This past week, pro-life activist Lauren Handy was arrested while seeking justice for potentially illegally aborted fetuses she discovered in Washington, D.C..

From WORLD. The FBI arrest of pro-life activist Lauren Handy in Washington last week—along with the police discovery of aborted baby bodies in her apartment—sparked confusion as news media reported on the situation. While a grand jury in March indicted Handy and eight other pro-life activists for engaging in a 2020 Washington abortion facility sit-in, leading to her recent arrest, the discovery of the baby remains was a separate matter and was coordinated by the pro-life activists. So far, the police department has said it does not intend to perform an autopsy on the bodies.

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Handy and fellow activist Terrisa Bukovinac told WORLD their side of the story. The chain of events began two weeks ago outside of the downtown Washington Surgi-Clinic abortion facility. According to Bukovinac and Handy, the pair arrived around noon on Friday, March 25 … As they arrived, they said, they saw a medical waste truck from Curtis Bay Energy parked outside and a driver loading boxes into the back of the truck. When Handy and Bukovinac approached him and told him there could be dead babies inside the boxes, he looked “shocked” and “disturbed,” according to the pro-life activists….

Bukovinac said she asked, “Would you get in trouble if we take one of these boxes?” The driver asked what they would do with it, and Handy told him they would make sure the babies had a proper burial, the activists said. They said the driver consented, so they took a box and returned to Handy’s apartment….

They were unable to find a priest but contacted a deacon who came to witness them opening the box. A little before 2 p.m., Bukovinac filmed on a phone while Handy with gloved hands removed the contents. Inside, they said, they found about 115 unborn babies at various stages of development: Five were well-developed, late-term babies—three still intact, two “severely dismembered.” Handy and Bukovinac decided that, before they buried the babies, they would show the bodies to a pathologist who could determine how they died. The pro-lifers suspected one had been a victim of an illegal partial-birth abortion and that others had been born alive. On March 28, a priest conducted a funeral Mass and naming ceremony for the babies…

Despite their attempts, Bukovinac said they were unable to find a pathologist after multiple days of searching. On Tuesday, March 29, they emailed a letter through attorney Steve Cooley to the homicide branch of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, requesting to arrange a pickup of the five late-term babies so the police could examine them. Bukovinac and Handy said other activists transported the other 100-plus babies to arrange a burial that night….

But on the morning of Wednesday, March 30 … They drove to Handy’s apartment to see if police had taken the babies yet and arrived a little after 9:30 a.m. Before they could enter, FBI agents arrested Handy on the sidewalk for her participation in the 2020 sit-in….

The Department of Justice filed the indictment against the nine pro-life activists on March 24, the day before Handy and Bukovinac obtained the box outside of the abortion facility. (Handy and the other indicted activists each face the possibility of more than a decade in prison if convicted of conspiracy and attempting to block access to the Washington Surgi-Clinic abortion facility during the October 2020 sit-in.)…

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported on Friday that the “city medical examiner does not plan at this time to perform autopsies on the five fetuses” obtained from Handy’s house. Executive Assistant Chief of Police Ashan Benedict said Thursday the fetuses were aborted “in accordance with D.C. law [and] there doesn’t seem to be anything criminal in nature about that except for how they got into this house….”

According to the Washington Surgi-Clinic website, the abortion facility performs abortions up to “27-plus weeks of pregnancy.” District of Columbia law doesn’t put a gestational limit on abortions, but PAAU said the babies’ killings could have violated federal law if they had been born alive and left to die or if the abortionist had partially delivered them before killing them.

How are you praying for the unborn? Share this article to raise awareness of Handy’s plight.

(Excerpt from WORLD. Photo Credit: Canva)