Lauren Handy (@repreaux) / Instagram
CV NEWS FEED // Pro-life advocate Lauren Handy has been sentenced to 57 months in prison, followed by three years of supervision for protesting the murder of late-term unborn children at a notorious abortion clinic in Washington, D.C.
“Handy, a Catholic, is a well-known pro-life voice on the political left. She was the primary organizer and leader of the peaceful protest that led to the ongoing court cases,” CatholicVote previously reported:
Last year, [Handy and her eight co-defendants] were found guilty of violating the controversial Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. They each face a sentence of up to 11 years in federal prison.
US District Court for the District of Columbia Senior Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly decided on Handy’s sentence on May 14.
Handy’s attorneys from the Thomas More Society expressed their opposition to the almost five-year-long prison sentence and stated in a news release that they would be working to appeal the decision.
Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Steve Crampton said the “57-month sentence is a miscarriage of justice, plain and simple.”
He later added, “Ms. Handy should have been shown the same mercy that she has herself shown to countless many downtrodden throughout her young life.”
In response to the sentence, Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins slammed the Department of Justice for its bias against pro-life advocates.
“After weeks of watching students & pro-terrorist activists seize and barricade themselves inside school buildings, and years of watching progressives allow squatters to take private property, a woman faces years in prison for blocking an abortion vendor door? Justice is not blind in Biden’s America – it’s biased,” Hawkins wrote. “The chaos is the point – they want this kind of anarchy.”
Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) Founder Terrisa Bukovinac also criticized the bias against pro-life advocates: “No other social justice movement in our nation has activists subject to years in federal prison for nonviolent resistance. This blatant viewpoint discrimination has incalculable consequences for babies, their parents, those who defend them.”
Along with being accused of violating the FACE Act, the co-defendants are accused of “Conspiracy Against Rights.”
In 2020, Handy and her co-defendants discovered the bodies of five later-term aborted babies outside the Washington Surgi-Clinic, operated by late-term abortionist Cesare Santangelo. After this shocking discovery, Handy organized a peaceful protest that blocked access to the clinic in October 2020.
Thomas More Society’s news release added that the discovery of these dead children, who are “known as the ‘D.C. Five,’ have underscored the truth of Ms. Handy’s concerns that abortionist Cesare Santangelo has more likely than not been violating the Born Alive Infants Protection Act by reportedly refusing to provide life-saving care to infants born alive as a result of an attempted abortion.”
On May 14, Kollar-Kotely also sentenced Handy’s 69-year-old co-defendant, John Hinshaw, to 12 months in prison. Most of the other sentences will be decided later this week.
Eight co-defendants have already served nine months in prison, and one is under house arrest. Handy’s time already served is included in the 57-month sentencing.
Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Martin Cannon said Handy and her co-defendants “conspired to be peaceful,” protesting with nonviolence.
“For her efforts to peacefully protect the lives of innocent preborn human beings, Ms. Handy deserves thanks, not a gut-wrenching prison sentence,” Cannon added. “We will vigorously pursue an appeal of Ms. Handy’s conviction and attack the root cause of this injustice, that is, the FACE Act—which we believe is unconstitutional and should never again be used to persecute peaceful pro-lifers.”
Crampton also praised Handy’s character, highlighting her commitment to pro-life work.
“As I’ve gotten to know Ms. Handy, I’ve seen up close her unwavering passion for pro-life advocacy and resolute dedication to nonviolence. The caricature of Ms. Handy that the Biden Department of Justice fabricated flies in the face of reality,” Crampton said, later concluding:
It is deeply disappointing that this Court did not see through Department of Justice’s the smoke and mirrors. But this fight is far from over, and we eagerly look forward to appealing for Ms. Handy and her co-defendants’ freedom, so that the FACE Act can never again be weaponized by the Department of Justice against its ideological opponents.
In a news release received via email, Penny Nance, the CEO and president of Concerned Women for America, called Handy’s sentence “a tragic injustice.”
Nance called for the repeal of the FACE Act, stating that “[it] is an unconstitutional breach of the states’ police power, and the Biden Administration has used it to attack political opponents most blatantly. Lauren was trying to save lives and expose this unlawful activity and has been unjustly punished. Our prayers go out to her.”
