Who is Lauren Handy? Everything we know about the anti-abortion activist found guilty of violating federal law

Lauren Handy, an anti-abortion activist, was found guilty of breaking federal law by blocking off a Washington DC abortion clinic in 2020. On Tuesday, April 20, Handy, alongside her four co-defendants, was convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), a 1990s federal law that deems it illegal to threaten or prevent someone seeking access to an abortion clinic.

Handy was indicted last year on charges stemming from an incident in 2020 in which the anti-abortion activist and eight others stormed an abortion clinic, hurting an employee and blocking people from entering the facility.

Handy and her Co-defendants were charged with conspiracy against rights and violating the US Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. Shortly after, Handy was arrested following a police raid on her home on a report that “potential biohazard material” could be inside. The raid reportedly led to the discovery of five human fetuses at Handy's house.

While no charges were filed in the fetus investigation, Handy stood trial over violating a federal law in the clinic case. During the trial, Handy’s defense attorney, Martin Cannon, the senior counsel for the prominent anti-abortion law firm, Thomas More Society, argued that his client did not violate the law by entering the clinic. In the closing argument posted on the Thomas More Society website, Cannon wrote:

“In order to be guilty of conspiracy, you can’t just plan an event. You have to have an agreement that involves breaking the law. How can we have a conspiracy to violate Face when most of the parties to the so-called agreement aren’t going to do it? They’re going to do conventional sit-in kind of stuff – just like Martin Luther King has a federal holiday for – that doesn’t necessarily break Face.”

However, during the trial, prosecutors revealed that in October 2020, Handy used a false name to book an appointment at the clinic, then physically stopped people from entering the waiting room as other defendants chained themselves together inside the clinic. According to the indictment, one of the clinic’s nurses sprained her ankle after she was pushed by a protester. A patient at the clinic testified that she had to jump through a window to get past the protesters on the day of the incident.

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Lauren Handy is the director of activism of the anti-abortion group Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising

Lauren Handy, 28, was found guilty of breaking federal law after prosecutors successfully argued that she violated the FACE Act by blockading an anti-abortion clinic.

Lauren Handy, who is the director of activism of the group Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), had become something of a celebrity in the anti-abortion circles after police found five fetuses in her home during a raid last year. Following the discovery, in an Instagram post, PAAU praised Handy as an intrepid activist and asked supporters for help to pay her legal bills. The post read:

“Due to the law enforcement presence outside her home, as well as the national coverage, Lauren has been asked to move out of her apartment. She desperately needs help covering legal fees and housing.”

PAAU website described Lauren Handy as a “Catholic anarcho mutualism credited with reviving direct action among young anti-abortion people.”

They added:

“Her outreach provides direct aid to those in need, and creates trans-inclusive spaces within the pro-life movement."

Shortly after the discovery at Handy’s home, PAAU held a press conference where Handy revealed that fetuses’ were part of over a hundred more "victims of abortion violence” that they had allegedly found in a box with a biohazard label from Curtis Bay Medical Waste Services.

In the conference, Lauren Handy claimed that she had helped baptize and bury 115 more fetuses in private cemeteries. She said:

“During the five days they were under my stewardship, 115 victims of abortion violence were given a funeral mass for unbaptised children and 110… were given a proper burial in a private cemetery.”

Lauren Handy claimed that her activism group discovered the box after they had gone to a Washington Surgi-Clinic to protest abortions and found a driver loading biohazard boxes into his truck outside the premises. The group allegedly convinced the driver to hand over the box. However, Curtis Bay Medical Waste Services has denied the allegations.

Meanwhile, after being found guilty of violating the federal law, Handy faces up to 11 years in prison and a $350,000 fine.