Abortion providers and pro-abortion lawmakers have long been under threat. It’s time we act like it.
Minnesota experienced an act of devastating political violence last month: Former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, were killed in their home. State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette are recovering from life-saving surgeries after shielding their adult daughter from the gunman.
While we do not yet understand the full extent of the gunman’s motives, it is undeniable that protesting abortion and intimidating people who support access to it was one of them. Authorities report the suspect carried a list of over 70 targets, including elected officials who support abortion rights, abortion providers and pro-choice advocates.
In recent years, we’ve seen attacks escalate against elected officials across the political spectrum.
However, we must recognize that Hortman, Hoffman and the other targets on the gunman’s list are uniquely vulnerable because of the way that we treat abortion: We isolate abortion from mainstream care, in law and practice; and we exclude it from insurance coverage, hospital systems and routine medical training.
Most abortions are not performed in hospitals or primary care offices, but in standalone clinics that face constant threats and burdensome regulations.
By treating abortion as unsafe and morally suspect, rather than as legitimate medicine, we further normalize hostility towards it, its providers, and the policymakers who uphold access to it.
Abortion hostility shapes how people access care. Most abortions are not performed in hospitals or primary care offices, but in standalone clinics that face constant threats and burdensome regulations. Abortion clinics face staggering rates of disruption, which we have also normalized: Clinics that provide reproductive and gendered healthcare reported over 128,000 separate incidents of picketing from 2023 to 2024 alone.
Opposition to abortion doesn’t stay contained to sidewalks or statehouses. In the years following widespread state bans that closed many clinics, abortion providers reported more than 600 cases of trespassing, nearly 300 threats of death or bodily harm, and nearly 40 cases of assault and battery.
Our cultural hostility toward abortion is also evident in state-level abortion restrictions like targeted regulations of abortion providers (TRAP laws), which selectively apply regulations unheard of in other specialties and unnecessary for keeping patients safe. As an example, imagine your family doctor needing admitting privileges at a local hospital to dispense six pills—which Indiana requires for abortion providers.
Abortion exceptionalism, and the segregated treatment of abortion care, makes it nearly impossible to gain admitting privileges in the first place. Many providers live outside the cities where they provide abortions, due to threats of violence. Yet, to gain admitting privileges, hospitals require that physicians live close to the hospital.
The other catch-22 is that to maintain admitting privileges, abortion providers must admit a minimum number of patients each year. The problem? Abortion is so safe that in-patient admissions are almost never necessary.
And while these restrictions show no evidence of improving patient safety, they are successful in forcing clinics to shut down, making it harder to access abortion.
Despite increased threats, the House Judiciary Committee recently voted to roll back the only federal law protecting access to reproductive health services, including abortion and IVF: the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. The Department of Justice under President Trump has dismissed active FACE cases and issued guidance to stop taking new cases.
Abortion Providers Deserve Protection, Not Political Abandonment
How can we change course?
First, we owe it to those on the front lines of reproductive rights work to ensure that violence does not erase their progress.
Minnesota has become a Midwest outlier in protecting abortion access. While neighboring states have imposed harsh restrictions, Minnesota has expanded protections. Hortman championed the Protect Reproductive Options Act, which codified the right to abortion in state law. Sen. Hoffman is known for his advocacy to expand healthcare rights and access. Their essential work must continue.
U.S. Congress must urgently reject the repeal of the FACE Act and compel the Department of Justice to actively enforce the law. Weakening federal protections for clinics legitimizes violence as a form of political opposition. Congress must send a clear message that violence has no place in our democracy and those who provide essential care need protection, not abandonment.
At the same time, abortion must be integrated into the healthcare system. This means lifting federal funding restrictions like the Hyde Amendment, expanding insurance coverage and reimbursement, and allowing Title X grantees to provide full-spectrum reproductive care. When abortion care is treated as normal, routine and necessary, it becomes more difficult to exclude, stigmatize and attack both patients and providers.
Ultimately, we need cultural accountability. Media narratives often present abortion as a political story, rather than a human experience disrupted by politics. Abortion misinformation and sensationalizing reinforces the idea that only some abortions are legitimate. This narrative erases the reality of most abortion seekers—who come from across the political spectrum—and deepens social stigma. Journalists and public figures must use clear, accurate and compassionate language that reflects abortion as a routine part of healthcare.
We cannot allow violence to dictate policy. If we want a country where people can decide about their bodies and futures without fear, we must act like it. That means defending those who make that freedom possible.
