Police in Washington, D.C., reportedly discovered the bodies of five fetuses at the home of an anti-abortion activist who claimed to have taken at least another 110 bodies.
The bodies were found March 30 in the home of Lauren Handy, according to Insider, but the founder and director of Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), Terrisa Bukovinac, said they took 115 fetuses after they occupied a Washington Surgi-Clinic on March 25. Handy is a self-proclaimed “Catholic anarchist” and said she took the bodies to provide them with a Catholic burial, Insider continued.
Pro-lifers protesting outside the DC medical examiner’s office tell me these models of the unborn represent the 115 babies that PAAU says it received in a cardboard box outside a local abortion clinic from the driver for a medical waste company. pic.twitter.com/aUPMYjuly8
— Katie Yoder (@k_yoder) April 8, 2022
Handy and Bukovinac found the bodies by way of a Curtis Bay Medical Waste Services truck driver, who allegedly gave them access to the remains, the Washingtonian reported. Activists from PAAU held a press conference Tuesday where they showed a video of members cutting into a Curtis Bay Energy box with a biohazard label. There they allegedly discovered the 115 fetuses, most in the earliest stages of gestation, the outlet continued.
The Curtis Bay waste management customer guide lists fetal remains as “unacceptable waste,” and that any fetal remains must be “segregated from the medical waste stream and buried or cremated,” WUSA9 reported.
Curtis Bay countered PAAU’s claims in a statement published by WUSA9, stating, “On March 25, a Curtis Bay employee took custody of three packages from the Washington Surgery Center (Washington Surgi Clinic) and delivered all of them 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 five fetuses taken by police were reportedly in the later stages of gestation and could potentially be used as evidence that the Washington Surgi-Clinic violated both the federal Partial Birth Abortion Act and the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, according to the Washingtonian. The outlet later updated its story with a statement from the clinic, which said, “for more than 45 years, Washington Surgi-Clinic has been providing safe, high-quality, confidential medical care … We comply with state and federal laws.”
The case is an ongoing investigation, but executive assistant Chief of Police Ashan Benedict said, “there doesn’t seem to be anything criminal in nature about [the fetuses] except for how they got into this house,” the Washingtonian noted.
“As stated in client agreements and company policy, customers like Washington Surgi Clinic are prohibited from disposing of fetuses and human remains via Curtis Bay’s services,” Curtis Bay said in a statement. “Curtis Bay provides its clients with medical waste bags and boxes to use in a manner that complies with applicable law, client agreements and company policy. Curtis Bay continues to fully cooperate with law enforcement.” (RELATED: Child Star Calls Out Disney For How Young Female Stars Were ‘Heavily Sexualized’)
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect that while the fetuses were reportedly discovered by police and an investigation is ongoing, no arrests have been made yet over how the fetuses got into the house.