Abortion Federation:

The National Abortion Federation (NAF) is an organization of abortion providers that includes practitioners in Canada and Australia as well as many European countries. According to the NAF web site, approximately half of all abortions performed in the United States and Canada are performed by NAF members.

A professional association of abortion providers, the National Abortion Federation was established in 1977 to ensure safe, legal, and accessible abortion care and promote health and justice for women. The NAF believes that every woman should be free to make an abortion decision and trust her private medical health care provider. Their work supports three fundamental aspects within their mission: providing our members with the education and professional support they need to provide the highest quality abortion care; representing and presenting the medical provider and patient perspectives in debates about abortion policies; and providing women with the resources they need to make informed decisions about their pregnancies.

The NAF holds one annual meeting to address areas of concern to abortion facilities such as political challenges, staffing, and legal issues and another to address clinical aspects of the abortion practice.

NAF specifies that, "In order to become a member, a clinic must complete a rigorous application process. Member clinics have agreed to comply with our standards for quality and care, updated annually in our Clinical Policy Guidelines, which set the evidence-based standards for abortion care in North America. NAF periodically conducts site visits to confirm that our clinics are in compliance with our guidelines." In spite of this, the NAF continues to be particularly controversial to pro-life organizations because a small number of member doctors and facilities have been involved with legal troubles such as malpractice, illegal abortions, patient death, and loss of licensure.

Program areas of interest and focus for the NAF are training and education, quality assurance and improvement, medical abortion initiative, international programs, public outreach campaigns, and residency training. The NAF also engages in a variety of other activities, including lobbying efforts, a helpline referral service to member practitioners, providing accurate medical information about abortion, non-biased options counseling and post-abortion counseling, as well as helping to fundraise for women who cannot afford the full cost of an abortion due to Medicaid restrictions.