Alabama was the talk of the nation last week as the most restrictive abortion ban in the country became law.
But, missing from many of those conversations were the voices of women from this state.
So, we asked them to share their opinions on being a woman in Alabama. And more than 200 of them responded within less than 24 hours.
They are women who live here, and some who have left. Those who have prayed for this very law, and those who now live in fear. Mothers, trying to understand the message this law sends to their daughters and sons. And women who are angry that a majority of men in the state legislature spoke for them.
Many chose to write about the new law, and others chose to speak more broadly about their experiences and perspectives.
We’ve chosen to fill this Sunday’s editions of the Birmingham News, Mobile Press Register and Huntsville Times with their essays.
We’re also publishing headlines for every one of them below. You can click on the headline and read each individual story. We have restricted your ability to comment on our site about their essays, wanting their voices to be heard instead of debated.
No one should ignore their voices.
Yes, it is time we had a conversation about women in Alabama -- one in which the voices of Alabama women lead the way.
Kelly Ann Scott is the vice president of content of Alabama Media Group, which includes editorial operations for Reckon and AL.com. She is the editor of the Birmingham News, Huntsville Times and Mobile Press Register. Follow Kelly Ann Scott on Twitter at @KellyAnnScott or email her at kscott@al.com.
Want to continue the conversation about what the Alabama and the Deep South needs to do to make sure women thrive here? Join our new our new Reckon Women Facebook, or sign up for the weekly Reckon Report newsletter and follow Reckon on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Sarah Patterson: The power of Alabama women
Kayce Maddux: I am thankful my teenage mother gave birth to me
Rachel Simone: Our bodies are our bodies
Dejuana Thompson: I choose civil disobedience
Rachel Cunningham: The effects of Alabama’s religious culture
Laura Harper: Rethinking plans to move back to Alabama
Katie Oelschlager: Abortion law takes away options for high-risk pregnancy
Kristina Taylor: I had to move away to fight for my home state
Eva Melton: The women of Alabama are under siege
Tasha Coryell: A better Alabama than this
Marche Johnson: All politics is local
Melissa Caldwell: It should always be her choice
Jenny Arras: You cannot criminalize my choice
Hannah Gagnon: My desire to protect the unborn doesn’t make me a ‘traitor’
Morgan Nicole Walston: I am choosing to fight
SueAnn Griffith: Why would I leave?
Donna Turner: An uphill battle
Sheila D. Tyson: Without women, Alabama would be broke
Onoyemi Williams: How I embraced myself in Alabama
Casi Callaway: Alabama women should be seen as leaders
Shea Seaman: Alabama made me an activist
Nancy Joynt: Disregard of women nothing new
Michele Nolen-Schmidt: So much progress lost
Anne Weil: Women can solve the world’s problems if you let them
Erin Arnold: In Alabama, I am ‘less than’
Kimberly Lewis: Breaking new ground
Marquita Hall: Fairness, integrity and justice for all
Lindsey Boan: I had to leave Alabama to be true to myself
Beck McDowell: Lawmakers have callous disregard for victims
Myrtis Ramsey: Why can’t we do better?
Nancy Carlton Bendinger: Alabama can be better
Marcia Adkins: Bitterly disappointed in my state
Elizabeth Stanard: Reproductive rights aren’t an Alabama issue
Virginia Newcomb: Fear has become our fuel
Catey Hall: I have to be louder, grittier
Rene Washington: This isn’t about the sanctity of life
Savannah Crabtree: We will stay. We will fight.
Maryanna Goff: Alabama women live afraid
Renee Sullender: Women’s care includes abortion care
Haley Lacombe: I will fight, and this will not last
Hannah Spraggins: The reasons I am scared
Heather Hood: This bill is about control over women
The Rev. Donna Mullis: Our godless legislature
Rachel Hauser: Thankful I had an option
Tycely Williams: the freedom of choice
Julie Watters: Finding my voice and enacting change
Matilda Merriweather: One step forward, two steps back
Josephine Cox: In Alabama, I’m more free to be pro-life
Jennifer Underwood: You will never end abortions
Laura Casey: Crazed patriarchy rules Alabama
Pamela Casey: I will champion the cause of infertility
Elena Di Benedetto: Being pro-life is not just about abortion
Yashiba Blanchard: respect a woman’s right to privacy
Lauren Johnson: Alabama is going backwards
Terrika Shaw: Alabama has taken a leap back in time
Mary Johnson Butterworth: Ode to Alabama’s Black women
Linda Verin: What if I knew something was wrong with my pregnancy?
Kerry Madden-Lunsford: My choice
Sibylle Kristensen: ‘For my daughter’s sake, I will work on change’
Rhesa Houston: Superpowers and fatigue
Aryn Sedgwick: What world will my one-year-old son see?
Tara Sayre Jones: Domestic violence is a ‘terrifying’ reality for many women
LeShundia Porter: Law won’t stop abortions
Ginger Harper: ‘Alabama ladies, our future is bright’
Courtney Hutchinson Ealy: My doctor lied to me about my options
Olivia Cooper: ‘There is a war on women in Alabama’
Kerry Schrader: What happened to my right to choose?
Garland Clark: Tell me I’m expendable
Sonja Smith: respect black women
Leslie Long: ‘I fear for my daughter’
Isabel Hope: a teen girl’s take on growing up in Alabama
Pam MacDougall: I fear for the future of Alabama
Makella Moore: Women are present, relentless and woke
Carin Mayo: Alabama is a pro-birth state
Rachel Letcher: I want to help make Alabama better
Finn Jasele: We will get there
Deneisha Towns: Women in our state have overcome much
Julie Wells: Our short-sightedness is embarrassing
Tabitha Isner: If they really believed every life is precious
Lindsay M. Sutton: You simply refueled the fire in us
So Brown: Why won’t Alabama take care of herself?
Ashlee Ammons: ‘More women in Alabama will die’
Kiani Gardner: Guaranteeing safe pregnancies
Janna Owens: Polluting our message
Karen Jones: ‘I am ever grateful to be a woman in Alabama’
Kristine Mears: My body, my choice
Erica Jarrell: ‘Would my miscarriage have made my doctor a felon?’
Laura Hill: State lawmakers don’t display values of all Alabamians
Jenn Gray: A seat at the table
Haley Hoppe: To be pro-life, also care for parents and children
Lisa Chasteen: Nothing prepared me to be this disappointed
Jessica Sawyer: ‘Alabama isn’t a desert of negativity’
Jessica Bank: Find some compassion
Idrissa Snider: The meaning of pro-life
Rhonda Sivley: Valuing rights of women over unborn children a slippery slope
Lora Kay Morrow: Fighting for your destiny
Laura Campbell: The case for medical marijuana
Kelly Caldwell: Alabama women make their own opportunities
Rosemary Glass: Alabama women know conservative ways work best
Jolie Jones: Who speaks for women?
Sam McLeroy: What is considered ‘life’ in Alabama?
Leanne Potts: 5 things easier to do in Alabama than get a safe, legal abortion
Joyce Reed: Christians are not just pro-birth
Cynthia Mosteller: The true meaning of ‘pro-life'
Sherry Johnson Frazier: May women find support for one another
Shannon Morris Ferguson: I’m embarrassed to be a Southerner
Claire Farrow: This is a moral problem
Megan Cheek: We must do better, Alabama
Audri Scott-Williams: Claiming our seat at the table
Patricia Wallwork: Critical for businesses to prioritize diversity and inclusion culture
Carol Henderson: ‘I support life from conception to death’
Cheryl McWhorter Featherstone: Women fight through atmosphere of disrespect
Ashley Averett: What would I tell my future daughter?
Chanel L. Fort: ‘...we are women of war’ in Alabama
Emily Peterson: This has nothing to do with protecting life
Anna B. Johnson: ‘…women are the only ones who should have a say over their bodies’
Heather Thompson: What do our lawmakers do for the living?
Carolyn Foster: The balance of power still tilts toward men
Deborah Barros: ‘I have found my voice’
Cassandra Mickens: In 2019, we’re invisible
Dana Ellis: ’We can make progress here’
Breanna Ditterline: There’s so much potential here
Arnee Odoms: ‘How will the good-willed people respond?”
Jacqueline Gray Miller: Leave your mark
Felicia Stewart: The real way to reduce abortions
Hayley Minogue: ’I couldn’t wait to get out of Alabama’
Lynn Oldshue: The things no one wants to talk about
Sydney Duncan: This is my Alabama
Mary Anne Garner: Encouraged by young women
Taylor Stewart: ‘We must change sex ed in Alabama’
Champagne Girten: Alabama women are worth it
Jarralynne Agee: ‘I had no idea I was pregnant’
Rachel Blackmon Bryars: Is Alabama really a bad place for women?
Cat Goodrich: ’We must support each other’
Rep. Merika Coleman: We have a lot more work to do
Juandalynn Givan: ’We’re no long serving the coffee’
Robyn Hammontree: keep fighting for Alabama women
Michelle Rupe Eubanks: We persist. Why?
Soapy Jones: We show up for each other
Karin Wilson: We need equal representation
Lanier Isom: Fundamentalist law in the Heart of Dixie
Jacqueline B. Schendel: ‘I am proud of our legislators’
Valerie Mitchell: It takes character to be liberal in Alabama
Salaam Green: reproductive rights issues impact black women the most
Lacey Cencula: ‘Stop giving me the sports I.Q. test’
Carole Griffin: ’I will dare to defend my own inalienable rights’
Faya Rose Toure: All life is precious
Rene Hoover Collins: Improving life for sick kids
Tina Mozelle-Braziel: The state of women in Alabama
Catrena Norris-Carter: The more things change, the more they stay the same
Amanda Peterson Beadle: A pregnant woman decides where she stands
Tiffany Mueller: I’m not just an incubator
Amanda Sessions: Punishing victims?
Ann Eubank: how to be an independent Alabama woman
Elizabeth Lowder: Woman in a man’s world
Tabitha Crocker: Being a woman and an engineer
Rev. Terry Hamilton-Poore: Nobody is pro-abortion
Kari White: What about women’s health?
Wendy Reed: It’s not just society’s problem
Helen Rivas: I will fight ‘until my ashes are scattered’
Alex Williams: What about the less fortunate?
Heather Milam: If we care about women, don’t criminalize health care
Veronica Johnson: Jim Crow’s name has changed in AL
Kathy Jones: Progress starts at the ballot box
Erika Wade: Even though I loved Alabama, it does not always love me back
Madison Rhoads: ‘Alabama’s foster children need you to do more’
Sonya Bennett: The world of humanity has two wings
Ashley M. Jones: ’We will fight until this is no longer the status quo’
Glenny Brock: Did you know Alabama is a woman?
Maria Oswalt: Every elective abortion kills a human being
Sarah Parcak: Can Alabama rise?
Rebecca Luker: Throw the bums out
Katie Baggett: ’Women are the only ones who can make this choice’
Amy Wasyluka: Alabama will divert money to the ACLU
Hevan Lunsford: I can’t just be a mother grieving the loss of her son
Claire Aiello: ‘I feel like I have a voice here’
Brittany Howard: Women’s bodies do not belong to you
Rep. Merika Coleman: We have a lot more work to do
April Benetollo: Women are our greatest untapped resource
Yashica Robinson, my patients are complex, unique, thoughtful
Javacia Bowser: ’It’s time for desperation to become motivation’
Tera Wages, a letter to daughters of Alabama
Andrea Snyder: Women inspire me every day
Bria Randal, expand the expectations of the state of women in Alabama
Yardena Wolf, Alabama women dare defend our rights.
Beth Grisham: I made the choice to carry, I was willing to take the risk
Mary Scott Hunter: ‘My hope for our daughters is that they are fearless’
Andrea Taylor: The moment is ripe for a call to action
Lashunda Scales: Women, you possess the answers our community desperately needs
Laura Núñez: Brown women are sexualized in Alabama
Melanie Bridgeforth, Alabama is at a crossroads
Amy Edge: We are pro-abundant life
Elizabeth Nemati: ‘Devil’s way to sacrifice our babies’
Ryann Jansen: ‘This bill is too much’
Rebekah Gilbert: “Alabama likes submissive women, not opinionated women”
Kristin Kenney: ‘Alabama has over 6,000 children in foster care’
Alabama Rose: ‘This is not about sanctity of life’
Joi Minor: I feared for my daughters
Isabel Rubio: ‘I simply don’t understand’
Lee Hall: “I’m not a ‘Southern belle’”
Adrienne Jones: There are a few things that would be beneficial to women
Heather Fann: The threat all around; an education in Alabama
Tabitha Carlson Bozeman: Being a woman means getting back up
Courtney Campbell: ’Please value women better.'
Emily Dykes: I was called ‘Satan’s whore’
Lisa Borden: Hope for a day when women are treated as fully autonomous humans
Debra Nelson: We must stand up for ourselves
Tara McCook: We dare defend our rights