Anti-Abortion Violence and Disruption is on the Rise

Tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Brittany Fonteno, President and CEO of the National Abortion Federation (NAF) and the National Abortion Hotline, sits down to talk with us about NAF’s new report, which shows a marked uptick in anti-abortion violence in the years since Roe’s overturning. 

The Roe decision came down in 1973. NAF was formed in 1977 and began tracking violence and disruption against independent abortion providers, Planned Parenthood affiliates, hospitals, and individual providers that very same year. The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act was passed on bipartisan lines in 1994 to combat harassment, violence, blockading, and threats in front of abortion clinics. But in his first few weeks in office this term, Trump pardoned nearly two dozen anti-abortion extremists and has set aside a $2 billion fund-- partly to protect those who violate the FACE Act-- from legal consequences. 

There is still in-person harassment outside of clinics, but rates of online harassment, death threats to providers, and harassment rooted in racism and xenophobia have skyrocketed in recent years. 

Transcript

Jennie 0:10

Hi rePROs, how's everybody doing? I'm your host, Jennie Wetter, and my pronouns are she/her. So, it has been hot in DC last weekend, and then it cooled off a little bit early this week, but it is getting warm again, and I forget always when I need to record the podcast episode that I need to like before I'm starting to record, turn my AC way down to cool my place way off, so that when I have to turn it off while I'm recording, I don't start roasting. I keep forgetting, and then I'm doing these interviews, and where I sit is like I get sun and it it's like at the extra warm part of my condo. So, I've been slowly roasting while I've been doing these interviews. I need to remember. I remember to turn it off, so I guess that's the upside. But the downside is that I'm slowly roasting and forgetting to cool my place off first. I need to remember to do that, you know. Add it to the list of things, right? I am very much looking forward to I have a the long weekend. I'm recording this on Thursday before this comes out because we are closed for Juneteenth on Friday, so that means I have a three-day weekend, which I'm very much looking forward to. I don't really have anything big planned. I really feel like I haven't been doing baking in a really long time, and I know I just complained about it about being hot and like forgetting to like turn my AC down. But I need to bake something this weekend. I don't know what yet. I got some carrots last week to make, and I was thinking of making carrot cake, so maybe I'll finally do that, or maybe some morning glory muffins. I don't know, but I need to do something. It it has been a while since I have done any baking, so I'm feel I'm feeling I'm feeling it. I'm feeling like I haven't done it, so it's it's like bothering me, and I keep thinking of things that maybe I'll make, but then I don't actually do it. So, I will this weekend over the three-day weekend. I will bake something. Yeah, otherwise I'm probably gonna have a fairly chill weekend. I don't have any plans to like go out or anything, but maybe I will later. But I've been working on a cross stitch project that is really coming along, so I'll probably do some work on that and do some reading. I just started Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross, but I've been really tired at night, so I haven't been able to read as much of it as I would have liked. So hopefully I can maybe finish it over the three-day weekend. That would be really nice. Yeah, so those are my big exciting plans. Nothing super exciting. I think with that, let's just turn to this week's episode. I don't really feel like I have a ton to update y'all on, but this week's episode is a really good one, and I really feel like this last series of episodes that we have put out are really in conversation together. There are parts of them that have implications for for each other. And during the interview, we talk a little bit about some of those linkages. So in this week's episode, we are going to talk about the National Abortion Federation, really just released their annual clinic violence report. So we're talking about the increase in violence that has been seen at clinics, post-Dobbs, and again in the past year in particular. So I'm so excited to have Brittany Fonteno join me with the National Abortion Federation. She is executive director there, and we talk all about their report and what they are seeing on the ground. So with that, let's go to my interview with Brittany. Hi, Brittany. Thank you so much for being here.

Brittany 3:44

Hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited for our conversation.

Jennie 3:47

Me too. Before we dive into everything, would you like to take a second and introduce yourself?

Brittany 3:53

Sure, I'd love to. So my name is Brittany Fonteno. I use she/her pronouns. I'm the President and CEO of the National Abortion Federation and the National Abortion Hotline. I've been working in repro for almost 20 years now, which is hard to believe. And this movement certainly keeps us all on our toes, and I am very excited to be here with you today.

Jennie 4:19

Me too. And it's an important day. When we release this episode, tomorrow will be the and the four-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision. And I just feel like there's like so many things going through my head as we hit four years. What are you thinking about in this moment?

Brittany 4:36

Oh my goodness. It has felt like both an eternity has passed and almost no time at all. And I have a lot of thoughts, you know. I think about just sort of the all that has been lost, but also I am, I guess, the eternal optimist, always thinking about what all could be reimagined and rebuilt. Thinking about four years ago, it felt like an impossibility in some respects. As a millennial, I have only known a world where Roe was the law of the land, and so it felt deeply painful to then be raising my daughters in a world in which they have fewer rights than I have had. I am deeply honored to be able to continue doing this work post-Dobbs and to be a part of thinking about what the next chapter of abortion rights and access could look like in this work, in this country, and beyond, really. And I think we really are looking beyond, looking at some of the tremendous gains that our partners in Latin America have had and how we can learn from them as we think about what our organizing and political and advocacy as a movement looks like going forward. And as much as I am thinking optimistically, I also am living in reality. And I know that four years post-Roe has meant people being denied access to the essential health care that they need, which results in trauma, which results in people's lives being completely reshaped. Think about the politics and this really hard moment that we're in. But I think one thing that has always been clear to me is the resilience that providers and patients have. So sort of a long-winded way to answer your question. I'm curious what you're thinking four years post-Roe.

Jennie 6:48

Yeah, I feel like the same. I have lots of conflicting thoughts, right? Like heartbreaking and rage for all of the people who are unable to access the care they need. Hopefully that while it may take time that we shouldn't have to wait, but like we are gonna build something back that's better than Roe, right? We know that Roe wasn't enough. So many people were denied access. So, hopeful for that, and then inspired by all of the amazing work that has been done on the ground and with amazing advocates and amazing clinic staff to ensure that so many people were still able to access care, even in a time where you know more bands were being put in place, but people were doing everything they could to ensure as many people as possible were able to get care. So, like all of it all at once. Absolutely, that's a great way to describe it.

Brittany 7:49

Yeah.

Jennie 7:50

So one of the things that that y'all talk about is this is violence and that we've seen an uptick of violence post-Dobbs. Maybe we should just take like a quick step back for people who are unfamiliar and talk a little bit about the history of violence and the movement.

Brittany 8:06

Absolutely. So I think that that's a really good place to start. So I think very unfortunately, as long as there has been a movement for abortion rights and access in the US, there has been violence and disruption. So looking back over the past couple of decades, the Roe decision came down, of course, in 1973. In 1977, NAF was formed, and that very same year is when the organization started tracking violence and disruption. And so each year we put out a report of what violence and disruption looks like for our members who make up a very broad and diverse category of abortion providers. We have over half of our membership are independent providers who provide a majority of abortion care in the country. We also have Planned Parenthood affiliates, hospitals, individual practitioners, and then we also have individuals and organizations that are allies to abortion providers and their patients. And so what we have found is in this past year a really concerning and disappointing uptick, quite frankly, a surge in violence and harassment for abortion providers and their patients. And so I think that this is really correlated to the political moment that we're in. In 2024, Donald Trump was elected to his second term in office, and within his first week in office, he made clear that he was going to step back protections federally for abortion providers and their patients, specifically around the FACE Act, and that he would only have his administration enforce the FACE Act in protection of providers and patients in quote unquote extreme circumstances. But we know that the FACE Act is necessary in all circumstances, and it serves a very critical purpose. So, going back to 1993, there was a couple of years of really intense violence and disruption and harassment against abortion providers and patients outside of clinics. This was a time coming out of the 80s and in the early 90s where there were large-scale blockades put together by anti-abortion extremists trying to block people from getting into clinics and blocking healthcare workers from being able to even enter their place of employment. Unfortunately, in 1993, Dr. David Gunn, who was a NAF member, was murdered outside of his clinic. That very same year, Dr. George Tiller also experienced an attempted assassination. While he did escape that particular situation, we know that years later he was murdered in his church as he was an usher. And so violence against abortion providers is something that is unfortunately deeply rooted within U.S. abortion rights and access. In 1994, following these two incidents that I just spoke about, Congress came together and passed the FACE Act, Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. And it was passed because there was just this turmoil and violence and just pure terror that was going on in front of clinics and in communities across the country. And FACE had been the law of the land and really enforced by both Democrats and Republicans. And unfortunately, we have an administration which is the most anti-abortion administration in the history of our country. And they've made it clear that political violence, including violence against abortion providers, is not just okay, not just tolerated, but encouraged and even rewarded at some points. Trump pardoned nearly two dozen anti-abortion extremists his first week in office. And I'm sure we've all seen the news about his nearly $2 billion slush fund that was put into place in part to be able to reward anti-abortion extremists and January 6th rioters, anti-abortion actors. NAF was very privileged to be able to sue the Trump administration over the creation of this fund to try to protect abortion providers and patients and really lift up how pervasive violence against them is in this very moment.

Jennie 13:06

Yeah, that is so much. All at the same time, I really remember the when George Tiller was assassinated. I had just started doing this work and remembering the ripples it really sent through the movement. And I feel like, you know, this moment, there's so much more harassment and online harassment, and so much conversation about protecting people's digital safety and making sure that people are safe. It was I looking through the report, some of the numbers from this past year I just found shocking, but like not surprising. And that's horrifying.

Brittany 13:51

I think you're absolutely right. I mean, I also remember when Dr. Tiller was murdered, and that being one moment of many that really sort of solidified for me that this was the work that I was meant to be doing. I had been really active doing organizing, sex ed, all of those sorts of things on my college campus. And then I just remember going to a vigil for him and just thinking this is there's no other work that I should be doing. And when it comes to violence and disruption, it is both deeply rooted within abortion access in the US and it's also constantly evolving. And so, they really do, uh anti-abortion extremists really do keep us on our toes in terms of making sure that we are staying up to date on the latest strategies and tactics that they're using. And one of the emerging uh strategies that you talked about was something that we saw very clearly in the data from our members in 2025, and that was really this emergence of coordinated digital harassment. I think that in previous years we saw a lot more in person in front of clinics, and that still exists. There are still many protesters, there are still many people who are outside of clinics, who are maybe doing harassment, disruption, that you know are vandalizing clinics and trying to dissuade patients from entering clinics, but we've seen a real shift to online harassment. And I think that that is very important for us to be able to talk about the fact that people are able to have a much wider impact when they're doing these digital strategies, when they are doxing providers, when they are tracking patients, when they're putting your personal information out there. For instance, we have a NAF member facility in Colorado that was putting on a sex ed camp for young people to be able to really do the work that schools should be doing of sharing evidence-based information about sexuality and bodies, etc. And when a local anti-abortion group found out, they coordinated to have over 65,000 calls and texts and online messages targeting this clinic to the point where they ended up having to shut down this essential venue for young people to learn about their sexual and reproductive health care. And I think that that is just one example of how we have seen anti-abortion extremists utilize the digital sphere to be able to attack providers and block patients from accessing care.

Jennie 16:53

And I this is one of those like so foundational, right? Like making sure that young people are getting access to information about sex education, like that is just such a basic part of what young people deserve, that it is put I don't know, this is one that made they all make me mad, but this one I was like, seriously, yeah, but that one in particular, right?

Brittany 17:18

Because it's, like, if these anti-abortion advocates and politicians, if they're really against abortion, you would think that they would be the biggest advocates for sex education and birth control and all of those things, but we know that it's really what drives them is not necessarily about abortion, it's more about power, control, enforcing their own agenda, whether that's political, moral, religious, on other people.

Jennie 17:50

Yeah, it's just one of those, like it hits near and dear to my heart. I went to Catholic school K through eight and had sex ed from a nun. So I know the importance of getting actual good sex education because that is not what I got. And I know Colorado is one of the states that doesn't mandate sex ed, so like this was really important there.

Brittany 18:10

Absolutely, so important, and you know, it is such a shame that in that case they had to shut down the sex ed offering that they were providing to the community. But one thing that I know for certain is that abortion providers are incredibly resilient, and so while that opportunity did not work out, I know that they won't stop trying to serve their community.

Jennie 18:37

Is there anything else that really stuck out to you this year?

Brittany 18:40

Yes. Well, so many things stuck out. I mean, we saw over a double increase in death threats to providers, and I think that that really is sort of reflective of this moment of political violence that we're in, where we are seeing more violence against elected officials, more violence against people who hold different beliefs and values than the perpetrator does. And I think that that is an incredibly dangerous situation for our country to be in. I think that another area that we saw really rise to the top that caught my attention, and this came more from our anecdotal conversations with our provider members, and it it was the emergence of much more racist xenophobic rhetoric when it came to anti-abortion communication with providers and patients. And so, we know that the anti-abortion movement is actually very deeply rooted in racism. That's really sort of the origins of that movement. And I think that we have, for those of us who've been doing this work for quite some time, we've seen, you know, the billboards that have said the most dangerous place for a black baby is within its mother's womb, all of these terrible things. So this is not completely new, but what we saw was I think a clear uptick and sort of a pulling at the political environment that we're in and infusing it into patient interaction. So one example that has really stuck with me is that one of our NAF member clinics in Atlanta, Georgia, this is the Feminist Center for Reproductive Liberation, their staff reported that there were protesters outside of the clinic and that there was a Latino couple that was trying to get into the clinic to access services. And the protesters stopped them and said that the clinic staff were undercover ICE agents and that they were going to detain them and potentially try to deport them. And so obviously, there are so many things that are just Yeah, way to plan people's fears. But you're exactly right that it plays into the immense fear that people have in this moment. I mean, seeing this administration come after people racially profiling them, coming after people who have legal status, people who are American citizens, but even just back to the basics of we should treat all people as humans and human beings have rights and dignity, and part of that is access to health care. The couple decided to go back home and did not receive the care that they needed on that day. And it's understandable why. And I think that it's just why this report is so incredibly important. It's because this is a pervasive issue in abortion care, and it changes many times depending on who's in office, what the broader cultural context looks like. Like. And I think that when people think about access to health care, they don't often think about safety and security as being part of that. But when it comes to abortion care and access, safety and security is critical to ensuring people can safely access the health care they need and deserve.

Jennie 22:21

This makes me think of like coincidental timing, but the episode that y'all will have heard that came out last week. For us, it's coming out tomorrow. We're talking about the pronatalist movement in the US and the rise of that globally. So like this feels very much in conversation, right? Like these are very similar about who should have children and plan their families and who shouldn't. So like very the same conversation. And also just thinking of this moment, right? Where you have activists who know the administration isn't going to charge them under the FACE Act that like just really emboldens people.

Brittany 23:05

Absolutely. And I think that, oh my goodness, so many good things that you've said, right then. Good things, but also really terrible things in the sense that I think you identified something that I've been thinking a lot about and the pronatalist movement and you know this real push for certain types of people to reproduce at higher rates, you know, thinking about the different sort of incentives that might be coming from the administration. And it's fascinating because there's a lot of interconnectedness. I talked before a little bit about the sort of racist origins of the anti-abortion movement and just, you know, the fact that so much of this push against access to abortion really is tied to a broader agenda, right? Of power and control over people's bodies and decisions. Because if you can control whether someone has children, whether they can form the family that they want, you can control the destiny of entire communities. And so at a time when we were making just really wonderful progress in terms of more equal rights, seeing how this is really being put front and center at a time when we have such immense pushback to equality and equity and justice, it really just for me sort of reinforces the intersectionality of all of these issues. And quite frankly, the fact that a lot of these people are the same. You see the same people who are outside of abortion clinics, or maybe the same ones that were right there on January 6th, are the same ones who are also Proud Boys, or the same ones who are the biggest proponents against transgender-affirming health care. And so I think it's really critical that we continue to use an intersectional lens to our work and that we don't let the current sort of pushback around DEI and inclusion and and thinking broadly about these issues, that we don't let that push back deter us from this broader mission that we have.

Jennie 25:37

Sometimes I get these really synchronous moments in podcast episodes that come out together where they're just definitely in conversation together. So yes, the the one from last week was on pronatalism, the one the week before was on Grace Howard's book, Pregnancy Police and Criminalization in pregnancy. And like, wow, talk about three episodes that are just in absolute conversation together.

Brittany 26:05

Absolutely. Well, thank you for bringing these, like serving as the convener of these really important conversations. I mean, it's all if it seems like it's all connected, that's because it is. Yeah.

Jennie 26:19

Okay, so we've talked about like it's bad. It's bad. It's bad. So what need what do we what needs to happen? Like, what do we need to make it a safer environment for not just providers and clinic staff, but for patients trying to seek care?

Brittany 26:35

Yeah, this is a great question. I think and I think it's always so important to, yes, let's talk about the issues, let's not sugarcoat the problems that our movement is facing, but let's also talk about the solutions. And I think that the important thing to remember is that first, our communities have been here before, our communities have overcome so many, actually have overcome situations that are just as bad, if not worse, before. We can do it again. We have the power and the resilience to do it. It will take time. And so when I think about what we can do going forward, I think while probably one of the biggest things is, you know, it's a midterm year. So get out and vote and vote your conscience, vote for candidates that will align with your values and beliefs and be supportive of creating the kind of country that we all want to call home. Until we're able to get out there and really have our voices heard at the ballot box, there is work that can be done locally, and I think that that is one of the most important things that we can do is being active in our communities. While there's been a step back from federal enforcement of the FACE Act, states can enforce the FACE Act civilly. So reaching out to your state representative, talking about the importance of civil enforcement and making sure that there are supportive policies on the state level for abortion providers and patients is critically important. I think being able to reach out to your local abortion fund, either volunteering or providing donations to local funds and also to local abortion clinics are a very important way that people can get involved. And I think probably one of the most critical things that we can all do is to not let up. And what I mean by that is that the further we get from the Dobbs decision, I think that the opposition wants us to feel numb and normalized to the pain and the suffering that is happening. But we can't let up and we have to fight like hell because none of us should be okay with what's going on right now. People being denied access to care, people dying because they were going through a miscarriage, and their politicians put immense fear into providers to be able to treat patients, people being forced to travel hundreds of miles to get basic health care. None of this is okay. And we should be just as appalled today, four years later, as we were when the Dobbs decision first fell. And so I would say don't let up, keep that fire in your bellies and continue to move forward.

Jennie 29:43

Absolutely. And also don't quit your rage donating if you are able to.

Brittany 29:49

Yes. If you have the capacity and the resources to be able to raid to continue rage donating, absolutely every dollar counts because it can help someone get the care that they need, and that can change someone's life.

Jennie 30:04

Well, Brittany, thank you so much for being here. It what a wonderful conversation.

Brittany 30:09

Thank you so much for having me. This has been really wonderful. Thank you.

Jennie 30:12

Okay, y'all. I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Brittany. I mean, I feel like enjoy is kind of a strong word because we're talking about clinic violence and it was a kind of bleak conversation about what we are seeing at the moment, but I thought it was an important conversation. So I hope you were able to take it all in. And with that, I will see everybody next week. If you have any questions, comments, or topics you would like us to cover, always feel free to shoot me an email. You can reach me at jennie@reprosfightback.com, or you can find us on social media. We're at rePROs Fight Back on Facebook and Twitter, or @reprosfb on Instagram. If you love our podcast and want to make sure more people find it, take the time to rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform. Or if you want to make sure to support the podcast, you can also donate on our website at reprosfightback.com. Thanks all.