Police in Washington, D.C. have discovered five fetuses in the home of an anti-abortion activist, according to a statement the Metropolitan Police provided Rolling Stone on Thursday. On Wednesday, Mar. 30, around 12:30 pm, the statement said, police responded to a tip about “potential bio-hazard material” at a house in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. When officers arrived, they found five fetuses inside the residence.
According to local news reports, the home was occupied by anti-abortion activist Lauren Handy. Earlier this month, Handy, who founded the anti-abortion group Mercy Missions, and eight other anti-abortion activists were indicted by a grand jury after they allegedly blocked access to a D.C. abortion clinic and livestreamed it on Facebook.
Handy posed as someone named “Hazel Jenkins,” the indictment alleges, and made an appointment for reproductive health services for 9:00 am on October 22, 2020. After Handy had checked in for her appointment as “Hazel,” she and several of the other defendants allegedly stormed the entrance of the clinic, knocking over a nurse and causing her to sprain her ankle. Some of the defendants, allegedly at Handy’s direction, then blockaded the entrance to the clinic by tying chairs together and sitting in them, prosecutors claim. The defendants are charged with two counts: conspiracy against rights and obstructing access to the clinic. The conspiracy charge is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
A crew from CBS affiliate WUSA9 was outside the residence while police removed biohazard bags and coolers. The channel reported Handy did not speak on camera but told WUSA9 she had assumed the raid would happen “sooner or later.” She also told the station “people would freak out when they heard” what was in the coolers, although she declined to specify what that was.
The D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner collected the fetuses and an investigation is ongoing. The Metropolitan Police did not respond to a request for further comment or updates. Handy’s public defender did not immediately answer requests for comment.