National Abortion Federation built dossiers to track pro-life activists

The National Abortion Federation (NAF), described as "the leading national professional association for abortion providers," describes abortion as a "fundamental human right," a core belief which likely influences the organization's clinical guidelines for "abortion care" and advocacy.

In this series, Live Action News will dive deeper into NAF, its policies, connections, and guidelines.

Key Takeaways:

• The National Abortion Federation is a sought-after resource for the media regarding abortion.

• NAF took the lead in introducing mifepristone in the U.S., and early donors to NAF included the abortion pill manufacturer Danco Laboratories, LLC.

• NAF operates the largest national, toll-free, multi-lingual hotline for abortion information and abortion financial assistance in the U.S. and Canada.

• In 2021, NAF sought to hire an “Intelligence Analyst” to create “dossiers” to track pro-life activities, individuals, and groups.

• In violation of pro-lifers' First Amendment rights, these dossiers contained personally identifying information, such as addresses, photographs (including spouses and minor children), names of associates, travel plans, and even driver's license numbers.

Why It Matters:

The National Abortion Federation (NAF) is a go-to resource for the media, which often paints abortion as a safe procedure while dismissing pro-life arguments as unscientific.

NAF oversees "more than 450 facility members" that "include private and non-profit clinics, Planned Parenthood affiliates, women’s health centers, physicians’ offices, hospitals, and virtual providers in the U.S. and Canada, and public hospitals and both public and private clinics in Mexico City and private clinics in Colombia."

The organization claims to provide "accurate information" on abortion, yet simultaneously refers to abortion as fundamental, and says abortion is necessary for "a just society" in which abortion "is a basic part of health care."

The Details:

The History of NAF

NAF's longer version of its history has been removed from its website; however, an archived history at prochoice.org claims:

NAF was established when an abortion provider service organization, the National Association of Abortion Facilities (NAAF), and a professional association dedicated to standards of care and access for women, the National Abortion Council (NAC), merged in 1977.

The two independent groups were formed to serve the needs of abortion providers and women seeking abortion care following the first national symposium on abortion after Roe v. Wade, held in March 1975 in Knoxville, TN.

NAF's 30th year annual report added:

A committee was formed to plan the creation of the National Association of Abortion Facilities (NAAF)...the impetus for founding NAAF came from independent, free standing clinics who felt excluded from various national configurations of providers, notably the Pre-term and PPFA clinics.

Original members of NAC and its board were drawn from that sector and from the abortion rights organizations. National leaders urged both organizations to work toward a merger and a merger committee comprised of the leaders of both groups as well as independent voices in the field developed a merger plan whose key provision was a complex and weighted system of board membership from the various provider groups (profit, non-profit, doctor’s offices, feminist clinics, Planned Parenthood clinics).

Among the members of the merger committee were Christopher Tietze, MD, of the Population Council, Jeannie Rosoff of the Guttmacher Institute, Judy Widdicombe of Reproductive Services in Missouri (NAC), Merle Hoffman of Choices in New York (NAAF), Frances Kissling, and Joan Crowley.

Agreement was reached to call the new organization the National Abortion Federation (thus almost preserving the NAAF initials) and to adopt the NAC model of equal representation for all types of providers. The two boards voted on January 29 in Washington DC to merge and become the National Abortion Federation (NAF) and the memberships approved by mail vote.

In 2018, former and current staffers accused the organization of failing to protect employees against alleged sexual harassment. 

NAF Funding and Abortion Pill Connections

"NAF took the lead in introducing mifepristone (RU-486) in the U.S., and educating providers in its use for early abortions," the archived history at prochoice.org claimed.

Early donors to NAF included the abortion pill manufacturer Danco Laboratories, LLC, as well as The David and Lucile Packard Foundation (1998/1999, 2001), which invested heavily in Danco early on and continues to fund abortion pill studies.

Early donors also included:

• The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (2001)

• Open Society Institute

• The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation

• Zuckerman Family Fund of The Tides Foundation

Today, NAF receives millions from the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, which also granted hundreds of millions to the NAF Hotline Fund.

Buffett is a known abortion pill investor, granting additional millions in abortion training programs through the University of California.

NAF Operations

1) National Abortion Hotline

NAF operates the "largest national, toll-free, multi-lingual Hotline for abortion provider information and financial assistance in the U.S. and Canada," it writes online.

2) Clinicians in Abortion Care (CIAC)

This is described by NAF as:

[A] membership group sponsored by NAF representing certified midwives (CM), certified nurse-midwives (CNMs), nurse practitioners (NPs), physician associates (PAs), nurses, and students of those professions, working to increase access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and abortion care.

3) Clinical Policy Guidelines for Abortion Care (CPGs)

NAF states online that the organization "believes in setting the highest standards of quality abortion care," and NAF’s Clinical Policy Guidelines for Abortion Care (CPGs) are "intended to provide parameters to ensure access to the highest quality abortion care."

Tracking Pro-lifers

In 2021, Live Action News documented how NAF was seeking to hire an “Intelligence Analyst” to create “dossiers” that track pro-life activities, individuals and groups, and so-called acts of violence by “anti-choice extremists.”

According to the job posting placed on Indeed.com, NAF’s Intelligence Analyst was to “conduct research and gather intelligence on anti-abortion individuals and activities” and “work with clinic staff and local, state, and federal law enforcement officials to prevent and respond to incidents of violence and disruption at abortion clinics throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and South America.”

More recently, a Department of Justice (DOJ) report documented NAF's collaboration with the Biden administration to weaponize the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act against pro-life Americans, writing:

The Task Force Director was on texting terms with the National Abortion Federation’s (NAF) Security Team and regularly communicated with Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF)

The DOJ claimed that because NAF members "are NGOs, they can poke around on the internet in ways we can’t."

The report noted how NAF "monitored the activities and locations of pro-life activists and shared updates about their First Amendment activities with the Biden DOJ..." including:

• “Anti-choice social media posts."

• "Audio recordings."

• Dates of birth.

• Home addresses and additional personal information.

According to the Thomas More Society (TMS) analysis of the report:

Before an annual conference held by a pro-life group, NAF sent the DOJ's Task Force Director "a 137-page memorandum on the conference schedule, lodging, and multi-page dossiers on numerous 'anti-choice individuals,' including many of the pardoned defendants.

These dossiers contained personally identifying information, such as addresses, photographs (including spouses and minor children), names of associates, travel plans, and even drivers' license numbers. The FBI itself flagged this as tracking "1st Amendment protected activity, but the investigations moved forward anyway. Many of the individuals in those dossiers became Thomas More Society clients.

Live Action News previously documented:

While NAF is fixated on the conduct of “anti-choice extremists,” internally it has its own organizational sins. In 2018, NAF staffers publicly accused the abortion umbrella group of failing to address sexual harassment claims by the organization’s then security head, Mark Mellor. According to reports published by the pro-abortion RewireNewsGroup, staffers described Mellor’s behavior as “somewhat creepy,” “extremely inappropriate,” “extremely unprofessional,” and “deeply inappropriate.”

NAF members have also had their share of scandals and pro-lifers have repeatedly documented the careless way some NAF members treated abortion patients, including sexual abuse. NAF’s lax standards were also on display in the case of notorious House of Horrors abortionist Kermit Gosnell. According to the Grand Jury Report, Gosnell was allowed to work at a NAF clinic in Delaware.

And while NAF denied Gosnell’s Philadelphia abortion facility membership after it was observed that “no one was monitoring or taking vital signs of patients who were sedated during procedures,” among other serious violations, prosecutors noted that NAF failed to report the violations to authorities.

Recently, the group ReproJobs called NAF out on Twitter for a number of internal issues, including allegations of racism. 

In part two of this series, Live Action News will explore NAF's involvement in the expansion of abortion providers.