An abortion clinic is a medical facility that primarily performs or specializes in abortions. Such clinics may be public medical centers or private medical practices.

Abortion clinics have frequently been the site of protests by pro-life activists. Protesters often engage in sidewalk counseling, in which they warn people entering the clinic about the risks of abortion or communicate information regarding the status of fetuses.

The 2007 film Juno contains an example of protesters communicating informations about fetuses. The protagonist enters a clinic with the purpose of procuring an abortion, but sees a fellow student protesting outside the clinic who tells her that the fetus "has fingernails". This causes Juno to change her mind about having an abortion, and she leaves the clinic, with her friend calling out to her, "God appreciates your miracle."

In some countries, a buffer zone is enforced to prevent protesters from standing within a certain distance of the clinic entrance.

Abortion clinics have frequently been subject to anti-abortion violence. The New York Times cites over one hundred clinic bombings and incidents of arson, over three hundred invasions, and over four hundred incidents of vandalism between 1978 and 1993, and the National Abortion Federation, an organization of abortion providers, cites over 300 attempted or completed instances of bombing or arson, thousands of invasions and vandalism incidents, as well as other attacks, between 1977 and 2009. According to the NAF, the first instance of arson at an abortion clinic took place in March 1976 in Oregon, and the first bombing was in Ohio in February 1978. Some notable incidents are:

Kermit Barron Gosnell is an American doctor in Philadelphia who ran two multi-million dollar abortion practices, alleged to be fraudulent. After a controversy nearly a year earlier, Gosnell was arrested in January 2011, charged with eight counts of murder: one patient who allegedly died under his care after a botched abortion, and seven infants supposedly born alive whose spinal cords Gosnell allegedly severed with scissors. A grand jury recommended charges of murder against Gosnell and several of his employees.CNN stated in March 2011 that prosecutors were considering seeking the death penalty.

According to press reports, Gosnell graduated from the Jefferson Medical School in 1966, and in 1972 set up shop on Lancaster Avenue in West Philadelphia. The reports say he was well known for providing abortions to poor minority and immigrant women. He allegedly employed his wife, Pearl, at his abortion clinic, and she has since been arrested too. State officials have failed to visit or inspect his abortion clinic since 1993. It is claimed that Gosnell charged $1,600-$3,000 for each late-term abortion. Prosecutors also claim that Gosnell is not certified in either gynecology or obstetrics. The FBI and DEA raided his office in February 2010 and word quickly circulated about the poor and unsanitary conditions inside the building.

Harsh Reality are a little-known, proto-prog band formed in Stevenage, Hertfordshire in 1968 out of the remnants of the Freightliner Blues Band (formerly the Revolution). The band consisted of Mark Griffiths and Dave Jenkins on guitars, Alan Greed on lead vocals and organ, Roger Swallow on drums, and Steve Miller on bass and backing vocals. They released a single for Philips Records in 1968 ("Tobacco Ash Sunday" / "How Do You Feel") before releasing their only album, Heaven and Hell, also on Philips in 1969. A final single followed soon after, before the band split in 1969.

Their Heaven and Hell LP is now a highly-sought rarity, selling for hundreds of pounds between eager collectors. For this reason, Harsh Reality is somewhat famous/infamous in collecting circles.

Though seen as part of the proto-progressive rock era, their work represented a marriage between the sounds of Procol Harum, Traffic and early Deep Purple.^{[citation needed]}

Following the band's demise, Roger Swallow played with Principal Edwards Magic Theatre, Matthews Southern Comfort, Plainsong, Albion Country Band, and Al Stewart; before moving to California and establishing himself as an electronic musician, songwriter and entrepreneur. Alan Greed went on to work with Ray Russell on the Rock Workshop albums, and as a session singer. Greed later fronted the jazz/progressive outfit, The Running Man. A self-titled album was released in the UK on the Neon record label in 1972.

George Richard Tiller, MD (August 8, 1941 – May 31, 2009) was an American physician from Wichita, Kansas. He was the medical director of a clinic in Wichita, Women's Health Care Services, one of only three nationwide which provided abortions after the 21st week of pregnancy (known as late-term abortion).

Pro-life group Operation Rescue kept a daily vigil outside Tiller's clinic for many years: first the national group, then later a branch that moved from California to Kansas specifically to focus on Tiller. On August 19, 1993, outside of the Wichita clinic, Tiller was shot in both arms by Shelley Shannon, who received an 11-year prison sentence for the crime of attempted murder. On May 31, 2009, Tiller was shot through the eye and killed, by anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder, as Tiller served as an usher during the Sunday morning service at his church in Wichita. Roeder was convicted of murder on January 29, 2010.

George Tiller studied at the University of Kansas School of Medicine from 1963 to 1967. Shortly thereafter, he held a medical internship with United States Navy, and served as flight surgeon in Oakland, California, in 1969 and 1970. In July 1970, he planned to start a dermatology residency. However on August 21, 1970, his parents, sister and brother-in-law were killed in an aircraft accident. In her will, his sister had requested that Tiller take care of her one-year-old son. Tiller had intended to go back to Wichita, close up his father's family practice and then go back to become a dermatologist. However, he quickly felt pressure to take over his father's family practice. Tiller's father had performed abortions at his practice. After hearing about a woman who had died from an illegal abortion, Tiller stayed in Wichita to continue his father's practice.