Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey has signed a new bill that she says answers a simple question: What is a woman?

The bill from state Rep. Susan DuBose, R-Leeds, and Sen. April Weaver, R-Alabaster, would adjust state law to explicitly define "man," "woman," "boy," "girl," "father," "mother," "male," female" and "sex."

It cleared the legislature in Montgomery on Wednesday.

"If the Good Lord made you a boy, you’re a boy. And if He made you a girl, you’re a girl," Ivey said in a signing statement from the Capitol.

"In Alabama, we believe there are two genders: Male and female. There is nothing complicated or controversial about it."

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"Today, I was proud to officially answer the question "What is a Woman?" with my signature on Senate Bill 79. It did not take a biologist to figure it out."

In comments to Fox News Digital, Ivey said prior to the signing: "In Alabama, it does not take a biologist to answer the question: What is a woman?"

During Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing, the jurist told Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn she could not define the term "woman." "In this context – I’m not a biologist," Brown Jackson said. 

"There are only two genders: Male and female," Ivey told Fox News Digital.

The law would require the government to collect vital statistics to identify a person's sex at birth and "delete obsolete or unnecessary definitions and make nonsubstantive, technical revisions to update the existing code language to current style."

"For purposes of state law, a ‘female’ is an individual whose biological reproductive system is designed to produce ova, and a ‘male’ is an individual whose biological reproductive system is designed to fertilize the ova of a female," a draft of the bill published on a government site read.

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Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter told Fox News Digital on Thursday the Yellowhammer State is one that "refuses to back down from commonsense conservative values."

"We believe boys should play against boys and girls should play against girls. We believe that men have no business using the girls’ restroom," said Ledbetter, R-Rainsville.

Ledbetter said every human is made in the image of God and their gender is defined by Him.

"I am proud that the House has passed Rep. Susan DuBose’s ‘What Is a Woman Act’ and look forward to Governor Ivey signing it into law," he said.

DuBose told Fox News Digital she is grateful to know that her children and future generations in Alabama will not have to worry about losing opportunities to men:

"I couldn’t be more thrilled to see this bill pass the legislature," DuBose said. 

"Alabamians know what a woman is, and we have fought hard to ensure our laws do too. I am grateful to all my colleagues for their support in finally getting this bill to Governor Ivey’s desk, and I look forward to watching her sign it into law."

The bill does have its opponents, including the ACLU of Alabama.

"We oppose House Bill 405. The ‘What is a Woman’ Act seeks to answer a question that is contextualized by far more than biological gender norms that this bill seeks to codify," a statement from the group read.

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"The bill establishes a stringent assertion of the definition of a man or woman that completely cuts transgender people out of the picture. This bill attempts to place antiquated gender assumptions as a rule of law."

The group added that the legislation will make it more difficult for transgender people to "authentically" live life.

Democrats, including state Reps. Barbara Drummond of Mobile and Napoleon Bracy of Pritchard, also objected to the bill only being slated for 10 minutes of floor debate.

The Blackburn-Jackson incident and ensuing public debate also led conservative commentator Matt Walsh to produce a documentary on the matter called "What is a Woman?"

When the issue first came up in the Jackson hearing, Blackburn said the jurist being unable to give a "straight answer" about "something as fundamental as what a woman is" underscores the dangers of progressive education.

Blackburn suggested that biological male athletes should not be allowed to compete against women.

A fire chief died in Alabama after being shot and killed while trying to help a driver who struck a deer, police say. 

The Coweta County Fire Rescue in Georgia is now mourning the loss of Battalion Chief James "Bart" Cauthen, who they described as an "amazing, hard-working man with a gentle soul" who served the department for more than 24 years. The shooting unfolded Sunday afternoon. 

"Early investigation indicates that Chief Cauthen was attempting to assist individuals that had struck a deer while traveling on County Road 267," the Chambers County Sheriff's Office said. "Another individual (William Randall Franklin) that resided in the area opened fire on Chief Cauthen and the individual that struck the deer." 

"All individuals were injured during [a] shootout. Chief Cauthen succumbed to his injuries prior to deputies arriving on the scene," the Sheriff’s Office added. 

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Police say an arrest warrant for murder has been issued for Franklin, who will be taken into custody upon his release from a local medical facility.  

The motive for the shooting is unclear. 

"At this time, investigators are working to piece together the events that led to this horrific scene," the Chambers County Sheriff's Office said. 

"The deceased victim is identified as James Bartholomew Cauthen, 54 years of age from Moreland, Georgia," it added.  

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Coweta County Fire Rescue said in a Facebook post that "we have many questions as we navigate through this horrible tragedy." 

"Our hearts and prayers go out to Cauthen’s family, friends and our brothers and sisters in the Fire Rescue family who worked closely with him," it continued. "We want to thank all of the agencies who have reached out to us to offer condolences, as well as our community." 

The Chambers County Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment by Fox News Digital. 

A Mexican illegal immigrant, who was previously deported from the United States five times, has been arrested after allegedly attempting to kidnap a teenage Alabama girl in a store parking lot around 5:40 p.m. on New Year's Eve, according to officials.

Yordy Centeno Melchor, 31, is charged with second-degree attempted kidnapping and he is being held on a $100,000 bond in connection with the incident.

"It seems as if, when he got in the parking lot, he sort of coaxed the girl, who was trying to move a buggy," Elmore County Sheriff Bill Franklin told Fox News Digital. "And she was in that area or near his vehicle. But he coaxed her into coming over to the vehicle. She's a young girl. She's 17 years old."

Another man nearby apparently saw the girl "in distress" and confronted Melchor, at which point he allegedly fled the scene, and the sheriff's office issued a be-on-the-lookout (BOLO) alert for the area.

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The sheriff's office later obtained a search warrant for the suspect's phone, and in his "notes" section he had detailed "what he was going to do," Franklin said.

"He was going to give her $200, and I won't get into the intricacies of that, but he was obviously trying to coax her to get in the car," the sheriff explained.

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Officials aren't sure exactly when Melchor wrote the note, but the victim told authorities he showed it to her – possibly as a way to communicate with the girl that he was going to offer her money.

An employee at the store in Holtville where the incident happened shared video footage from the parking lot with authorities, who were able to find a license plate number for the suspect.

Days later, in a county 30 miles north of Elmore, officials stopped a vehicle matching the one at the crime scene and ran its plates, which matched the suspect vehicle. The driver, Melchor, also matched the suspect's description.

Officials were later able to positively identify the suspect and his prior deportations. They are still working to determine what led Melchor to be deported five separate times. 

Following his arrest, a local woman saw Melchor's mugshot and reported seeing a man with a similar appearance in the girl's bathroom of a Walmart. 

Melchor has ties to San Antonio, Texas, and Shelby County, Alabama. He was known to drive between those two areas visiting family, the sheriff said.

The suspect may face additional charges if authorities can identify any other victims.

Franklin described his officers as a "great group of guys" who "all have the same plight to keep Elmore County safe." He added that Elmore County is not a particularly large or small county, but officials "just don't deal with a lot of" crimes of this nature in the area.

Six states, including one with a Democratic governor, have either banned or prohibited the use of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in public colleges and universities this year.

The practice of DEI in higher educational institutions has been controversial for several years, most frequently opposed by Republicans and described by critics, such as civil rights attorney Devon Westhill, as an "industry that pushes a left-wing, far-left ideological orthodoxy in essentially every area of American life."

In 2024 alone, Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas and Utah either banned or limited the use of such teaching or use in the application process in their state's education system.

In January, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, signed legislation to prohibit institutions from engaging in "discriminatory practices" such as "that an individual, by virtue of the individual’s personal identity characteristics, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other individuals with the same personal identity characteristics." 

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The anti-DEI law also banned schools from having any policy, procedure, practice, program, office, initiative, or required training that is referred to or called "diversity, equity and inclusion."

In March, Republican Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama signed SB 129 into law. It prohibits certain DEI offices, as well as the "promotion, endorsement, and affirmation of certain divisive concepts in certain public settings."

The bill bans "divisive concepts," such as "that any individual should accept, acknowledge, affirm, or assent to a sense of guilt, complicity, or a need to apologize on the basis of his or her race, color, religion, sex, ethnicity, or national origin" and "that meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist."

The legislation also required that restrooms be used on the basis of biological sex rather than gender identity, and that public institutions of higher education "authorize certain penalties for violation."

Also in March, Indiana adopted legislation to amend the duties of state educational institutions' diversity committees and increase "intellectual diversity." Additionally, the Indiana House introduced legislation to further prohibit DEI teachings in schools by mandating that educators "shall not promote in any course certain concepts related to race or sex."

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Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, allowed legislation prohibiting postsecondary educational institutions from engaging in certain DEI-related actions to become law without her signature. The bill, passed in April, imposes a $10,000 fine on any public institution that employs DEI practices in faculty hiring or student enrollment processes.

"While I have concerns about this legislation, I don’t believe that the conduct targeted in this legislation occurs in our universities," Kelly wrote in her passage of the bill.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, another Republican, signed an education-funding bill in May that contained provisions to limit DEI in schools, just months after the state's board of education began to scale back on such practices in higher education.

The bill prohibits "any effort to promote, as the official position of the public institution of higher education, a particular, widely contested opinion referencing unconscious or implicit bias, cultural appropriation, allyship, transgender ideology, microaggressions, group marginalization, antiracism, systemic oppression, social justice, intersectionality, nee-pronouns, heteronormativity, disparate impact, gender theory, racial privilege, sexual privilege, or any related formulation of these concepts." 

Idaho became the latest state to determine that institutions may not "require specific structures or activities related to DEI."

In December, the Idaho Board of Education unanimously agreed on a resolution requiring that institutions "ensure that no central offices, policies, procedures, or initiatives are dedicated to DEI ideology" and "ensure that no employee or student is required to declare gender identity or preferred pronouns."

Other states, such as Florida, Texas and Tennessee, have all previously banned the practice of DEI in higher education.