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State Rep. Marcus Paramore, R-Troy, talked with the Troy Exchange Club about recent state legislative issues. 

Paramore was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives in 2022. He ran unopposed in the election and serves all of Pike County and the northern part of Dale County. Paramore was assigned to the House Committees on State Government, Education Policy, Financial Services, Fiscal Responsibility, Joint Transportation and Health. 

Paramore said the 2024 session was rather contentious, with a lot of debate over pressing issues in the state. Paramore said mental health was a big issue in the 2024 session and he expected the issue to loom large when the legislature reconvenes in February 2025. 

Paramore said funding mental health was a concern because facilities were expensive to build and maintain and the cost to hire professional counselors was extremely expensive. 

Paramore said there were a lot more mental health issues now compared to 20 years ago. He said he believes drugs and alcohol played a role in some mental health issues. He said mental health would continue to be a big issue and funding mental health service was a very big concern. “You could spend billions on it,” he said. 

Paramore said another issue that would need to be looked at in the upcoming session was In Vitro Fertilization. In February 2024, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos are “extrauterine children.” The ruling established a precedent that frozen embryos were children. The ruling halted IVF treatments across the state. 

In May, the legislature passed a bill that extended criminal and civil immunity to IVF clinics for operations, which allowed IVF treatments to resume. 

“I’ve never seen the legislature ban together like it did on the In Vitro Fertilization legislation to work out a short term solution,” Paramore said. “We’re probably 75 percent of the way there. But, we need to do some more work to get to where we need to be.”

Paramore said the GOP will likely issue its planned legislative agenda just before the session starts in February 2025.