Who’s Talking About It?

Here we are in 2026, an election year in Alabama, and what are our candidates talking about?  Of course, the economy is a major problem in Alabama, as well as poor healthcare, bad infrastructure, poor education systems, and the lack of enough good-paying jobs. All of these things have a big effect on Alabama women, but there is more.

Women in Alabama are more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes, have poor mental health, lung cancer, breast cancer, and heart disease mortality rates than women in the rest of the country. This is most likely related to the poor health status in Alabama, where insurance coverage is unaffordable, and Medicaid does not cover the necessary health needs, such as pap smears and mammograms.

The Republican Congress in Alabama has finally destroyed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that helped provide healthcare for women who can not afford private insurance. If you are a woman who has had breast or uterine cancer, what happens to you now if that cancer comes back? The ACA is no longer there to cover a “pre-existing illness.”  Did all of these men in the Alabama Congress not consider this when voting on this bill? Apparently not. Do women not think about these things when voting for these Republicans who are taking away their healthcare? Apparently not.

Abortion is a bad word that no one wants to say. It’s not an “electable” subject for a candidate to say, “Women deserve to have the right to choose.” The “Big Lie” about abortion is that Democrats are “baby killers.”  There has never been a bill on the floor of Congress by a Democrat to legally kill a fetus. This is a message to the voters of Alabama….Democrats support the “right for a woman to choose”.  If your religious conviction is against abortion, then that is your choice. Your choice should not be forced upon me. If you don’t like the idea of abortion, then don’t have one. As a Catholic, I have conflicting opinions about it, however if I were twelve years old and gang raped and pregnant, it would be a consideration. Our government has overstepped its place to dictate to a woman as to what she can do with her own body. Even in the cases of rape and incest, a woman in Alabama is forced to have her rapist’s baby whether she chooses to or not. The alternative is jail. Under Alabama’s current rape laws, a survivor must prove “earnest resistance” to the perpetrator, a standard seen as outdated and placing an undue burden on victims. I hate cigarettes. They stink. They cause cancer. Just because I don’t smoke, do I have the right to ban smoking and pass a law that tells a smoker that they can’t smoke or go to jail? Who’s talking about it?

Women in Alabama participate in the workforce much less often and work as managers or professionals less frequently than women in the nation as a whole. Alabama women workers earn almost 77 cents to men’s dollars for full-time, full-year work, compared with just 73 cents nationally. This could be because women in Alabama are among the least likely to have a college education and the most likely to live in poverty. There are no state-mandated paid leave, sick leave, or robust anti-sexual harassment laws for women in Alabama.

The fact that women have to spend about 40% of their income for daycare makes it harder for working mothers to survive.  Advocacy groups argue the lack of state support and opposition to Medicaid expansion contribute to economic hardship for women and children.  Who’s talking about it?

When it comes to women running for public office, Alabama has a close-minded attitude that has put women in a low percentage of representation in our State.  There is a “deeply philosophical difference” in candidate recruitment, often placing more direct focus on gender representation compared to finding the “best candidate” regardless of gender.

What is going to happen in Alabama if women do not step up and start voting for themselves in elections?  Why would any woman vote for a candidate who has never voted to pass a law to benefit them?  This is what is going on in the House of Representatives District 4 with Robert Aderholt and many other of our elected officials.

They insult us by calling us “Woke”!  No, we are not, but it’s past time to WAKE UP and see what you are voting for.  Who’s talking about it?