Police Find 5 Fetuses In Home Of Anti-Abortion Activist In Washington D.C.
She says she knew this raid would happen "sooner or later."
Facebook Lauren Handy, director of activism for Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, was indicted earlier this week on federal charges alleging that she was part of a group of people who blocked access to a Washington, D.C., reproductive health center in 2020.
After receiving an anonymous tip about this woman who was already being investigated, police searched her home on Wednesday and uncovered something that warranted yet another investigation into the woman.
Police discovered five deceased fetuses in Lauren Handy's home in Washington, D.C.
They revealed that they had received a tip about “potential bio-hazard material” in the residence on the 400 block of 6th Street SE.
Once inside, the police located the fetuses and the remains were collected by the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, as seen by video footage from WUSA9 who was on the scene.
DC Police homicide and forensic services detectives were seen going in and out of the home with red biohazard bags and coolers from the rowhouse’s basement.
When WUSA9 asked Handy for an interview, she refused to speak on camera but said that she expected the raid would happen “sooner or later.”
When she was asked about what was inside of the coolers being brought out of her home, she declined to say, but instead said “people would freak out when they heard."
Where did the fetuses found in Lauren Handy's home come from?
investigators have not yet disclosed how or why Handy had been storing these remains.
DC Police Executive Assist. Chief of Police Ashan M. Benedict told reporters Thursday that the fetuses appeared to have been aborted in accordance with D.C. law.
"There doesn't appear to be anything criminal about that — except for how they got into that house," Benedict said.
This was also when Benedict revealed that the investigation into the fetuses and the investigation that led to her indictment earlier this week were completely separate from each other.
He declined to comment on whether the department was working with agencies in other states, saying it was "day one" of the case.
Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, the group that Handy is a part of, did not immediately respond to requests for comments but instead tweeted out that they would "address the claims surrounding the 5 deceased children found at Lauren Handy's apartment at press conference in DC."
The press conference will take place on Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. EST, but no other information was given besides “Don’t miss it.”
Handy’s anti-abortion “activism” has landed her in a world of legal issues in the past.
Her legal troubles date back to 2015 when a D.C. charter school filed a civil complaint against her for trespassing in December.
Earlier that year, she was arrested for unlawful assembly outside of that same school and in different locations in 2019 as well as in January 2022 for unlawful entry and blocking an entrance.
That case stemmed from an arrest made on Handy in 2019 at the Washington Surgi-Clinic — the same clinic in the indictment Handy now faces, except those charges were dropped for want of the prosecution.
Now, Handy is one of nine who have been indicted in the latest investigation after her group forced their way into an abortion clinic under the guise of a patient and blockaded the area — preventing anyone from coming inside to get an abortion.
The indictment charges all nine defendants with conspiracy against rights and clinic access obstruction. The first count is a felony carrying a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Follow him on Twitter here.