Attorneys from the Thomas More Society (TMS) representing pro-lifer Lauren Handy, one of several individuals found guilty of conspiracy and FACE Act violations in connection with a 2020 pro-life rescue action at Washington Surgi-Clinic in D.C., have filed an emergency appeal to a higher court, seeking Handy’s release from jail prior to sentencing.
An emailed press release from TMS states:
Citing their conviction for a “crime of violence,” U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered Handy and her four co-defendants be immediately detained on August 29, 2023, after a jury in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia found them guilty of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, as well as a conspiracy against ‘rights’ that the U.S. Supreme Court has not found in the Constitution, in the United States of America v. Lauren Handy, et al.
The charges stem from their pro-life peaceful protest outside and inside a Washington, D.C. abortion facility in October 2020.
TMS attorneys say that FACE Act violations are not categorically a “crime of violence.” The pro-lifers involved have espoused a commitment to non-violence in their activism.
According to a previous Live Action News report, “DOJ had argued the defendants committed a crime of violence under 18 U.S. Code § 3156, which defines a crime of violence as ‘an offense that has as an element of the offense the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or property of another’ and ‘any other offense that is a felony and that, by its nature, involves a substantial risk that physical force against the person or property of another may be used in the course of committing the offense.'”
TMS writes, “The only basis for a finding of the use of force was when an overzealous clinic worker rushed at the pro-life advocates and tried to forcibly remove them from the clinic waiting room, resulting in her twisting an ankle. There was no allegation that Ms. Handy or the co-defendants intended to harm anyone.”
Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising recently published some of Handy’s remarks from jail, in which she stated:
I am doing well, and I’m right where I’m supposed to be. I’ve already been able to reach out to people I’ve encountered and provide comfort and counseling. Thank you for everyone’s support.
I know that many in the movement don’t agree with Rescue and now consider me useless because I am behind bars. This shows once again how our movement often comes off as gimmicky and inauthentic. This isn’t a numbers game — this is about Love. Loving the most useless, abandoned and unwanted without fear of punishment.
My vocation is to love… not to be reduced down to a function for the “cause”. My time in jail is the alabaster jar of perfume pouring out for the rejected and unloved….
It’s not just “sad” when an unborn person is murdered, it is acutely devastating. Someone needs to feel and mourn deeply. Someone needs to love to the point of supposed uselessness.
Someone needs to Rescue.
Jury selection is now taking place for the trial of four additional pro-lifers involved in the 2020 D.C. rescue action. These four defendants — Joan Andrews Bell, Jonathan Darnel, Paulette Harlow, and Jean Marshall – will have a new jury but will be tried, like the previous defendants, before Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.
