Anti-abortion activists on Tuesday claimed that five fetuses removed from a Washington apartment last week were in a box totaling 115 that the driver of a medical waste truck voluntarily took them off his dolly outside an abortion clinic.
The driver’s employer, Curtis Bay Medical Waste Services, denied their account, adding that using his services to remove fetuses violated company policy.
It was the latest twist in an investigation that went public on Wednesday, the same day that Lauren Handy, 28, an anti-abortion activist, was arrested and arrested along with eight others for illegally blocking access to an abortion clinic in Washington. in October 2020.
Aside from that federal investigation, the Metropolitan Police in Washington, DC, said they removed the five fetuses from an apartment where Ms. Handy said she lived, raising questions about where they came from and why she had them.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Ms. Handy, the director of activism at a group called Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising; Terrisa Bukovinac, the group’s founder and executive director; and Randall Terry, the founder of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, set out to answer those questions.
They claimed that Ms. Handy and Ms. Bukovinac had gone to the Washington Surgi-Clinic to protest abortions on March 25 when they encountered a driver from Curtis Bay loading boxes outside. They told him there were “dead babies” in them, they said, and asked if they would get him in trouble if they took one of the boxes.
When he asked what they planned to do with it, they promised a “decent funeral,” and he said, “Okay,” and gestured to his dolly, they said. Mrs. Handy picked up one of the boxes and took it to her apartment, she said.
The two women said a Roman Catholic priest said mass, and that they read aloud the names they gave to the fetuses before 110 of them were buried, with a priest present, in a location they did not want to reveal.
They said their attorneys then contacted Washington police to retrieve the five surviving copies, which the activists said they considered to be evidence of violations of federal laws, including the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which prohibits certain methods. prohibits terminating pregnancies from 12 weeks. †
At the press conference, they showed photos of a Curtis Bay truck and a box bearing the company’s name, as well as a graphic video of what they described as Ms. Bukovinac and Ms. Handy opening the box in the apartment.
“Pro-life Americans will not remain silent in the face of such aggressive and barbaric violence,” said Ms. Bukovinac, who identified herself as an atheist and a “leftist.”
Curtis Bay denied the activists’ claims.
“On March 25, a Curtis Bay employee took three packages into custody from the Washington Surgery Center (Washington Surgi-Clinic) and delivered them all to the Curtis Bay incinerator,” the company said in a statement. The driver did not hand over packages to the protesters or anyone else, it said. “All allegations made otherwise are false.”
The company, which said it is cooperating with law enforcement, added that its customer agreements prohibit customers from “disposing of fetuses and human remains” using its services.
The Washington Surgi-Clinic referred questions to the National Abortion Federation, which said providers adhere to state and federal laws regulating tissue handling.
“Individuals and anti-abortion groups are increasingly resorting to extreme and illegal antics to try to intimidate clinicians and patients and prevent them from seeking or providing abortion care,” Melissa Fowler, the federation’s chief program officer, said in a statement. a statement. She said the groups made false claims to encourage “medically unnecessary and politically motivated” legal restrictions to put safe and affordable abortion care out of reach.
Washington police declined to comment on the anti-abortion group’s latest claims on Tuesday, but said the case “remains under active investigation.”
The state of abortion in the US
Police said last week that five fetuses were seized on March 30 after police received a tip about “potentially biohazardous material”. They were handed over to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
At a news conference on Thursday, Ashan M. Benedict, the executive assistant chief of the police, said the investigation did not focus on the abortions, which were legal under Washington law.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything criminal going on at this point other than how they got into this house,” Chef Benedict said, “so we’ll continue to look into that.”
Last Wednesday, the Justice Department said Ms. Handy was one of nine people charged with using chairs, ropes, chains and their bodies to block access to an abortion clinic in Washington on Oct. 22, 2020, in violation of the law. Federal Freedom of Access to Clinics Act.
Court papers did not identify the clinic, but Ms. Handy and Ms. Bukovinac said it was the Washington Surgi-Clinic.
If convicted, the defendants face up to 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release and $350,000 in fines, prosecutors said.
“I don’t believe I did anything wrong,” said Ms Handy, who identified herself in an interview as a Catholic and anarchist. “We’re trying to save a baby on any given day and we’re trying to drop the chips where they can.”
