‘Soul-Crushing’ Barbarity Uncovered in D.C. — 110 Dead Babies, Five Who May Have Been Killed Illegally

I did a double-take last week when I saw that, among others, Joan Bell was arrested by the FBI. Bell is no stranger to arrests — she has a long history of going into abortion clinics and offering women a way out. It’s civil disobedience, of course, when she doesn’t leave. “Red Rose Rescues” are what these efforts are called, and Joan is among those I deeply respect who participate. She’s a gentle soul with fierce courage. And the FBI, I am certain, should have more important priorities than seeing her behind bars (again).

One of the others arrested is Lauren Handy, whose apartment was also raided that day. It sounds ghoulishly confusing as the mainstream media tells the story, but as Handy tells it, the barbarity is entirely on the side of the abortion regime we have in America.

As she and her co-activist Terrisa Bukovinac tells it, they were going to sidewalk counsel at an abortion clinic in D.C., the Washington Surgo-Clinic. They had roses in hand ready for the moms, when they saw a medical-waste-management truck. They say they managed to get the driver to give them one of the boxes when they told him what was likely in it — dead babies. They promised to give them funerals if so.

When they finally opened the boxes at her apartment, they found 110 first-trimester babies and five late-term babies.

Of the earlier ones, Handy told The Pillar:

We had some children who were just starting to have their little fingers but, and then we saw some all the way up to early second trimester. There were definitely some who were probably 13 to 15 weeks as well.

One was bigger than the others — “clearly over 30 weeks and completely whole, and his skin pink.”

Did infanticide happen at the clinic? The evidence suggests that could very well be the case in one or more instances in just this one box.

Bukovinac explained:

He was just the most beautiful baby boy and we just lost it in that moment. We were just all kind of holding on being strong, trying to get through this. And then this was just completely shattering emotionally. We were weeping, we were cursing the people that did this to him. It was just soul crushing, to experience.

We named him Christopher X, and we thought there was definitely a significant chance that he might have been born alive.

A lot of late-term abortionists, after around 20 weeks, will use a substance called digoxin to cause a heart attack and kill the baby before they do the dismemberment. But Santangelo doesn’t use digoxin because it’s expensive and he’s lazy, and it’s just easier for him to deliver the baby whole by dilating and then just leave the baby to die.

We opened the next one. This baby was a little girl. She was well past the point of viability. She had one eye open and she was completely intact except for the back of her neck was lacerated. And her skull was collapsed and the brain had been suctioned out, indicating to us a partial birth abortion.

Handy said:

And then the next three. One of the children was still in the amniotic sac and we immediately didn’t want to look too closely at that one because we didn’t wanna burst open the sac. And then the other two were horrifically dismembered.

…

There are photos. They are graphic. One of the girls was dismembered. Another baby was still in the amniotic sack. These give lies to all “clump of cells” rhetoric and once again expose the evil brutality of abortion.

 

Handy explained how she reacted — after weeping and cursing:

I just thought to myself —  I’m telling the babies that I’m sorry, and that I love them and I’m so sorry. That I’m sorry I failed them. And I’m sorry that I couldn’t love them enough and sorry that I couldn’t save them and I couldn’t help their parents. And that I was just so sorry.

I felt like a complete and utter failure.

This particular abortionist has said (to Live Action in an undercover video) that he would not provide life-saving care for a baby born alive. If any of these babies were, that’s in violation of the federal Born Alive Infants Protection Act. The evidence suggests that there could have been violations of the federal ban on partial-birth abortion.

There is also a video Live Action has put together calling for an investigation. Please be careful about watching it. If you’ve had an abortion, if you’ve recently given birth, if you are in any way sensitive to graphic violence, or suffer from post-traumatic-stress syndrome, I don’t think you should watch it. But some of us have to.

The medical-waste company denies that a box was handed over to anyone and that they collect fetal remains, but the babies came from somewhere.

I have to say, I felt ashamed of myself when I read The Pillar’s interview with Handy and Bukovinac. I’ve been at rallies with both of them. They are with Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, a different kind of abortion group, looking to awaken the consciences of people who aren’t traditionally the leaders of the pro-life movement. They often have drums when some of us are praying outside abortion clinics, with the kind of chants that make New Yorkers do double-takes, not sure what side they are on. The PAAU people tend to look cooler than many of the rest of us. (As opposed to those of us praying the Rosary — some with religious habits.) The diversity is not only refreshing, but challenging.

On a number of occasions, I’ve posted photos of the medical waste boxes much like the ones Handy and Buckovinac saw in D.C. leaving Planned Parenthood in Manhattan. I’ve cried. I’ve prayed. I’ve never thought to ask for a box. I never really thought beyond the shock of the scene each time about the fact there could be upward of 100 babies at different stages of development in the boxes.  ­

Handy said in her interview with The Pillar:

Say you see someone drowning in a pool. I mean, for heaven sakes, you don’t go up to the yard and say, “Hey, there’s free help for you and your family. It’s okay, I’m praying for you.”

You don’t do that. You go. You go and get them out of the pool. You can and should help them.

She has my number — I offer help and prayer and make connections when a girl is willing, outside. Sometimes a girl or woman changes her mind. But the rescue crew doesn’t give up on the sidewalk in seeking to help a desperate mother. That’s civil disobedience in the face of an unjust law. We built monuments celebrating such people.

I don’t know if Handy and Bell and others will face jail time. It won’t be the first for either one. But a better country would rally behind those who want to save lives and expose the truth, not seek to caricature and imprison them.

Lauren Handy and the rescuers have the courage of their convictions.

D.C. authorities so far have said they won’t investigate the dead babies, but members of Congress are calling on D.C. and the Department of Justice to do so. Of course, Republican members. This shouldn’t be bipartisan issue. It’s a human one. About the slaughter of innocents and our continuous looking away.

Lord have mercy on us.