D.C. police confirmed an abortionist who appears to have illegally performed partial-birth abortions will be allowed to continue with no criminal investigation, the same week peaceful pro-lifers who staged a protest at his abortion facility were found guilty in federal court and face imprisonment.
According to the Daily Signal, the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department stated Thursday they are not actively investigating abortionist Cesare Santangelo, whom pro-life activists have accused of performing gruesome abortions of viable babies. The Federalist also asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation if it was investigating Santangelo, but the agency refused to answer the question.
The accusations stem from pro-life activists Lauren Handy and Terrisa Bukovinac, who obtained a box of five preemie-sized babies outside Santangelo’s practice, the Washington Surgi-Clinic, in March 2022. The babies became known to pro-lifers as “The Five.”
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, a Washington D.C. federal court found five pro-life activists, including Handy, guilty of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for their participation in an October 2020 rescue and protest at the Washington Surgi-Clinic. The pro-lifers face up to 11 years in federal prison, three years of supervised release, and fines of up to $350,000.
According to lawyers from the Thomas More Society representing Handy and the other activists, the October 2020 protest was peaceful: “Some simply kneeled and prayed at Santangelo’s facility, some passed out pro-life literature and counseled abortion-minded women, and others roped and chained themselves together inside the facility.”
On Tuesday, the Metropolitan Police Department led the Daily Signal’s Mary Margaret Olohan to believe it was investigating Santangelo and his clinic in relation to the discovery of the aborted babies and the allegations that illegal partial-birth abortion techniques were used in their deaths. On Thursday evening, however, the department changed its tune.
“For clarification, the Metropolitan Police Department is investigating the circumstances surrounding the discovery of five fetuses in a residence,” Public Information Officer Hugh Carew told Olohan. “At this time, there is no investigation into the medical provider.”
The statement suggests that it is actually Handy and Bukovinac who are under scrutiny by the local authorities, not the abortionist. Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said something similar when she accused Handy of “tampering with fetal remains” in an April 2022 letter she sent to Republican lawmakers.
The district medical examiner’s office has possession of the fetal remains, but over a year later, it is still unknown whether autopsies were ever performed on the bodies of the five babies. Olohan reports that the mayor’s office and the chief medical examiner refuse to answer questions about the deceased infants.
Bukovinac is the founder and Handy is a member of Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), a pro-life organization that espouses left-wing views on everything other than life. PAAU has been a target of the FBI in the past.
In May, two female FBI agents descended upon the doorstep of Tracy Ketch, the mother of PAAU activist Elise Ketch. The agents were requesting to speak with Elise, who, over the phone, told her mother, “Don’t tell them anything.”
The agents refused to tell Elise’s mother why they were asking for her daughter. Notably, Elise was not involved in either the discovery of “The Five” or the October 2020 rescue and protest.
At the time, Bukovinac said, “The FBI is targeting PAAU members because our activism challenges the property lines of and disrupts commerce for the abortion industrial complex.” She added that PAAU is “especially a problem for them because we are nonviolent and therefore our efforts and ideas are rapidly catching on.”
Thomas More Society senior counsel Martin Cannon said he and his team intend to appeal the court’s decision. “[We] will continue to defend those who fight for life against a Biden Department of Justice that seems intent on prosecuting those who decry abortion and present it as it is — the intentional killing of children in utero,” he stated.
In an Instagram statement following the guilty verdicts, PAAU wrote, “This case was an effort by the US government to isolate and intimidate Rescuers and anti abortion people into believing they will face significant jail time for living in alignment with their pro-life values.”
