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The ACLU of Alabama announced its 2025 Legislative priorities on Thursday, focusing on fighting for criminal legal reform, defending the right to vote, ensuring reproductive justice and protecting First Amendment rights.
The ACLU’s legislative agenda states that legislation is needed to consistently support voter registration, ensuring that all eligible citizens have easy access to register and vote.
Alabama has one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the country. In November, only 58.5 percent of registered voters in the state cast a ballot in the presidential election, the lowest rate since 1988. These statistics result from the state’s lack of early voting.
Additionally, the state should implement early voting and expand assistance for absentee ballot voters who are blind, disabled, or unable to read and write, ensuring that every voter can participate in the election process with equal accessibility.
The ACLU is also pushing for continued criminal legal reform, beginning with holding the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles and the Alabama Department of Corrections accountable for the increasingly inhumane conditions in the already exacerbated prison system. The group will also be rejecting any bills that create harsher penalties for people, regardless of immigration status.
Another push from the ACLU will be allowing incarcerated individuals to attend their parole hearings virtually. Currently, the Parole Board does not allow those seeking parole to attend their hearings.
The majority of Alabamians support the freedom to make personal healthcare decisions without interference from politicians. However, in recent years, Gov. Ivey and lawmakers have taken actions that prevent individuals from accessing reproductive healthcare. Protecting reproductive rights is essential for ensuring individual equality and autonomy.
Therefore, the ACLU is interested in legislative efforts to further ensure the right to abortion to protect the privacy and healthcare decision-making rights of every Alabamian, free from interference.
Additional support is needed for midwives and birthing centers to expand access to maternal healthcare. In 2023, the March of Dimes reported that nearly 30 percent of women in Alabama did not live within 30 miles of a birthing hospital compared to the U.S. average of just under 10 percent.
The ACLU views the right of individuals to make their own reproductive decisions as one to be guaranteed, along with presumptive eligibility for pregnant people under Medicaid to ensure necessary care. Politicians should not interfere in personal healthcare decisions, particularly when it comes to abortion, and any restrictions on medication or travel for abortion services must be rejected.
Recent actions by Alabama policymakers have challenged the First Amendment rights of residents, including limitations on peaceful assembly and efforts to restrict educators’ and students’ ability to learn and discuss topics related to race and gender.
Additionally, the ACLU rejects legislative efforts to limit classroom curricula that undermine academic freedom and deny students a full education and states that any legislation that seeks to infringe upon First Amendment rights must be opposed.
During this session, the ACLU will advocate for the rights of teachers and students to access and share diverse perspectives in the classroom. Additionally, the organization will work to ensure that librarians are not criminalized for their professional duties and to protect the rights to peaceful assembly or free speech for all Alabamians.
