J. Christian Adams, a DOJ attorney for the George W. Bush administration, told a radio audience it was Handy’s violation of federal law that effectively removed her from the fight to protect the lives of the unborn.
Handy, 30, was sentenced this week to four years and nine months in prison for her role in the 2020 disruption of a Washington, D.C., abortion facility, SurgiClinic. She was found guilty of conspiracy against rights and for violating the FACE Act, or Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act,
Handy (pictured at right) gained entry into the facility by making an appointment with a fake name, said Adams, who is serving as a guest host for the "Jenna Ellis In The Morning" program this week.
Regardless of her motivation, Handy’s place in the fight is important,and now she’s not around, Adams said.
“Lauren Handy, who’s going to jail for five years, is no longer going to be on the field doing any good work because of the decision to go in and sort of tear up the place," Adams said. "That’s one less person to go out on a Saturday morning and pray outside an abortion clinic.”
The Associated Press, which is no friend of the pro-life movement, reported there were physical confrontations between other defendants and the abortion clinic patients.
AP also reported police found five fetuses at Handy’s Washington home after she was indicted, an accusation that painted her as extreme.
Reacting to that Associated Press story, AP reporter Michael Kunzelman omitted critical details, Mary Margaret Olohan, of The Daily Signal, wrote on X.
“He doesn’t say they were aborted; he doesn’t say late-term; he implies police ‘found’ them; he doesn’t mention Congressional calls for an investigation,” Olohan wrote.
Olohan said the five fetuses were found by Handy and fellow pro-life activist Terrisa Bukovinac boxed-up outside SurgiClinic waiting to be transported for incineration. They photographed the bodies and called police to conduct autopsies, Olohan said.
It was this experience that motivated Handy to get inside SurgiClinic, Olohan said.
Autopsies were never performed, and D.C. officials have “stonewalled” interview requests from The Daily Signal and other media, Olohan said.
What the FACE Act does
The FACE Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994, is heavy with abortion protection but includes religious protection, too.
- It prohibits the use of physical force, threat of physical force or physical obstruction to intentionally injury, intimidate, interfere with or attempt to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person who is seeking an abortion.
- It prohibits the use of physical force, threat of physical force or physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, interfere with or attempt to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person who is exercising or trying to exercise their First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of worship.
- It prohibits the intentional damage or destruction of a “reproductive health care facility” or a place of worship.
The FACE Act has survived several challenges, one of them this year by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas).
On the AFR program, Adams questioned the federal law’s purpose since the U.S. Supreme Court returned control of abortion to the states in 2022.
“If there's no constitutional right to an abortion, what is the congressional basis for the FACE Act in the first place?" he said. "How does the federal government have the authority under the Constitution to prohibit conduct involving abortion protesters? Now, obviously nobody Is suggesting, and I certainly never would, that you can trespass and destroy property. That's a right too, isn't it?”
While the FACE Act remains on the books, decisions by Handy and her co-defendants left them vulnerable to prosecution by an abortion-defending Justice Department that Adams says is aggressive when it suits them.
“The Justice Department is stacked with wacko lawyers. I know. I worked there," Adams told the audience. "I've written about them. These are militants."
Those former co-workers, Adams said, have a "lust for power" that includes going after people they view as political enemies.
“There was a sign on one of my colleague’s doors that actually said, ‘Mess with Texas.’ They left out the word ‘Don’t.’ It was their attitude. They wanted to get in the face of people with whom they disagree,” Adams said.
“If you were a conservative Evangelical or a Catholic, you were standing in opposition to their utopian dreams. If you believed in limited government and equality of law on the basis of race and were against affirmative action, you were standing in the way of their utopian dreams. If you thought the police were a good thing, and a criminal is a bad thing, you were standing in the way of their utopian dreams.”
Adams said Handy’s sentence is over the top but the pursuit of her for anti-abortion beliefs is on par with the DOJ.
“She was sentenced to five years - five years!" he complained. "I could go through a list of other crimes that aren’t getting five years. That list often includes things like attempted murder, destroying college campuses, trying to interrupt Trump’s inauguration, mayhem on the streets of New York City. They’re not getting five years.”
