Nearly 500 ALEC Lawmakers Have Voted to Ban Abortion

One of every three state lawmakers working to dramatically restrict abortion rights since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year is affiliated with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) reveals.

In the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in June 2022, state lawmakers across the country have been attempting to impose highly restrictive abortion laws, including some that ban abortion without exceptions for rape or incest and others that make it a crime to assist anyone seeking an abortion.

More than 1,500 state lawmakers have thrown themselves into passing these laws, as The Guardian pointed out in a recent investigation. Most of these state representatives and governors are overwhelmingly male and Republican—men “whose votes helped pass bans on abortion at conception or after six weeks, before most women know they are pregnant.”

What The Guardian didn’t mention is that nearly 500 of these lawmakers are associated with ALEC, the right-wing bill mill that works behind closed doors to support corporate interests above all else. In cross-checking CMD’s own tracking of ALEC politicians with the Guardian’s list of state lawmakers who have worked to pass anti-abortion legislation in the past year, CMD has identified 474 ALEC-affiliated lawmakers actively working to further restrict reproductive rights.

This offers yet another clear sign of ALEC’s deep—albeit covert—engagement in a campaign to curtail access to abortion. In an attempt to insulate its corporate members from public backlash, ALEC has tried to publicly distance itself from any involvement in an array of “social issues”—including abortion—in recent years.

Despite this, abortion was a hot topic at ALEC’s annual meeting last month, where participants were fed materials distributed by the country’s most notorious anti-abortion groups and invited to a reception on opening night hosted by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which supports state and national bans on abortion without any exceptions, as CMD reported.

In addition, anti-abortion activists have recently taken on new leadership roles at ALEC. Craig DeRoche, president and CEO of the Family Policy Alliance (FPA)—a right-wing Christian anti-abortion group that considers homosexuality a sin—is now the private chair of ALEC’s Criminal Justice task force, which primarily focuses on recidivism and sentencing reform. 

DeRoche, a former Michigan state representative who wrote a memoir about his struggle with alcoholism, previously worked on criminal justice issues, including federal prison reform. It is unclear whether the FPA’s involvement in the task force will have any bearing upon the criminalization of reproductive healthcare. 

Hayden Coss contributed research to this report.