Pro-Life Activist Sentenced to Nearly 5 Years in Prison for Abortion Clinic Blockade

‘For her efforts to peacefully protect the lives of innocent preborn human beings, Ms. Handy deserves thanks, not a gut-wrenching prison sentence’: attorney

Pro-life activist Lauren Handy speaks at a news conference in Washington, on April 5, 2022. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Pro-life activist Lauren Handy has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison for leading a group of fellow activists to blockade a clinic that performs abortions.

In an opinion and memorandum issued on May 13, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced Ms. Handy to 57 months in prison (in practice lowered to 48 months due to time already served), plus three years of probation and a monetary fine.

After Ms. Handy is released from prison in 2028, she will have to submit to a mental health assessment and treatment program, and she will be prohibited from knowingly entering or coming within 1,000 feet of an abortion facility, per court documents.

Ms. Handy, and several other defendants, were convicted by a jury in August 2023 of federal civil rights offenses for blockading access to the Washington Surgi-Clinic on Oct. 22, 2020. Ms. Handy was convicted on two charges: conspiracy against rights and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, more commonly known as the FACE Act.

An indictment alleged that Ms. Handy directed the actions of her fellow conspirators on that day, which included placing chairs to obstruct passage into the clinic’s treatment area and chaining and roping themselves together to block access.

“The law does not protect violent nor obstructive conduct, nor should it,” Judge Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton appointee, said in court while handing down the sentence, per The Associated Press.

Prosecutors asked for a six-and-a-half year sentence for Ms. Handy, while her attorneys asked the judge to show leniency with a 12-month sentence.

“For her efforts to peacefully protect the lives of innocent preborn human beings, Ms. Handy deserves thanks, not a gut-wrenching prison sentence,” Martin Cannon, senior counsel at the Thomas More Society that is representing Ms. Handy, said in a statement.

“We will vigorously pursue an appeal of Ms. Handy’s conviction and attack the root cause of this injustice, that is, the FACE Act—which we believe is unconstitutional and should never again be used to persecute peaceful pro-lifers,” he added.

In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors described Ms. Handy as an anti-abortion extremist who was a “criminal mastermind” behind the Washington abortion clinic blockade and similar actions at other clinics.

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Prosecutors said that Ms. Handy planned and led the Washington clinic invasion, using social media to recruit participants and discuss their plans.

Ms. Handy used a false name to book a fake appointment at the clinic on the morning of the invasion, prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memorandum.

When a clinic employee unlocked a door to admit patients, Ms. Handy and the co-defendants pushed their way in while livestreaming their blockade on social media.

“As the codefendants executed the blockade, Handy used a rope stretched across the entrance threshold to obstruct entry into the clinic’s waiting room,” prosecutors wrote. “After the blockade was successfully executed, Handy briefly left the building to act as the group’s police liaison.”

Ms. Handy’s nine co-defendants were Jonathan Darnel from Virginia; Jay Smith, John Hinshaw, and William Goodman, from New York; Joan Bell from New Jersey; Paulette Harlow and Jean Marshall from Massachusetts; Heather Idoni from Michigan; and Herb Geraghty from Pennsylvania.

Mr. Smith was sentenced last year to 10 months in prison. Mr. Hinshaw, Ms. Idoni, and Mr. Goodman were scheduled to be sentenced on May 14. Mr. Darnel, Mr. Geraghty, Ms. Marshall and Ms. Bell are scheduled to be sentenced on May 15, while Ms. Harlow’s sentencing is set for May 31.

Prosecutors said in the sentencing memo that, despite a history of arrests and local prosecutions for participating in abortion clinic invasions, Ms. Handy “has not been deterred from violating federal laws.”

“Handy not only capitalized on her victimization of vulnerable victims, but she also promoted and publicized her crimes,” they wrote.

In handing down a sentence that was more closely aligned with the punishment prosecutors were seeking, the judge said that Ms. Handy didn’t show any compassion or empathy for the patients who were blocked from getting abortion-related consultations or procedures that day.

Steve Crampton, senior counsel at the Thomas More Society, said in a statement that prosecutors’ version of events was a “caricature” and the 57-month sentence was a “miscarriage of justice.”

“As I’ve gotten to know Ms. Handy, I’ve seen up close her unwavering passion for pro-life advocacy and resolute dedication to nonviolence,” he said. “Ms. Handy should have been shown the same mercy that she has herself shown to countless many downtrodden throughout her young life.”

Thomas More Society attorneys have said that Ms. Handy’s appeal will be the nation’s foremost legal challenge to the constitutionality of the FACE Act, which they allege has been abused by the DOJ under President Joe Biden’s administration to “target and jail pro-lifers for peacefully advocating on behalf of the unborn.”

The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment on Ms. Handy’s case.