GUILTY

Fetus-Snatching Anti-Abortion Activist Convicted of Blockading Clinic

Police infamously found five fetuses stored in the home of Lauren Handy, described by prosecutors as the ringleader of a plot to block patients from accessing care at the clinic.

A fringe zealot who kept five fetuses in a refrigerator at her Capitol Hill home was among a group of five anti-abortion activists found guilty of breaking federal law by blockading an abortion clinic. Lauren Handy was described by prosecutors as the ringleader of a plot to impede patients from accessing care at a Washington, D.C. clinic in Oct. 2020, chaining themselves to chairs to block the treatment area. Handy and her co-defendants—John Hinshaw, Heather Idoni, William Goodman, and Herb Geraghty—were charged under the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. All face up to 11 years in prison. “They planned their crime carefully, to take over that clinic, block access to reproductive services and interfere with others’ rights,” an assistant U.S. attorney said during closing arguments last week. “The idea of deliberately breaking the law, to them, was sexy.” The fetuses were discovered by police in Handy’s home after she was indicted. She later claimed that they were among more than 100 other fetuses her group had recovered from an abortion clinic.