Five fetuses were found in a Washington, D.C. home allegedly belonging to an anti-abortion activist, according to police.
Lauren Handy, 28, is one of the leaders of the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) and describes itself as a “Catholic anarchist”.
Police said they were investigating a “potentially dangerous biological substance” when the fetuses were found.
In a separate case, Handy was indicted on Wednesday (3/30) for forcing herself into an abortion clinic in 2020.
Filmed outside the address while investigators removed items from the basement in bags and coolers. He told local news site WUSA9 that “people would panic when they knew” what was inside the seized containers.
Washington police said they could not confirm whether the house where the fetuses were found was actually Handy’s. However, two police officers told the Washington Post that the residence is the same where Handy was arrested and lived or resided in.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything criminal about that, other than how they got into this house,” Ashan Benedict, executive assistant to the Washington, D.C. Police Chief, said at a news conference.
Handy recently claimed that he “gained access” to a bank of fetal tissues and organs at the University of Washington in Seattle, but the school said nothing was taken there.
According to a separate federal indictment, Handy made an appointment at an abortion clinic, Washington Surgery Clinic, on October 22, 2020 under the name Hazel Jenkins, saying he wanted the procedure. But upon arriving, a group “forcibly stormed the clinic,” prosecutors say, and dropped a worker who had injured her ankle.
Upon indictment, Handy and eight other members of the group were charged with conspiracy to harm, suppress, threaten and intimidate patients and staff, and to violate their federal rights to seek and provide reproductive health services.
They are also accused of violating the Clinic’s Free Access to Clinic Entrances Act by using force to interfere with clinic services.
If convicted, each could face up to 11 years in prison and a fine of up to $350,000.
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