Meet ALEC's Equally Despicable Anti-Choice Cousin -- AUL

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http://www.alternet.org/story/154947/meet_alec's_equally_despicable_anti-choice_cousin_--_aul

When statehouses across the country started passing abortion bans at the seemingly arbitrary threshold of 20 weeks, was it a mere coincidence? When the "right to know" bills that required mandatory ultrasounds -- sometimes transvaginal ones -- before abortions were introduced or passed, in state after state, from Virginia to Texas to Pennsylvania, was that a matter of chance?

Of course not: none of these trends were the product of diabolical mind-sync on the part of anti-choice legislators. Instead, these bills arise from the tradition of blueprint legislation -- the practice of borrowing bill prototypes or model bills from a central national entity and then adapting them for introduction in statehouses. The practice is used on both sides of the aisle, but is particularly insidious in the case of anti-choice bills, part of the "war on women"-- the campaign to erode Roe until it's all but nonexistent.

Blueprint legislation has come to light recently thanks to the spotlight on the right-wing, corporate American Legislative Exchange Council, and in particular ALEC's hand in the proliferation of dangerous "stand your ground" laws, like Florida's, and discriminatory voter ID legislation.
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Anti-ALEC campaigns have been a huge success for progressives so far. But with the spotlight shining so strongly on ALEC, many Americans may not realize that ALEC isn't the only organization of its kind. Another group that's been responsible for plenty of alarming legislation is Americans United for Life -- ALEC's anti-choice cousin.

From the pushback against healthcare reform to the efforts to delegitimize Planned Parenthood to the late-term abortion battles of the late aughts, AUL's imprimatur is almost always there. Each year, the group puts out a publication, Defending Life, which in the group's own words, "combines our model legislation, expert analysis, and 50 state report cards into a single nonpartisan guide for legislators, policy makers, the media, and interested Americans."