A pro-life activist was sentenced to over four years in prison for partaking in a protest outside of a Washington, D.C., abortion center in October 2020.
Lauren Handy faces 57 months in prison and three years of supervised release after she was convicted on charges of violating the “Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act” and conspiracy against rights.
Handy was one of five advocates prosecuted after they staged a sit-in at the D.C.-based Washington Surgi-Clinic late-term abortion facility.
During the incident, the protesters sang songs, prayed, locked arms in front of the facility’s staff entrance, and attached themselves with ropes and chains to block doors inside the building.
“There was only one thing around which Ms. Handy and her co-defendants were unified, and that was nonviolence,” Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Martin Cannon said. “They conspired to be peaceful. Yet, today, the Court granted the Biden Department of Justice its wish by sentencing Ms. Handy to 57 months — nearly 5 years in prison. For her efforts to peacefully protect the lives of innocent preborn human beings, Ms. Handy deserves thanks, not a gut-wrenching prison sentence.”
Handy, 30, was represented by the society, which promised to appeal the sentence.
Earlier this year, a pro-life activist who cooperated with Biden’s Justice Department avoided serving prison.
The activist was part of a Tennessee pro-life group that peacefully protested at an abortion clinic in 2021.
Caroline Davis initially faced a conspiracy charge that could have resulted in 11 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000. Davis has since received three years of probation and no fine. She will instead pay a $20 special assessment for the case.
Others involved in the peaceful protest face up to one year in prison for misdemeanor offenses and fines of up to $10,000.
Davis told the court she experienced abuse throughout her upbringing and had an unfaithful spouse that resulted in her joining a group that engaged in civil disobedience.
