{"id":3810,"date":"2022-04-03T04:49:11","date_gmt":"2022-04-03T04:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linksus.net\/d-c-medical-examiner-has-no-plans-to-autopsy-fetuses-removed-from-antiabortion-activists-home-officials-say-the-washington-post\/"},"modified":"2022-04-03T04:49:11","modified_gmt":"2022-04-03T04:49:11","slug":"d-c-medical-examiner-has-no-plans-to-autopsy-fetuses-removed-from-antiabortion-activists-home-officials-say-the-washington-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/2022\/04\/03\/d-c-medical-examiner-has-no-plans-to-autopsy-fetuses-removed-from-antiabortion-activists-home-officials-say-the-washington-post\/","title":{"rendered":"D.C. Medical Examiner has no plans to autopsy fetuses removed from antiabortion activist's home, officials say – The Washington Post"},"content":{"rendered":"

The city medical examiner does not plan at this time to perform autopsies on the five fetuses police removed from a Capitol Hill rowhouse earlier this week, according to two D.C. officials with knowledge of the case, even though the group involved in their discovery claims the fetuses were all late-term abortions performed illegally.
The fetuses were found in a basement apartment occupied by Lauren Handy, a well-known local antiabortion protester and director of activism for Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising.
PAAU said in a statement Thursday evening that it received the fetuses from a \u201cwhistleblower\u201d who worked at Washington Surgi-Clinic, a D.C. abortion clinic, and had arranged for police to pick them up because they believe the fetuses were aborted illegally.
The clinic declined to comment, but its website says it performs abortions up to 27 weeks of pregnancy, which is at the very end of the second trimester.
Handy and other members of her group scheduled a news conference Tuesday where they said they would share <\/b>details.
Ashan Benedict, D.C. police\u2019s executive assistant chief of police, told reporters Thursday that the fetuses appeared to have been aborted \u201cin accordance with D.C. law [and] there doesn\u2019t seem to be anything criminal in nature about that except for how they got into this house.\u201d
On Friday, D.C. police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck said the matter \u201cremains an ongoing investigation.\u201d He said, \u201cWhile there are still a number of questions, we can\u2019t provide details at this point.\u201d He said the origin of the fetuses also remains part of that inquiry. Sternbeck said D.C. police have not filed any charges or made any arrests in regards to the found fetuses.
Officials with the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner declined to comment about the case.
Two D.C. officials with knowledge of the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity since they are not permitted to discuss an ongoing investigation, said the decision not to perform autopsies could change if they receive additional information.
Randall Terry, a longtime national antiabortion leader working with Handy\u2019s group, said the activists don\u2019t know the circumstances of the pregnancies that ended in abortions, but he said that graphic images of fetuses circulating on social media Friday night were the remains taken from Washington Surgi-Clinic. D.C. police and other officials declined to comment on whether the pictures on social media are of the fetuses taken from the residence.
D.C. and seven states do not have specific laws prohibiting abortion after a certain point in pregnancy. Terry said the activists want an investigation of whether the clinic violated federal law, which restricts when a procedure known as \u201cintact dilation and extraction\u201d can be performed and extends legal rights to fetuses that survive abortions.
Plain-clothed officers discovered the fetuses Wednesday when they entered a rowhouse on 6th Street SE to investigate what police described as \u201ca tip regarding potential biohazard material at the location.\u201d
5 fetuses found in D.C. home of woman charged in abortion clinic blockade<\/a><\/span>
Around the same time that police were swarming the quiet residential side street, federal authorities announced the indictment of Handy and eight other people in a 2020 blockade of an abortion clinic with chain and rope. They face federal civil rights counts connected with the incident at the Washington Surgi-Clinic. Included in the statement<\/a> PAAU released Thursday was a March 30 letter from a California attorney to D.C. officials, saying \u201can entity\u201d had \u201ccome into possession\u201d of fetuses \u2014 the number in the statement was blacked out \u2014 and wanted \u201cto advise appropriate authorities \u2026 and request an investigation and forensic examinations.\u201d
The discovery of the fetuses has drawn attention to Handy, who appears to have documented her life protesting outside abortion clinics and research centers across the country on social media.
In Facebook posts, the 28-year-old said she is a native of Gloucester, Va., who dropped out of college about 10 years ago to become an antiabortion activist full time. In recent years, Handy has been a regular presence outside the Planned Parenthood clinic in Northeast Washington, where she tries to dissuade people from getting an abortion. She has also protested multiple times outside a clinic in Baton Rouge, where she said she settled in 2018 before returning to Washington recently. She\u2019s been arrested at protests multiple times, including once in the District and once in Silver Spring, court records show. Attorneys who represented Handy in those cases did not return messages seeking comment.
On Facebook, she has also posted pleas for money and other assistance for women she said have decided not to have abortions. \u201cSetting up for Momma T\u2019s baby shower!!\u201d reads one post dated Feb. 20, 2021. \u201cSocially distanced. Creative and cute. Baby and mom thriving.\u201d
Another longtime D.C.-area antiabortion activist, the Rev. Pat Mahoney, said Handy was being unfairly vilified. She and the group somewhat randomly came into possession of fetuses from Surgi-Center, he said.
\u201cI feel this story has turned into the accusation that Handy is somehow this creepy person who is keeping fetuses in her basement. And it\u2019s nothing like that,\u201d he said. As far as the police coming to Handy\u2019s home, \u201cthis wasn\u2019t a random search or tips from some strange person but a coordinated, planned event.\u201d
He said the fetuses were only found last week at the clinic and that perhaps the group had inadvertently fumbled their interaction with law enforcement on turning the remains over.
In the group\u2019s Thursday statement, it said the fetuses had each had a \u201cfuneral Mass and \u2018naming ceremony\u2019 \u2026 with their bodies present.\u201d
Most of the country\u2019s antiabortion advocacy is led by faith-based activism, and opposition to abortion is a priority of the Republican Party. But there are multiple smaller antiabortion groups that identify with liberal positions on race, LGBTQ rights and poverty.
PAAU\u2019s site says it is \u201ccommitted to radical inclusivity while magnifying secular, feminist, liberal, and LGBTQIA+ identifying pro-life voices, especially those belonging to people of color.\u201d Three of the five members of the group identify on the site as atheist, though Handy describes herself as a \u201cCatholic anarcho mutualist \u2026 who creates trans-inclusive spaces within the pro-life movement.\u201d On her Facebook page, she included a selfie of herself in a face mask that reads: \u201cBlack Lives Matter from Womb to Natural Death.\u201d
Mahoney said the antiabortion movement has a history, especially in the 1970s and 1980s \u2014 when medical disposal was less stringent \u2014 of going into clinic dumpsters in search of fetal remains so they could do burial services. Activists sometimes would use the material for advocacy. In 1992, Terry, who founded the major antiabortion group Operation Rescue, was charged with an incident in which then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton was shown a male fetus in a plastic container as Clinton was leaving a New York City hotel for a jog.
Even if later-term abortions \u2014 which is what Handy\u2019s group alleges happened in the case of the five fetuses \u2014 are very rare, Mahoney said, it\u2019s a significant number to the movement. The group\u2019s statement raised questions about the D.C. police stating within a day that the abortions were done legally.
\u201cWe\u2019d argue, let\u2019s get the autopsy. At the very least, the [D.C. police] needs to release the data. I wouldn\u2019t trust them on whether police shot an African-American just on their word. I want to see the results.\u201d
Katie Watson, a bioethicist and professor at the Northwestern University medical school, said it was unlikely a layperson \u2014 like the activists \u2014 could tell simply by looking at fetal remains whether it was born alive, which could make the abortion a federal crime. She also said many women don\u2019t realize they are pregnant until the second trimester, and that antiabortion laws and restrictions deliberately make it more difficult for patients \u2014 75 percent of whom are low-income.
\u201cI want to push back on what I see as this idea of later abortion coming with this stigma. In many ways, part of this patient group is the predictable and natural product of the restrictions on abortion,\u201d she said.
She also called the activists\u2019 use of the images \u201ctremendously disrespectful.\u201d
\u201cTo me, what is gruesome is the appropriation of other women\u2019s fetal remains for a piece of political symbolism.\u201d
Dan Morse, Carol D. Leonnig, Ellie Silverman and Annys Shin contributed to this report.<\/i>
The latest: <\/b>On Dec. 1, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Center<\/i>, a case from Mississippi that legal observers say could weaken or overturn the legal right to an abortion established by Roe v. Wade <\/i>and Planned Parenthood v. Casey<\/i>. A ruling is expected sometime in 2022.
More coverage:<\/b>
4 takeaways from the Supreme Court arguments on abortion<\/a>
What could happen if Roe v. Wade gets struck down?<\/a>
What the Supreme Court justices have said about abortion and Roe v. Wade<\/a>
The Mississippi clinic at the center of the fight to end abortion in America<\/a>
How U.S. abortion laws, including Mississippi and Texas, compare to other countries<\/a><\/p>\n

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The city medical examiner does not plan at this time to perform autopsies on the five fetuses police removed from a Capitol Hill rowhouse earlier this week, according to two D.C. officials with knowledge of the case, even though the group involved in their discovery claims the fetuses were all late-term abortions performed illegally.The fetuses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":869,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3810"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/869"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3810\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}