Abortion Clinic Defense – An Intro FAQ

This page provides an introduction to abortion clinic defense and some of the common questions people have about it.

Fascist violence and harassment outside of reproductive health clinics happens on a daily basis everywhere in the United States (including in “blue” states).

Since 1977, the National Abortion Federation has documented 11 murders, 42 bombings, 196 arsons, 491 assaults, and thousands of incidents of criminal activities directed at abortion clinic patients, providers, and volunteers. The most common forms of violence clinics report include blocking access to and invasions of clinics, stalking, death threats, and bomb threats.

We believe directly confronting fascists outside of clinics and reclaiming spaces that belong to us is essential to building a movement for reproductive rights and justice.

Our first line of defense for protection of reproductive rights is community defense. We cannot rely on courts, police or legislatures to protect our fundamental rights to control our bodies and reproductive options.

Why Do Clinics Need to Be Defended?

Anti-abortion harassment targeting clinics is one of the most pervasive forms of fascist violence around today.

When abortion became legal in 1973, freestanding clinics filled a critical service gap, providing abortion services when hospitals could not—or would not—do so routinely. Today, most abortions still take place in clinics, but intense state regulation and virulent anti-abortion opposition have made them highly stigmatized and marginalized spaces. Their physical isolation makes them an easy target. Common forms of violence include blocking access to and invasions of clinics, stalking, death threats, and bomb threats.

According to the National Abortion Federation, assaults outside clinics have risen from 15 in 2018, to 123 in 2021. Stalking has increased by 600% since 2020. Invasions saw a 129% increase and bomb threats saw an 80% increase from 2021 to 2021. In 2021, 71 hoax devices or suspicious packages were reported at clinics, compared to 4 in 2018.

Antis have effectively claimed abortion clinics as their own, created a powerful narrative of shame, regret, and stigma around abortion, and radicalized new generations of right-wing misogynists who are willing to use violence. We defend clinics because we want to fight the right and win a world with free abortion on demand, without apologies.

What’s the Difference Between Clinic Escorting and Clinic Defense?

Both roles—clinic escorting and clinic defense—are intended to work together simultaneously to keep patients safe. Escorts typically volunteer directly for the clinic, and they have more of a direct service role; their primary responsibility is to shield patients from protesters and usher them safely into the clinic.

But as clinic defenders, we are responding to broader fascist threats against clinics. We believe that community defense is a tool for building the movements we need, and that ignoring fascist protesters and the threat they face will not make them go away. In our actions, we confront the fascists directly, in the tradition of clinic defenders in the 1990s who mobilized in huge numbers against the fascists and for the right to keep clinics open.

What Does a Clinic Defense Look Like? What Sorts of Tactics Do You Use?

Every clinic defense looks different depending on location, weather, and many other factors, and we are constantly adapting our tactics to those of the fascist groups we oppose.

That said, our clinic defenses are most often split into two actions:

Before Fascists Arrive at the Clinic: It’s important to understand the exterior layout of the clinic and the area directly surrounding it. As discussed in The Basics of Organizing Community Defense, this includes answering questions like:

• Is it closed in by a fence?
• Where are the entry and exit points to the building?
• Where are they in relation to parking?

Entry and exit points, including to whatever the parking situation may be like, are a prime location for fascists to set up because it means that anyone accessing the clinic has to encounter them. Knowing the details ahead of time allows you to get there first and set up a proactive defense. Of course, this depends on how many people we have on our side, the level of training everyone has had, and things like that.

At the Clinic: Some groups hold rainbow umbrellas and banners with positive messages to block the fascists and their propaganda with supportive signs and music. This approach is used to block the sight of the fascists, while keeping access to the clinic clear, so fascists are forced to stay farther away and out of sight from patients. We keep an eye out for any potential fascists approaching the clinic and are ready to block them from invading.

Though useful, clearly, this approach only works when the fascists aren’t in a position to be aggressive toward our side. Umbrellas and banners are insufficient when an armed fascist group decides that they are going to physically attempt to take over the space being otherwise occupied by our forces. This is not to discount the importance of umbrellas, banners, and music.

The fascists also win when the environment surrounding the clinic is terrifying, rather than lively, upbeat, and even fun. But a more robust diversity of tactics is required depending on the type of fascist group or groups that show up. We must be prepared for whatever make happen or our side stands to lose a great deal. We’ve lost enough and we’ve no more ground to give.

Doesn’t Clinic Defense Just Add to the Chaos?

Fascists are out there with the specific goal of making patients uncomfortable and eventually shutting all clinics down, not to mention turning people capable of getting pregnant into literal property. We won’t be able to stop this if we don’t show up and get organized like our lives depended on it…because they really do.

We’re proud to offer a positive, supportive message to patients to counteract fascist intimidation, and we make sure that someone is there to intervene when the fascists are targeting specific patients for harassment. We are sensitive to the concern that our presence could add to the chaos, and we adjust our tactics to mitigate that.

However, we know that patients will be dissuaded from accessing reproductive health services as long as the fascists go uncontested, and there’s a much greater risk in failing to confront the fascists wherever they go.

The chaos has accelerated and now threatens to engulf all of us. So we can bring a positive message to our clinic defenses, while making sure we’re successful no matter what the fascists throw at us.

Why Do You Continue Clinic Defenses when Organizations like Planned Parenthood Oppose this Strategy?

Mainstream reproductive rights organizations have promoted a purely electoral strategy and discouraged direct action (especially anything that directly confronts fascists) for many years. But mass dissent won Roe, not electoral politics, and we’ve only seen our access to abortion erode ever since. Their approaches have utterly failed. We can just agree to disagree.

Also, reproductive rights organizations aren’t a monolith. Their political strategy is handed down from the top, from boards of directors, foundation funders, etc. rather than being formed through the consensus of all of their members. This include clinic workers, whose opinions on clinic defense as a strategy really vary and are often times treated like second class citizens by the bureaucrats of the clinic non-profit industrial context. Many are happy when we show up—and many patients are, too, along with neighbors who are tired of seeing fascists go unopposed in their communities.

Finally, we are Planned Parenthood patients, abortion clinic workers, abortion doulas, and health care providers ourselves. We believe that we should have at least as much say in what the fight for abortion rights should look like as the well-paid administrators and consultants at the top of those organizations.

Doesn’t Clinic Defense Lead to a Bigger Police Presence in Front of Clinics?

It can. The fascists can be quick to call the police and the police are quick to defend them. But the bigger picture is that clinics have been highly policed and politicized spaces for years now, and that has everything to do with the right’s strategy of targeting clinics with escalating harassment and violence. We want cop-free, harassment-free clinics, and we won’t win that by staying home.