Lauren Handy | |
|---|---|
 Lauren Handy protesting capital punishment in Washington, DC | |
| Born | November 16, 1993 |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Occupation | Anti-abortion activist |
Lauren Handy (born 16 November 1993)is an American anti-abortion activist.
Lauren Handy | |
|---|---|
| Lauren Handy protesting capital punishment in Washington, DC | |
| Born | November 16, 1993 |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Occupation | Anti-abortion activist |
Lauren Handy (born 16 November 1993)is an American anti-abortion activist.
Handy grew up as a Southern Baptist. [1] Her father is a painter. [1] She was molested as a child by a non-family member. [1]
She attended Central Virginia Community College with the intent of working in a museum as an art historian. [1] [2] While there, she was both pro-life and agnostic. [2] A student at nearby Liberty University invited her to go sidewalk counseling. [2] Handy was moved by the experience of seeing women walking into the abortion facility to have abortions, and started to attend church several days a week. [2] Six weeks later she skipped her final exams, dropped out of school, sold all her belongings, and moved to California to become a full-time activist with Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust. [1] [2]
She has lived with several congregations of the Missionaries of Charity, including one in Haiti, where she worked in a hospice. [1] [2]
Handy is an anarcho-mutualist. [3]
In 2017, Handy founded Mercy Missions, a mutual aid organization. [3] Mercy Missions helps families and mothers in crisis pregnancies and provides survival aid for the homeless. [3]
Handy is currently the Director of Activism for the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising. [3] [4]
Handy has been involved with a number of activist organizations. [3] Handy has been in a leadership role of the Red Rose Rescue movement since its founding. [3] As a sidewalk counselor, Handy employs an LGBT+ inclusive message and has been to more than 100 abortion facilities in more than 32 states. [3] [2] She sometimes will surreptitiously enter a facility, leave literature about alternatives inside, and then leave. [1] As she believes abortion is an act of violence, and because she wants to interrupt the cycle of violence, Handy employs non-violent principles and tactics. [1]
Handy began entering abortion facilities to speak to pregnant women in 2013. [2] She stands outside a Washington D.C. Planned Parenthood facility three or four times a week, telling people that "there is free help available for you and your family." [1] She claims to have helped over 800 families chose to give birth rather than have an abortion. [3] [2] One abortionist sued Handy for loss of revenue after she helped 12 women find the resources they needed and the women decided not to have abortions. [2]
Handy has discovered the bodies of aborted children in dumpsters behind abortion facilities and given them proper burials. [1] [2]
She has been arrested more than 30 times during her activism. [3] [2] Charges are often dropped, or sentences suspended. [2] She purposely does not earn wages, so her wages cannot be garnished in a lawsuit. [1] She supports herself with donations and occasional graphic design jobs. [1]
Handy was convicted in of trespassing and resisting arrest for her actions at a "pink rose rescue" in Flint, Michigan. [4] She spent four days in jail. [1]
In 2021, Handy conducted a pink rose rescue at an Alexandria, Virginia, abortion facility. [4] During the rescue, she and five others entered the waiting room of the facility and handed pink roses to women who were scheduled to undergo abortions. [4] Along with the roses, the women were given information on resources available to them and their children, and information on alternatives to abortion. [4] Protesters will sometimes go limp, forcing police officers to lift their bodies onto stretchers to remove them. [1]
According to the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, five women chose not to have abortions as a result of the pink rose rescue. [4] Handy was sentenced to 30 days in prison for trespassing. [4]
On October 22, 2020, Handy and four others from the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising blocked access to a facility that performs abortions in Washington D.C. [1] [5] [6] Handy made an appointment at the facility under a fake name. [5] [6] Once inside, she and the other protesters used their bodies, chains, ropes, and furniture to block the doors. [5] [6] The protest was livestreamed on Facebook. [5]
Handy and several others were convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. [5]
On March 25, 2022, Handy and Terrisa Bukovinac were sidewalk counseling outside of Washington Surgi-Clinic in D.C. when they saw a medical waste disposal company's truck parked outside. [1] [2] They approached the driver and asked if they could give the aborted children inside the boxes a proper funeral. [2] They took the box back to Handy's apartment and, with a deacon present, opened the box with a video camera running. [2]
Inside the box they discovered 115 aborted fetuses inside, including five they believed were old enough to be viable outside the womb. [2] [5] This would mean the facility violated the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act and the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. [7] Handy and Bukovinac suspected one fetus may have been born alive and left to die outside the womb, and another was a partial-birth abortion. [2] They put the older children into the refrigerator at Handy's house while they tried to find a pathologist, and Handy temporarily moved in with Bukovinac. [2] They then contacted lawyers, priests, and other experts to determine how they should proceed. [1]
Two days later, a Catholic priest said a funeral Mass for the 115 fetuses; each was given a name that was read at the Mass. [2] [5] The bodies were then buried in a cemetery. [2]
The pair then hired a lawyer to contact the D.C. Medical Examiner. [1] [2] [5] On March 29, they asked for autopsies to be performed and homicide investigations opened. [2] That evening, Handy left her apartment door unlocked so that police could enter. [1] [2] On the morning of March 30, when Handy returned to her apartment, she was met by FBI agents and arrested. [2] Bukovinac then entered Handy's apartment and found the bodies still there. [2] The fetuses were later removed from the apartment with Bukovinac present. [5] [2]
Handy was never charged for the incident, [5] [6] but her landlord terminated her lease. [2]
Handy is a queer convert to Catholicism. [2] [3] [4] As the Catholic Church teaches that sexual acts outside of marriage are sinful, she remains celibate. [1]
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