This week, nine anti-choice activists were indicted by a grand jury on charges related to civil rights conspiracy and a violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act) for the 2020 invasion of Surgi-clinic, a reproductive healthcare clinic in Washington DC.
According to a press release from the Department of Justice, "[the defendants] forcefully entered the clinic and set about blockading two clinic doors using their bodies, furniture, chains and ropes. Once the blockade was established, [Jonathan] Darnel live-streamed footage of his co-defendants’ activities."
Said footage primarily consisted of the defendants screaming at abortion patients about how bad hell was going to be for them, especially if they died in the middle of the procedure and had no time to repent. This is highly unlikely, of course, given that abortions are one of the safest surgical medical procedures there is. There was also some unfortunate singing and some yelling about the general existence of gay men.
Each of the defendants"face up to a maximum of 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $350,000," and one of them may be looking at a bit more than that.
On Thursday, Washington DC CBS affiliate WUSA reported that after receiving a "tip" about “potential biohazard material,” DC police raided the home of one of the defendants, 28-year-old Lauren Handy, the "director of activism" for a ridiculous group called Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, and found the remains of five aborted fetuses in coolers. PAAU is a group that pretends to be progressive and even anti-capitalist, donning black nail polish and antifa aesthetics while going around trying to shut down clinics and deprive people of their reproductive rights. Cute!
Terrisa Bukovinac, the founder and executive director of the group, confirmed that the house and the coolers were Handy's, saying that the group would explain further in a press conference on Tuesday, telling The New York Times , “We are definitely going to reveal all the details on Tuesday, and they are explosive."
Sure they are.
It's actually less surprising than you'd think. Lauren Handy is also associated with another group called Red Rose Rescue, the grand dame of which is Monica Migliorino Miller, who is responsible many of the grotesque photographs of bloody fetuses (which, traditionally, were far too far along to have actually aborted) you see on the signs of abortion clinic protesters. She at one point had entire rooms of her apartment filled with fetuses she stole from Vital-Med Laboratories in Northbrook, Illinois.
Following several high-profile murders of abortion doctors and clinic workers, clinic bombings and other terrorist activities, most anti-choice activists turned their focus in recent years away from "direct action" and towards pushing for laws meant to make it more difficult to get an abortion. As horrifying as we may find these laws, they don't go far enough for people like Handy and her cohorts.
Groups like PUUA and Red Rose Rescue are part of a resurgence of the anti-choice extremist "rescue" movement, which had been popular in the '80s and '90s. Activists like Migliorino Miller and members of groups like Operation Rescue and Operation Save America would blockade entrances, fill door locks with glue and otherwise make it impossible for people to get in the clinic — the kind of activities that led to Bill Clinton signing the FACE Act into law in 1994. Of course, Operation Save America is far better known for putting out "Wanted" posters featuring pictures and home addresses of abortion doctors, several of whom would go on to be brutally murdered by life-loving zealots like Scott Roeder, who killed Dr. George Tiller in 2009.
Also making a comeback is the Christian terrorist organization Army of God — whose members included such luminaries as Olympic Park Bomber Eric Rudolph, double murderer Paul Hill, and Shelley Shannon, who served time for having attempted to murder Dr. Tiller in 1993 as well as for several bombings and acid attacks. They were also responsible for creating The Nuremberg Files, a website that listed the personal information of several abortion doctors who were later murdered.
This is not headed anywhere good.
It's not entirely clear what the punishment would be for unlawfully storing stolen fetal remains at one's residence in the District of Columbia. The punishment for stealing a dead body out of a grave "for the purpose of dissecting, buying, selling or trafficking" is imprisonment for "not less than one year nor more than three years." Whatever it is, clearly Handy and her associates have decided it's worth it for whatever big reveal they have at their press conference next week.
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RIP, D’Vontaye Mitchell. I hope some justice is coming your way.
Stolen fetuses kept in a cooler? That is one very deranged human.