Lauren Handy (born November 16, 1993) is an American consistent life ethic activist.
Lauren Handy | |
|---|---|
Lauren Handy protesting capital punishment in Washington, D.C. | |
| Born | November 16, 1993 |
| Nationality | American |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Occupation | Anti-abortion activist |
| Conviction(s) | Violation of Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (18 U.S.C. § 248) |
| Criminal penalty | 57 months in prison; 3 years of supervised release |
Early life
editHandy grew up as a Southern Baptist.[1] Her father is a painter.[1] She was molested as a child by a non-family member.[1]
She attended Central Virginia Community College with the intent of working in a museum as an art historian.[1][2] While there, she was both pro-life and agnostic.[2] A student at nearby Liberty University invited her to go sidewalk counseling.[2] Handy was moved by the experience of seeing women walking into the abortion facility to have abortions, and started to attend church several days a week.[2] Six weeks later she skipped her final exams, dropped out of school, sold all her belongings, and moved to California to become a full-time activist with Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust.[1][2]
She has lived with several congregations of the Missionaries of Charity, including one in Haiti, where she worked in a hospice.[1][2]
Political views
editHandy is an anarcho-mutualist.[3]
Career
editIn 2017, Handy founded Mercy Missions, a mutual aid organization.[3] Mercy Missions helps families and mothers in crisis pregnancies and provides survival aid for the homeless.[3]
Handy is currently the Director of Activism for the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising.[3][4]
Activism
editHandy has been involved with a number of activist organizations.[3] Handy has been in a leadership role of the Red Rose Rescue movement since its founding.[3] As a sidewalk counselor, Handy employs an LGBT+ inclusive message and has been to more than 100 abortion facilities in more than 32 states.[3][2] She sometimes will surreptitiously enter a facility, leave literature about alternatives inside, and then leave.[1] As she believes abortion is an act of violence, and because she wants to interrupt the cycle of violence, Handy employs non-violent principles and tactics.[1]
Handy began entering abortion facilities to speak to pregnant women in 2013.[2] She stands outside a Washington, D.C., Planned Parenthood facility three or four times a week, telling people that "there is free help available for you and your family."[1] She claims to have helped over 800 families chose to give birth rather than have an abortion.[3][2] Handy claims one abortionist sued her for loss of revenue after she helped 12 women find the resources they needed and the women decided not to have abortions.[2]
Handy has discovered the bodies of aborted children in dumpsters behind abortion facilities and given them proper burials.[1][2]
She has been arrested more than 30 times during her activism.[3][2] Charges are often dropped, or sentences suspended.[2] She purposely does not earn wages, so her wages cannot be garnished in a lawsuit.[1] She supports herself with donations and occasional graphic design jobs.[1]
2019 pink rose rescue
editHandy was convicted of trespassing and resisting arrest for her actions at a "pink rose rescue" in Flint, Michigan.[4] She spent four days in jail.[1]
2020 abortion facility blockade
editOn October 22, 2020, Handy and four others from the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising blocked access to a facility that performs abortions in Washington, D.C.[1][5][6] Handy made an appointment at the facility under a fake name.[5][6] Once inside, she and the other protesters used their bodies, chains, ropes, and furniture to block the doors.[5][6] The protest was livestreamed on Facebook.[5]
Handy and several others were convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.[5][7] On May 14, 2024, she was sentenced to 57 months in prison and three years of supervised release.[8]
2021 pink rose rescue
editIn 2021, Handy conducted a pink rose rescue at an Alexandria, Virginia, abortion facility.[4] During the rescue, she and five others entered the waiting room of the facility and handed pink roses to women who were scheduled to undergo abortions.[4] Along with the roses, the women were given information on resources available to them and their children, and information on alternatives to abortion.[4] Protesters will sometimes go limp, forcing police officers to lift their bodies onto stretchers to remove them.[1]
According to the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, five women chose not to have abortions as a result of the pink rose rescue.[4] Handy was sentenced to 30 days in prison for trespassing.[4]
2022 fetal remains incident
editOn March 25, 2022, Handy and Terrisa Bukovinac were sidewalk counseling outside of Washington Surgi-Clinic in D.C. when they saw a medical waste disposal company's truck parked outside.[1][2] They approached the driver and asked if they could give the aborted children inside the boxes a “proper funeral”.[2] They took the box back to Handy's apartment and, with a deacon present, opened the box with a video camera running.[2]
Inside the box they discovered 115 aborted fetuses, including five they believed were old enough to be viable outside of the womb.[2][5] This would mean the facility violated the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act and the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act.[9] Handy and Bukovinac suspected one fetus may have been born alive and left to die outside the womb, and another was a partial-birth abortion.[2] They put what they believed to be the older children into the refrigerator at Handy's house while they tried to find a pathologist, and Handy temporarily moved in with Bukovinac.[2] They then contacted lawyers, priests, and other experts to determine how they should proceed.[1]
Two days later, a Catholic priest said a funeral Mass for the 115 fetuses; each was given a name that was read at the Mass.[2][5] The bodies were then buried in a cemetery.[2]
The pair then hired a lawyer to contact the D.C. Medical Examiner.[1][2][5] On March 29, they asked for autopsies to be performed and homicide investigations opened.[2] That evening, Handy left her apartment door unlocked so that police could enter.[1][2] On the morning of March 30, when Handy returned to her apartment, she was met by FBI agents and arrested.[2] Bukovinac then entered Handy's apartment and found the bodies still there.[2] The fetuses were later removed from the apartment with Bukovinac present.[5][2]
Handy was never charged with a crime in relation to the incident,[5][6] but her landlord terminated her lease.[2]
Personal life
editHandy is a queer convert to Catholicism.[2][3][4] As the Catholic Church teaches that sexual acts outside of marriage are sinful, she remains celibate.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Resnick, Sofia (August 30, 2023). "Why Were There Fetuses in Her Refrigerator? How a radical abortion opponent ended up dumpster-diving for remains". The Cut.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac "Lauren Handy: 'These children were murdered'". The Pillar. April 5, 2022. Retrieved November 22, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Our Team". Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising. Retrieved November 22, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Lauren Handy jailed as pro-life 'rescue' movement returns". The Pillar. July 12, 2022. Retrieved November 22, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Patil, Anushka (August 30, 2023). "Anti-Abortion Activist Who Kept Fetuses Is Convicted in Clinic Blockade". The New York Times. Retrieved November 22, 2023.
- ^ a b c d Sherman, Carter (August 29, 2023). "US anti-abortion activist who kept fetal remains convicted of blockading clinic". The Guardian. Retrieved November 22, 2023.
- ^ "Office of Public Affairs | Six Defendants Convicted of Federal Civil Rights Conspiracy and Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act Offenses for Obstructing Access to Reproductive Health Services in Tennessee | United States Department of Justice". www.justice.gov. 30 January 2024.
- ^ Fischer, Jordan (14 May 2024). "Anti-abortion activist Lauren Handy sentenced to more than 4 years in prison for orchestrating DC clinic invasion". wusa9.com. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
- ^ "Lauren Handy Claims to Have Actually Had 115 Fetuses". Washingtonian. April 5, 2022. Archived from the original on October 26, 2023. Retrieved October 7, 2023.