On March 30, D.C. police made a jaw-dropping discovery inside the home of anti-abortion activist Lauren Handy: Five fetuses stored in her basement.
Handy, a leader of Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), had just been arrested by the FBI right before the police arrived, but her arrest was unrelated to the fetuses discovered by D.C. police. Rather, she had been indicted for federal civil rights violations in connection to a 2020 incident in which she and eight other activists allegedly stormed and blockaded an abortion clinic.
Handy (who was not kept in custody), PAAU founder Terrisa Bukovinac and other anti-abortion activists held a press conference on Tuesday in which they tried to explain what exactly the hell was going on. But their bizarre explanation only raised more questions.
The Story Of Where The Fetuses Came From Is All Over The Place
Take all of this with a hefty grain of salt. But to hear Handy and Bukovinac tell it, a delivery guy working for a biomedical waste company literally just handed them a box full of fetuses at an abortion clinic.
The activists claimed that on March 25, they approached a person outside the Washington Surgi-Clinic who was loading boxes into a truck belonging to Curtis Bay Medical Waste Services and asked him if they could take one of the boxes, telling him they contained fetal remains.
The Curtis Bay employee said yes, so the activists took a box, opened it a short while later and discovered 115 fetuses being held in containers and bags inside the box, Handy and Bukovinac claimed.
Five fetuses were “intact,” according to the activists, so they put those five aside and alerted the authorities of what they suspected to be illegally-performed abortions. That’s how the police found the fetuses in Handy’s basement, the activists said; they wanted the cops to find them.
But Curtis Bay flatly disputed Handy and Bukovinac’s account, saying that its employee had properly delivered all three of the packages from the clinic to Curtis Bay’s incineration facility. “At no time did the Curtis Bay employee hand over any of these packages to the PAAU or other third party, and any allegations made otherwise are false,” the company said in a statement.
Additionally, Curtis Bay stated that it has a policy against transporting fetal remains, and that customers like Washington Surgi-Clinic are “prohibited” from using the waste company’s services to dispose of said remains.
The D.C. police are currently investigating where the fetuses came from.
Activists Claim They Held A ‘Naming Ceremony’ For 100+ Fetuses They Allegedly Found
The group of activists described holding a burial and “naming ceremony” in which they claimed they named each and every one of the 115 fetuses that were allegedly in the box. 110 of them were buried by a Catholic priest, the activists said, though they refused to say where or who the priest was. The other five were the ones discovered in Handy’s home, they claimed.
The activists said they’re in the process of creating a tombstone for all the fetuses and will publicly reveal the burial site when it’s complete.
Handy Allegedly Blockaded A Clinic In 2020
While it’s bizarre this all happened on the same day, Handy’s arrest actually had nothing to do with the fetuses, per the grand jury indictment against her and eight other defendants in the case. However, both incidents do involve the Washington Surgi-Clinic.
Handy and her co-defendants are accused of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act when they allegedly shoved their way into the clinic on October 22, 2020 and set up a blockade inside the facility. They allegedly used chains and ropes to keep the doors shut and prevent staffers and a patient from entering. One staffer was allegedly injured when the group stormed the facility.
Handy pleaded not guilty to the felony charges during a court hearing on Monday. If convicted, the activist faces up to 11 years in prison and and a fine of up to $350,000.
A ‘Catholic Anarcho Mutualist’
While one might expect the activists to adhere to hardline conservative political beliefs, Handy and Bukovinac claim to be on the opposite end of the political spectrum.
Per PAAU’s website, Handy identifies as a “Catholic anarcho mutualist” who “creates trans-inclusive spaces within the pro-life movement.” Bukovinac described herself as an “atheist” and a “leftist” during the press conference on Tuesday.
And PAAU as an organization is “committed to radical inclusivity while magnifying secular, feminist, liberal, and LGBTQIA+ identifying pro-life voices, especially those belonging to people of color,” according to its website.
Conspiracy Theories Abound
The activists accused the D.C. Metropolitan Police of being “actively involved in a cover-up” of “crimes” allegedly being committed by a doctor who performs abortions at the clinic. The activists didn’t detail what exactly the crimes were, and local outlet WUSA9 found no disciplinary issues on the doctor’s official records. Additionally, D.C. Department of Health’s inspection reports on the clinic over the past five years show no compliance issues, per WUSA9.
The activists also claimed that Curtis Bay “burns” fetuses to power Baltimore’s electricity supply.
