Alabama Eagle Forum Hosts 2025 Policy Conference

January 31, 2025–Alabama Eagle Forum hosted their annual Policy Conference at First Baptist Church of Birmingham on Friday, January 30th. National and local leaders addressed a crowd of about 140 attendees. The Conference focused on bills and issues of importance to Eagle Forum members during the upcoming legislative session.

National Eagle Forum President Kris Ullman discussed the pro-life, pro-family Executive Orders issued by President Trump in his first two weeks in office. She emphasized the need for Congress to enact legislation to codify these Orders to prevent them being reversed by a future administration.

U.S. Coast Guard Reserve Commander Theresa Hubbard (Ret.) talked about the importance of the Coast Guard in drug interdiction, border and coast security.

Heritage Foundation Senior Research Associate Emma Waters presented the current state of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and how some IVF facilities are adopting a more pro-life model.

Texas gambling expert Rob Kohler discussed Texas' experience with gambling. He presented data showing that gambling is a regressive tax which disproportionately affects lower socioeconomic classes.

Several Alabama State Representatives spoke to the Conference. Rep. Susan DuBose discussed a bill she will be introducing next week to raise the age of medical consent from 14 to 18, which would bring Alabama's age of consent in line with the majority of other states. She also shared that she has been invited to the White House for President Trump's signing of the Protecting Women's Sports bill.

Rep. Mark Gidley spoke about two bills he will be sponsoring. The first bill would restore the 10 Commandments to public schools, and the second would allow School Chaplains in schools.

Rep. Arnold Mooney spoke briefly about HB4, which would remove the Alabama Obscenity Law exception from public libraries and public school libraries. He asked that attendees contact their Representatives to express their support for the bill.

Rep. and Pharmacist Phillip Rigsby discussed the Alabama pharmacy crisis and how Patient Benefit Managers (PBMs) have come tributes to this.

Doug Simon, Director of the Florida Office of Drug Control was unable to attend, but spoke by video about issues surrounding medical marijuana. He was joined by Nurse Anesthetist Christine Carr for this discussion.

Alabama Legislative Watchdogs' Ann Eubank discussed Innovation Districts and how they threaten our freedoms and personal property rights. She pointed out that Alabama's implementation of these Districts includes significant aspects of the UN's Agenda 21.

John Allen Nichols, Agriculture Council for ALFA, spoke about ALFA's proposal to increase coverage in Alabama with a self-funded group health plan for ALFA members.

Alabama State Auditor Andrew Sorrell discussed the necessity of allowing gold and silver to be used as legal tender-"sound money"-and the need to ban political debarking.

Attorney Eric Johnson talked about abortion pills by mail and issues surrounding this practice.

Therapist Melea Stephens discussed the Safer Devices

for Kids Act, that would require cell phone companies to set device defaults to automatically block online pornography access for minors.

Alabama Eagle Forum President Eunie Smith closed out the Conference by thanking Conference leader and Eagle Forum Executive Director Becky Gerritson, and encouraged all participants to be active during the legislative session. When asked which bill she most wanted to see passed in the upcoming legislative session, Smith said,

"I would love to see the posting of the 10 Commandments bill pass the Legislature. I think that should be a no-brainer in this day when the Lemon test has been overruled. We now have the opportunity to return to our constitutional freedom of religion that we experienced until 50 years ago."

The Conference will be posted on the Alabama Eagle Forum YouTube channel soon. The schedule, speaker bios, handouts and other materials are available online at https://alabamaeagle.org/policy-conference-resources-jan-2025/.

For more information on the Alabama Eagle Forum, go to alabamaeagle.org or follow them on Facebook as Eagle Forum of Alabama.