On Thursday, Lauren Handy, a 28-year old anti-abortion activist currently under a federal indictment for blockading an abortion clinic two years ago, was found to be in possession of five fetuses in her Washington home after her residence was raided by the D.C. police. The grisly development, which comes amid a national Republican-led assault on abortion access, provides a startling glimpse into the depths of anti-abortion extremism. As reporting reveals, Handy's affiliations — although ostensibly left-wing — appear to be in associated with more traditional right-wing anti-abortion organizations.
A self-described "leftist," Handy served as Director of Activism at the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), a group of self-professed "grassroots activists dismantling the abortion industrial complex & standing in solidarity with the unborn victims killed by abortion violence." Handy also apparently founded Mercy Missions, an anti-abortion group that uses "non-carceral solutions in the struggle towards our collective liberation which is the freedom to thrive in safe & sustainable communities from conception to natural death."
