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

Randi Pink: A poem

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?

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