Today the lone representative of a pro-life organization (Charmaine Yoest of Americans United for Life) will give her testimony at the Judge Sotomayor Senate confirmation hearings.

Americans United for Life (AUL) has been instrumental in doing the legal homework on Sotomayor's involvement with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF).

After the break I explain the importance of this claimed connection between Sotomayor and PRLDEF policy.

Sotomayor's involvement in PRLDEF has already come up in the hearings, as Matt Apuzzo of the Associated Press reports:

Abortion opponents saw their issue take center stage when Sen. Lindsey Graham questioned Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor about her 12-year tenure with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.

In particular, the South Carolina Republican asked Tuesday about legal briefs the group filed arguing for an expansion of abortion rights. In one of those cases, Graham said, the group claimed that denying a woman access to an abortion was a form of slavery. Sotomayor said she never read those briefs, an assertion that abortion opponents say is hard to believe

The case for Sotomayor's knowedge of PRLDEF is substantial. Most particularly:

The New York Times notes that Sotomayor "was an involved and ardent supporter of [PRLDEF's] various legal efforts."

Yoest points out, "Those efforts included no less than six briefs in five abortion-related cases before the Supreme Court -- pushing aggressively for an interpretation of abortion rights that would eliminate most or all state and federal abortion regulations while requiring state and federal funding of abortion."

While not necessarily a smoking gun tying Sotomayor to PRLDEF's activities, it is interesting to note that Sotomayor has completely passed on the opportunity to distance herself from PRLDEF's position.

AUL has also compiled a comparison chart between Judge Sotomayor and Justice David Souter, claiming that she is worse than him on life issues. Yoest summarizes the reasons for this claim in a Washington Times editorial here.