Pro-Life Activist Sentenced To Over Four Years In Prison Over Protest At D.C. Abortion Facility

A pro-life activist was sentenced to over four years in prison for her role in a protest at a Washington, D.C., abortion facility in October 2020.

Lauren Handy was given 57 months in prison and three years of supervised release after she was convicted on charges of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and conspiracy against rights. Handy was one of five pro-life advocates prosecuted by the Biden administration after they staged a sit-in at the D.C.-based Washington Surgi-Clinic late-term abortion facility.

During the protest, the pro-life protesters sang songs, prayed, locked arms in front of the facility’s staff entrance, and attached themselves with ropes and chains to block doors inside the building.

Handy, 30, was represented by the Thomas More Society, which promised to appeal the sentence. She was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Bill Clinton appointee.

“There was only one thing around which Ms. Handy and her co-defendants were unified, and that was nonviolence,” said Thomas More Senior Counsel Martin Cannon. “They conspired to be peaceful. Yet, today, the Court granted the Biden Department of Justice its wish by sentencing Ms. Handy to 57 months — nearly 5 years in prison. For her efforts to peacefully protect the lives of innocent preborn human beings, Ms. Handy deserves thanks, not a gut-wrenching prison sentence.”

The other demonstrators convicted include John Hinshaw, 67, Heather Idoni, 61, William Goodman, 52, and Herb Geraghty, 25. Hinshaw was sentenced to 21 months in prison with the others also set to be sentenced on Tuesday.

“I am sorry to this court that it has failed in its vocation to protect its nation’s children,” Hinshaw told the court. “I stand convicted, though guiltless. I take on the guilt of this judge. Accept my love for you, judge, as expiation for your guilt.”

In March 2022, authorities were called to the home of Handy to recover the bodies of five premie-size aborted babies. Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) activists previously said that they found the box of aborted babies that was on its way from Washington Surgi Clinic to Curtis Bay Medical Waste Facility to be incinerated. The PAAU activists called police and asked for autopsies on the babies.

While D.C. authorities attempted to quickly cremate the bodies of the aborted children, the D.C. government delayed after pressure from conservative legal groups, PAAU, and Republican lawmakers. Pro-life activists are still pushing for more answers on the circumstances surrounding the aborted children.

Ten other pro-life activists are facing prison time over a protest at a Tennessee abortion facility with the Biden administration tacking on conspiracy against civil rights charges onto FACE Act charges to level steeper penalties on activists.