Police on Wednesday found five fetuses at the Washington, D.C., home of an anti-abortion rights activist who has been indicted in connection with a blockade at a reproductive health care clinic.
The fetuses were found after a tip was given "regarding potential bio-hazard material" at the home where Lauren Handy was reported to be residing, Washington police said. An investigation is underway, and the fetuses have been given to the medical examiner's office.
Handy said outside the home Wednesday that she expected the raid to happen "sooner or later," WUSA-TV reported. Handy, who declined to speak on camera, said "people would freak out when they heard" what was in the evidence bags being taken by police, the station reported.
A phone number for Handy was not immediately available through public records, which list her most recently as a Virginia resident.
Handy, 28, is one of nine anti-abortion rights activists who were charged with conspiracy against rights and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, known as the FACE Act, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
She posed as a woman named "Hazel Jenkins" in October 2020 and claimed to be seeking services from a Washington reproductive health care clinic, according to an unsealed indictment. The encounter was livestreamed on Facebook, the indictment said.
Handy and others are alleged to have forced their way into the clinic and blockaded the doors.
The indictment also alleges that the defendants violated the FACE Act by using a physical obstruction to injure, intimidate and interfere with the clinic’s employees and a patient “because they were providing or obtaining reproductive health services."
A federal public defender representing Handy in the federal case did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the fetuses Thursday.