A progressive pro-lifer risks jail time

Pro-life activists handed over the bodies of five late-term aborted babies to the District of Columbia Medical Examiner’s office nearly three months ago. As far as they know, the babies are still at the office. The two activists, Lauren Handy and Terrisa Bukovinac, want to know if an abortionist at the Washington Surgi-Clinic killed the babies in violation of federal laws—but so far the medical examiner has provided no insight into the manner of the babies’ deaths.

In a news conference outside of the U.S. Department of Justice, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, announced to a small crowd on June 9 that an attorney for Bukovinac and Handy’s organization, the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), confirmed the medical examiner had agreed to allow a private pathologist to examine the bodies.

The outcome of that examination could affect a federal trial that Handy faces for participating in a 2020 sit-in at the same D.C. abortion facility where she and Bukovinac obtained the aborted babies from a medical waste truck. Handy, 28, has continued to protest on behalf of the unborn in the nation’s capital, but she could serve jail time for charges related to her pro-life activism in the District of Columbia, Michigan, and elsewhere.

Handy made headlines in March and April for storing the five babies in her basement apartment. The same day that local officials came to pick up the aborted babies at the request of an attorney helping Handy and Bukovinac, FBI agents arrested Handy outside of her apartment for participating in the 2020 sit-in at the Washington Surgi-Clinic.

Handy and eight other pro-lifers involved in the sit-in each face up to 11 years in prison and $350,000 in fines for conspiracy against rights and for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, a law passed in 1994 to deter pro-life activists from engaging in abortion center blockades.

According to the indictment, Handy made an appointment at the abortion facility for 9 a.m. on Oct. 22, 2020, under the name Hazel Jenkins. Once the facility opened that morning, she and seven other pro-lifers entered the waiting room and blockaded the doors with chairs. Some of them chained and roped themselves together while Handy stood at the main entrance to prevent patients from coming in. A ninth activist livestreamed the demonstration on Facebook.

Handy is a self-described “Catholic anarcho mutualist” who wants to create “trans-inclusive spaces within the pro-life movement.” She said her goal since starting pro-life activism as an 18-year-old has always been to bring back the rescue movement of the 1980s, when large groups of pro-lifers would use civil disobedience to interrupt operations at abortion facilities. Handy knew about the FACE Act and understood that the longer she participated in direct action, the more likely it became that she would be charged under federal law.

But Handy said the devastation of seeing the bodies of the aborted babies has drowned out the emotional effect of the federal charges.

“There’s not words that can truly express the devastation and tragedy of holding, you know, like literal babies in your hands who were murdered,” she said.

Since news about the babies first broke in late March, Handy and Bukovinac have participated in regular news conferences and protests, including outside of the D.C. mayor’s office, the Washington Surgi-Clinic, and the medical examiner’s office.

Handy last attended a status hearing in the federal case on June 13 and has another scheduled for Aug. 9. But she could wind up in prison mere days before that hearing.