The National Clinic Access Project (NCAP) assists independent clinics and physicians as well as affiliated clinics, both non-profit clinics as well as for-profit. NCAP began as the National Clinic Defense Project in 1989 by mobilizing 10,000 pro-choice volunteers in response to Operation Rescue’s threat to turn Los Angeles into the first “abortion-free city.”
About NCAP
Feminist Majority Foundation’s National Clinic Access Project, which was launched in 1989, leads efforts nationwide to reduce anti-abortion violence, to keep abortion care personnel and patients safe, to keep clinics open, and to bring violent anti-abortion extremists to justice.
The Feminist Majority Foundation has conducted periodically since 1993 a National Clinic Violence Survey, measuring anti-abortion violence and harassment. This survey is one of the most comprehensive studies of ant-abortion violence and harassment directed at clinics, patients, health care workers and volunteers in the United States and includes abortion providers of various organizational affiliations as well as independent clinics. Read more about the history of the NCAP project.
Mobilizing Community Support
NCAP sends trained teams of community organizers to targeted cities to assist local communities in mobilizing and training pro-choice volunteers to keep clinics open. Since 1989, the Project has mobilized and trained more than 60,000 community volunteers to support clinic and counter anti-abortion harassment and blockades in 54 cities in 29 states, including: Los Angeles, CA, Buffalo, NY, New York City, Houston, TX, Birmingham, AL, Little Rock, AR, Minneapolis, MN, Jackson, MS, Chicago, IL, San Diego, CA, Atlanta, GE, Wichita, KS, St. Louis, MO, Pensacola, FL, Melbourne, FL, Denver, CO, Dallas, TX, Columbus, OH, Philadelphia, PA, Charlotte, NC.
National Emergency Response Team and Clinic Survival Assistance
The Project provides direct emergency legal, security, and media assistance to besieged clinics. Our goal is to get a clinic open again as quickly as possible following a violent attack – and to send a message to anti-abortion terrorists that they will not succeed in closing even a single clinic with violence. The Project provides emergency grants and loans to install security equipment, including surveillance cameras, bullet-resistant glass, alarm systems, and bullet-proof vests.
Security Assessments and Training
The National Clinic Access Project provides on-site security assessments and provides training to clinic staff in security procedures.
Litigation Strategy and Assistance
The Feminist Majority Foundation’s legal team won a precedent-setting U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 1994, establishing the constitutional right for clinics to secure buffer safety zones. We provide pro bono legal assistance to some besieged clinics.
Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE)
We provided research and policy analysis in the development of the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), enacted in 1994. FACE is a powerful tool for protecting abortion providers and deterring those who threaten them. The Act makes it a federal crime intentionally to use “force or threat of force or by physical obstruction, intentionally injures, intimidates or interferes with or attempts to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person because that person is or has been, or in order to intimidate such person or any other person or any class of persons from, obtaining or providing reproductive health services.”
In addition to its criminal penalties, both Attorneys General of individual states and the United States Attorney General as well as those individuals and clinics impacted by prohibited activities can bring civil lawsuits to secure injunctions that prohibit those identified people from continuing their acts and to recover monetary damages.
The National Clinic Access Project has produced a FACE Act Fact Sheet where you can learn more.
Law Enforcement Communications and Briefings
We secure intervention of local, state and federal law enforcement to stop clinic violence, frequently serving as a vital communications link between clinics and law enforcement officials. Together with the National Abortion Federation and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, our Law Enforcement Briefing Project provides local and state law enforcement with the latest information on trends in anti-abortion violence and threats posed by anti-abortion extremists.
Field Research
Our National Clinic Violence Survey is the most complete measure of anti-abortion violence and trends, and is used extensively by law enforcement and the media.
Strategic Media Outreach and Public Education
Our National Clinic Access Project highlights the positive achievements that the pro-choice community has made in reducing overall violence at abortion clinics while alerting the nation to the threats these terrorists and their violence pose to our democratic values.
