Lauren Handy

Lauren Handy
Lauren Handy protesting capital punishment in Washington, D.C.
Born	(1993-11-16) November 16, 1993
Nationality	American
Citizenship	United States
Occupation	Anti-abortion activist
Conviction(s)	Violation of Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (18 U.S.C. § 248)
Criminal penalty	57 months in prison; 3 years of supervised release

Lauren Handy (born November 16, 1993) is an American consistent life ethic activist.

Early life

Handy grew up as a Southern Baptist. Her father is a painter. She was molested as a child by a non-family member.

She attended Central Virginia Community College with the intent of working in a museum as an art historian. While there, she was both pro-life and agnostic. A student at nearby Liberty University invited her to go sidewalk counseling. 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. 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.

She has lived with several congregations of the Missionaries of Charity, including one in Haiti, where she worked in a hospice.

Political views

Handy is an anarcho-mutualist.

Career

In 2017, Handy founded Mercy Missions, a mutual aid organization. Mercy Missions helps families and mothers in crisis pregnancies and provides survival aid for the homeless.

Handy is currently the Director of Activism for the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising.

Activism

Handy has been involved with a number of activist organizations. Handy has been in a leadership role of the Red Rose Rescue movement since its founding. As a sidewalk counselor, Handy employs an LGBT+ inclusive message and has been to more than 100 abortion facilities in more than 32 states. She sometimes will surreptitiously enter a facility, leave literature about alternatives inside, and then leave. 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.

Handy began entering abortion facilities to speak to pregnant women in 2013. 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." She claims to have helped over 800 families chose to give birth rather than have an abortion. Handy claims one abortionist sued her for loss of revenue after she helped 12 women find the resources they needed and the women decided not to have abortions.

Handy has discovered the bodies of aborted children in dumpsters behind abortion facilities and given them proper burials.

She has been arrested more than 30 times during her activism. Charges are often dropped, or sentences suspended. She purposely does not earn wages, so her wages cannot be garnished in a lawsuit. She supports herself with donations and occasional graphic design jobs.

2019 pink rose rescue

Handy was convicted of trespassing and resisting arrest for her actions at a "pink rose rescue" in Flint, Michigan. She spent four days in jail.

2020 abortion facility blockade

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. Handy made an appointment at the facility under a fake name. Once inside, she and the other protesters used their bodies, chains, ropes, and furniture to block the doors. The protest was livestreamed on Facebook.

Handy and several others were convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. On May 14, 2024, she was sentenced to 57 months in prison and three years of supervised release.

2021 pink rose rescue

In 2021, Handy conducted a pink rose rescue at an Alexandria, Virginia, abortion facility. 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. Along with the roses, the women were given information on resources available to them and their children, and information on alternatives to abortion. Protesters will sometimes go limp, forcing police officers to lift their bodies onto stretchers to remove them.

According to the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, five women chose not to have abortions as a result of the pink rose rescue. Handy was sentenced to 30 days in prison for trespassing.

2022 fetal remains incident

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. They approached the driver and asked if they could give the aborted children inside the boxes a “proper funeral”. They took the box back to Handy's apartment and, with a deacon present, opened the box with a video camera running.

Inside the box they discovered 115 aborted fetuses, including five they believed were old enough to be viable outside of the womb. This would mean the facility violated the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act and the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. 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. They put what they believed to be the older children into the refrigerator at Handy's house while they tried to find a pathologist, and Handy temporarily moved in with Bukovinac. They then contacted lawyers, priests, and other experts to determine how they should proceed.

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. The bodies were then buried in a cemetery.

The pair then hired a lawyer to contact the D.C. Medical Examiner. On March 29, they asked for autopsies to be performed and homicide investigations opened. That evening, Handy left her apartment door unlocked so that police could enter. On the morning of March 30, when Handy returned to her apartment, she was met by FBI agents and arrested. Bukovinac then entered Handy's apartment and found the bodies still there. The fetuses were later removed from the apartment with Bukovinac present.

Handy was never charged with a crime in relation to the incident, but her landlord terminated her lease.

Personal life

Handy is a queer convert to Catholicism. As the Catholic Church teaches that sexual acts outside of marriage are sinful, she remains celibate.