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WASHINGTON, D.C., February 8, 2013, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Americans United for Life (AUL) on Thursday released a preview edition of their well-known guidebook of model legislation, Defending Life, as part of a special package: “Confronting Big Abortion in the 40th Year of Roe.”

AUL President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest said that the seven model bills included in the book will give lawmakers “the tools to protect women, girls and the unborn from an unregulated, unsupervised, and profit-hungry industry that consumes almost $1.5 million a day in taxpayer subsidies, diverted from hard-working American families.”

The seven pieces of model legislation crafted by AUL attorneys and included in Thursday’s preview are:

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  • The Women’s Health Protection Act, which prohibits late-term abortions based on their negative impact on women.

  • The Abortion Patients’ Enhanced Safety Act, mandating that abortion clinics – currently largely unregulated – meet medically appropriate standards of patient care and submit to regular inspections by state health officials.

  • The Abortion-Inducing Drugs Safety Act, prohibiting “telemed” abortionists from prescribing dangerous abortion drugs via Skype and other video conferencing services.

  • The Women’s Ultrasound Right to Know Act, requiring that women considering abortion receive complete and accurate information about the development of their unborn children, including ultrasound imagery.

  • The Parental Involvement Enhancement Act, designed to beef up existing parental involvement laws by adding notarization requirements, requirements for identification and proof of relationship, more stringent standards for judicial bypass proceedings, and mandates that abortion providers fully disclose and discuss abortion’s risks and alternatives with both the minor and her parents or guardians.

  • The Abortion-Mandate Opt-Out Act, enabling states to opt-out of providing insurance coverage for abortions in the state health Exchanges required by Obamacare.

  • The Healthcare Freedom of Conscience Act, which protects healthcare providers from having to prescribe medications or perform procedures that violate their consciences or religious beliefs.

“Our model legislation is specifically tailored to confront the current trends in Big Abortion’s overreach,” said Dr. Yoest. “These strategic measures protect women and girls from the harms inherent in abortion and from the increasingly predatory practices of the scandal-ridden abortion industry, empower families and individual Americans with information and life-affirming options, and ensure that pro-life Americans can exercise their conscience in opposition to the goals and agenda of Big Abortion.”

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Dr. Yoest noted that in the last two years, AUL has helped enact nearly 50 new pro-life laws in the United States, which is about a third of all pro-life legislation passed during that period. She said the group had 2,500 requests for model legislation in that same time frame, and that their legal team assisted pro-life legislative efforts in 39 states.

“We are confident that we have forward momentum carrying us into the 2013 state legislative sessions,” said Yoest. “[W]e have a tremendous tidal wave of life-affirming legislation in the pipeline for 2013.”

Dan McConchie, AUL’s Vice President of Government Affairs, reports that the group is already working with pro-life state lawmakers in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, and West Virginia on this year’s crop of pro-life legislation.

He says their next target will be Georgia.

For more information on the 2013 edition of Defending Life, soon to be released nationwide, or to read Thursday’s preview edition, click here.