Teacher strikes are about more than salaries, and they’re not over

  When I tell stories about the two years I spent as a public school teacher, I instinctively glance at my hands. I’ve learned to cover for it by stretching my arms out in front of me like I’m winding up to pitch, or sliding my hands into my pockets to strike my most casual conversational pose. What I’m actually doing is looking at the piece of graphite that’s still buried in my right palm.

  Every teacher has at least one class that they need to watch at all times, and mine was fifth period English in 2011. They were the students who made substitutes cry, and that once knocked down the temporary wall separating my room from the one next door. One day, after I passed out pencils, I tried to put the extras down on the desk behind me without turning around. I missed and hit the edge of the desk, driving the freshly-sharpened tips straight into my own palm.

Why prison reform is not enough to fix the U.S. criminal justice system

  The Trump administration kicked off 2018 by expressing a surprising, newfound interest in reforming the country’s prisons and strengthening opportunities for those incarcerated to successfully re-enter their communities upon completion of their sentences. In mid-January, the White House convened a group of conservative governors and advocates for a roundtable discussion on prison reform, organized by President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The president also mentioned prison reform in his 2018 State of the Union speech, stating that “this year we will embark on reforming our prisons to help former inmates who have served their time get a second chance.” Most recently, the White House relaunched a task force initially established by former President Barack Obama—now rebranded as the Federal Interagency Council on Crime Prevention and Improving Reentry—which comprises federal agencies to coordinate the federal government’s policies to reduce recidivism.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1604: Come share with me!

  Come share with me. If you participated in the 25th Bridge Crossing Jubilee in Selma, then you can remember with me. If you didn’t participate, you can share vicariously with me.

  The Bridge Crossing Jubilee was massive. The 2018 theme was "Many More Bridges To Cross". There were more than 50 events over a four-day period. Not every event is officially sponsored by the Bridge Crossing Jubilee. However, more than 40 of the 50-plus events are official Jubilee events. Still, all events are part of the Jubilee in spirit. The great majority of these events are free.

The radical right is thriving inside the White House - outside, it's falling apart

  He crisscrossed the country. He fought in court. But white nationalist Richard Spencer has a simple explanation for why he will no longer give speeches on college campuses to spread the racist ideology of the so-called “alt-right.”

  “They aren’t fun anymore,” he said recently.

  Spencer’s explanation — as though white nationalism has ever been, or should ever be, “fun” — was a harbinger of what was to come from the radical right last week.