The Dangers Rise for Clinic Staffers
  May 21, 2026 Greetings, Meteor readers, I’ve been informed by my husband that everyone loves Landry Shamet right now (Knicks player, don’t worry if you’ve never heard of him). And I would just like to say that I was loving on Shamet in December!! I’m finally a trendsetter. Anyway, congratulations to the entire city of New York for how well we’re all doing in the playoffs. In today’s newsletter, violence against abortion providers is on a steady rise. Plus, farewell to Stephen Colbert and hello to E. Jean Carroll. Shamtastic, Shannon Melero  WHAT’S GOING ONAn emboldened wave of zealots: Imagine checking in several patients for their appointments at your job at an abortion clinic, only to have them begin throwing unknown liquids and powders throughout your facility—at which point you realize they are not patients at all, but undercover extremists. That’s what went down in July 2025 at the Women’s Center of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Given that the incident “happened in the space [where staffers] spend countless hours providing compassionate care,” says Amanda Kifferly, Vice President for Abortion Access, “clinic staff felt uneasy and violated.” Kifferly’s recounting of this story, along with so many others, was gathered in a new report from the National Abortion Federation (NAF), which found that since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, violence against abortion providers and disruptions at clinics have increased across the country; instances of death threats, clinic theft, and stalking doubled over just the first year of Trump’s second term. And anti-abortionists aren’t satisfied with targeting providers; they’re also going after patients more often. Incidents of obstruction—anti-abortionists physically blocking a patient’s entrance to a clinic—have quadrupled. Tracii Wesley, the head of security at Feminist Center for Reproductive Liberation in Atlanta (and the star of the Oscar-nominated short “The Devil Is Busy”) told NAF that she sees protesters block patients’ path multiple times a week, sometimes shouting “explicitly racist” rhetoric to the clinic’s mostly Black and brown patients. (The white patients, she said, receive a less hostile “We’ll pray for you.”)  A YOUNG WOMAN, WHO TRIED TO POSE AS A CLINIC ESCORT, REMAINS STATIONED OUTSIDE OF A CLINIC READING THE BIBLE ALOUD FOR THOSE TRYING TO ENTER. (VIA GETTY IMAGES) Violence against providers is certainly not new, but it’s thriving under an administration that has stopped enforcing the 1994 Freedom to Access Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, a law meant to criminalize obstruction, property damage, or threats of harm to employees of clinics and religious establishments. Rather than maintain the law, Trump claimed that the Biden administration had been overzealous in prosecuting anti-abortionists. Shortly after taking office, he pardoned known perpetrators, among them Lauren Handy (the infamous activist who stole aborted fetuses) and those same extremists who would go on to invade and vandalize the Women’s Center in Pennsylvania. NAF also notes that the newly aggressive administration brought with it “the fear of ICE raids and violence against immigrant communities, alongside a surge in hate speech and racist rhetoric”—all of which may deter patients from seeking reproductive healthcare, the report states. NAF’s numbers only cover reported instances, which means there are likely untold numbers of stories out there. As Abortion, Every Day writer Jessica Valenti points out, “We know why anti-abortion extremists are feeling so fearless.” They’ve got the president and the entire right-wing machine on their side. But providers and patients have us on their side. The Women’s Center, which has multiple locations, has a reproductive freedom ambassador program that allows volunteers to get active in supporting patients and centers. Planned Parenthood offers a patient escort program. And if neither of those are your jam, the Center for Reproductive Rights has a plethora of options on how to get involved at all levels. Anti-abortionists are working together to fulfill their mission; it’s on those of us who care to match that energy. AND:
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