(NEW YORK) — Violence against abortion providers significantly rose in 2021, according to a report from the National Abortion Federation published Friday.

The report, which measures a variety of acts of violence and disruption, found the most significant increases were in stalking, blockades, hoax devices/suspicious packages, invasions and assault and battery, compared to 2020’s findings.

Vandalism and assault and battery continue to be the most common offenses, but other acts have seen major jumps, with stalking increasing 600% from 2020, according to the report.

Overall, the new data has found increased reported incidents of anti-abortion individuals “pushing, shoving, using pepper spray against, slapping, kicking, and physically fighting clinic escorts, staff and others outside of clinics.”

Melissa Fowler, chief program officer at National Abortion Federation, said that NAF found that abortion clinics are not facing peaceful protests, but rather a “coordinated campaign” that threatens abortion providers.

“It’s really important that people understand the trends… and also the people behind those numbers,” Fowler said. “We can’t sit back and let it be socially acceptable to harass abortion providers.”

The report also draws specific attention to the Jan. 6 insurrection, as NAF has found that many of those known to commit violence and disruption against abortion clinics have also been found to have been a part of the riots at the Capitol in early 2021.

Fowler told ABC News that it was important for the organization to include those details because they feel that it is important to make people aware of the overlap in activity by “extremist groups.”

Amanda Kifferly, vice president of abortion access and clinic security director of The Women’s Centers, told ABC News that while for many Americans the behavior of insurrectionists was shocking on Jan. 6, abortion providers like herself were familiar with it.

She said that she actually looked up one of the usual protestors at her clinic on Facebook and watched as he live streamed his participation in the Capitol attack.

“We were so familiar with the tactics that we saw. The bullying, the loud noises, the militia gear, the harassing language that was used,” she said. “They are pro-violence and the words that they were saying like ‘hang people’ was very familiar.”

Fowler said the connections between anti-abortion and white supremacy groups are not new and they’ve been noted since abortion was legalized in the 1970s.

Kifferly and Dalton Johnson, the CEO of Alabama Women’s Center, said that’ve had to work to have law enforcement officials, different security providers and deescalation tactics implemented to address the violence and disruption that their clinics face.

The report also found that the pandemic affected the type of violence and disruption against abortion providers, as well as how many incidents were actually reported.

At a Thursday press call, Fowler said that many of their member facilities struggled to stay open due to regulations from the government, as well as from staffing issues. The strain of the pandemic, Fowler said, also meant that providers were not as capable of recording all incidents of harassment.

Kifferly said that she and her clinic staff experienced this, as they were “exhausted and became under more scrutiny.” Specifically, Kifferly said she and her staff had difficulty proving they were essential workers during the pandemic.

Fowler, Kifferly and Dalton all said that they don’t believe that the anti-abortion protestors that they have encountered are able or willing to have respectful conversations about the issue of abortion.

NAF reports have found acts of violence and disruption not only committed at abortion clinic sites, but also at the homes, churches and schools of the children of abortion providers.

Fowler said that NAF’s priority continues to be the safety and well-being of their providers and their patients, and working to get patients the care that they need.

The NAF has been collecting data on incidents of violence and disruption against abortion providers since 1977, according to the release.

To do so, they collect monthly reports from their member facilities and allied organizations and conduct follow-up reports.

For the 2021 report, NAF received reports from 80% of their facility members, and suspect that there is underreporting in some areas, such as picketing, hate mail and calls, hate email, internet harassment, obstruction and trespassing.

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(NEW YORK) — If you could give your child the gift of life, would you?

Pamela Bish, a Georgia mom of three, recently got the chance to do so and she immediately jumped at the opportunity. Her youngest son, Carter Bish, 2, needs a new kidney, and after multiple tests and processes, doctors finally gave her the green light to undergo the live organ donation.

Now, Pamela Bish and her son’s procedures are scheduled to go ahead on July 8.

“It’s not just about being a match. There’s other things that they have to consider,” Bish told Good Morning America.

“My vessels have to be a certain size. They had to make sure I had two kidneys. They had to make sure that I didn’t have any cysts on my kidneys. They had to make sure I don’t have high blood pressure. They have to make sure I’m not pre-diabetic,” she explained. “So there were all kinds of things that I had to go through in order to make sure that I, as a donor, could continue to be healthy and live a healthy life with only one kidney.”

She remembers the day she got the critical phone call telling her she was cleared.

“When I got that final call of, ‘I have good news. You have been approved,’ it was instant relief, and just instant peace and calm. And then, the excitement just kicked in,” Pamela Bish said.

Although Carter is only 2 years old, his health challenges began before he was even born.

“I went in for my 20-week ultrasound and the radiologist came in and they said that Carter, there was a lot of things wrong with him and he was not compatible with life, that he wouldn’t make it, he wouldn’t be able to live because I didn’t have much amniotic fluid,” Bish said. “[They said] his kidneys just looked awful. They looked just filled with cysts and a lot of fluid.”

It was devastating news for Pamela Bish and her husband, Dale Bish, who are both originally from Pittsburgh but moved to Dacula, Georgia, partway through her pregnancy with Carter. They decided to get a second opinion from doctors at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, where they were told it appeared that Carter had a urinary blockage.

“Throughout all those weeks, between weeks 20 and 30, I would have some fluid and then it would go down and Hopkins just said they wouldn’t recommend any other interventions because he does have a little bit of fluid and if he has enough to just breathe it in and develop his lungs enough, that he could make it,” Pamela Bish said.

“He would likely need dialysis and he would likely need a transplant down the road. But we just had to wait and see, and that was probably the most difficult part, carrying him knowing that we weren’t sure if we were going to have a baby to bring home or not.”

Against the odds, Carter did make it, and shortly after he was born, he was transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit at Children’s Scottish Rite Hospital in Atlanta, where he was put on a ventilator and received various treatments before he could be placed on peritoneal dialysis, a type of treatment for kidney failure, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).

Pamela Bish estimates that her son has had at least 11 surgeries, and multiple setbacks and different health issues, but her little boy has fought through them all. She describes Carter as a happy child who loves baseball and was, naturally, one for Halloween this past October.

Last year, Carter’s kidneys also improved to the point where he could even be removed from dialysis.

“He made it a year without dialysis treatment and maintaining his levels. But then things just started to get bad again. His labs started to look not so good,” Pamela Bish explained. “He could create urine but his urine was not good urine, so it wasn’t clearing his body of all the toxins.”

Carter started undergoing dialysis again but would eventually need a transplant. He also had to recover from hip surgery before he would be well enough to receive a kidney.

Now, his mother is looking forward to being the lifeline he needs and giving him a shot at what she hopes is a long life ahead of him.

“I want him to know that during the times in his life that people were telling him that his life wasn’t worth saving or keeping, that his family and his friends and the people around him never believed that for one minute,” Pamela Bish said. “They all believed that his life was worth it and that he would be OK.”

“If you would see him today, you would not know a thing is wrong with him. He is the most adorable, cutest, sweetest little guy. He never stops talking. He has won the hearts of everyone around him,” she added.

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