Pro-life activists in Washington, D.C., say they recovered bodies of 115 babies from a local abortion mill. “These children’s story demands to be told,” Terrisa Bukovinac said. She and fellow pro-lifer Lauren Hardy related their story in an interview with The New American.
They named each child and gave a “proper funeral and burial” to 110 of the tiny victims who appeared to have been killed in the first trimester of pregnancy. However, after the funeral they turned over the remaining five to authorities, suspecting that their apparent late-gestational ages indicate federal law violations — specifically, of the partial-birth abortion ban and the Born Alive Infants Protection Act.
The women say that all 115 infants were encased in a sealed bio-hazard box for transport by Curtis Bay Medical Waste Services to the company’s incinerator that helps generate energy for the Baltimore, Maryland area. “They burn those babies, so they can charge their cell phones, so they can text message us that they hate us,” Bukovinac said.
She is founder and executive director of Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), an unusual group among pro-life organizations, being made up of those who identify as “secular, feminist, liberal and LGBTQIA+.” Bukovinac bills herself “an atheist, animal rights activist, and a feminist.” Handy, who calls herself “a Catholic anarcho mutualist,” serves as director of activism. Handy is one of nine people indicted by the FBI last week for a sit-in style demonstration they staged at the Washington Surgi-Clinic in the northwest section of D.C. in October 2020. The indictment charges them with civil-rights conspiracy and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, promoted by leftist Attorney General Janet Reno and signed into law by former President Bill Clinton in 1994.
Some among the pro-life movement criticize PAAU for its methods, while others hail its members as heroes. Regardless, Washington Surgi-Clinic is the same abortion mill where, on March 25, Bukovinac and Hardy saw a Curtis Bay employee loading bio-hazard boxes onto a truck and asked if they could take one; he let them. The Daily Mail has reported that Hardy stole the box, which is false according to her account. Additionally, Curtis Bay denies that any of their shipments were missing on March 25, as reported by The Washington Post, and also claims that transporting fetuses is against company policy. Nevertheless, the video Bukovinac and Hardy took during the incident shows the box in question labeled with both Curtis Bay Medical Waste Services, Curtis Bay Energy and Washington Surgi-Clinic identifiers. Washington, D.C., police say the matter is still under investigation but have filed no charges to date.
Bukovinac and Hardy suspected the box’s grisly contents, saying that Dr. Cesare Santangelo, the abortionist at the clinic, regularly carries out illegal late-term abortions. Undercover video that Live Action News captured in 2013 exposes the doctor admitting as much, though the clinic’s website claims, “We perform abortions from the earliest stages of pregnancy up until 26 weeks.”
“We have a right to catch this guy,” said Bukovinac, adding that they recorded video of their discovery to document the case and drive home the fact that abortion is slaughter of the innocent. “Social justice” is often promoted through “victim imagery,” she noted. Citing the infamous open casket of murdered teen Emmett Till, she said that images are “visceral and have served in the past as impactful of social change.”
PAAU held a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday where they displayed the video, saying it would be available on the organization’s website in coming days. (Live Action News preemptively broadcast some of it in a graphic presentation published last Friday. Viewers should be aware before clicking that this footage is extremely graphic and disturbing.)
Acting as spokesman at PAAU’s press conference, Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry compared Santangelo to Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortionist convicted in 2013 of first-degree murder of three infants born alive and 21 felony counts of illegal late-term abortion, among other charges. His story was the subject of the 2017 movie Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer. The Atlantic reported on court testimony during the trial, including statements from Gosnell’s clinic staff that the doctor would deliver babies alive and then snip their spinal cords. “One former employee described hearing a baby screaming after it was delivered during an abortion procedure. ‘I can’t describe it. It sounded like a little alien,’ she testified.”
“He’s in prison for the rest of his life without parole, because he was doing abortions like this,” said Terry, comparing the convicted murderer to the Washington Surgi-Center abortionist. “Santangelo is a criminal. These people are heroes,” he said, pointing to the defendants, “and they’re facing jail. And Santangelo is a mass murderer walking free while the DOJ persecutes the innocent.”
Terry challenged members of the press to be honest in their coverage. “If it was 1942 or 1943 and a German photographer or videographer made it into Auschwitz or Dachau and took footage of what was happening in those facilities, and did not show it, that photojournalist would be a collaborator with the Nazis and with the killers,” Terry noted. “And that is what has become of so much media in America today. Collaborators, by hiding the truth. It is repugnant. It is an offense against God and a treachery against these victims.”
Missy Smith, director of Wake Up, also made an appeal to Curtis Bay, reminding attendees that the company burns “biomedical waste to sustain the energy needs of the Baltimore area. This means, tragically, that they receive, transport and burn the corpses of aborted babies to make electricity for the households and businesses of the Baltimore area.” She left them with the chilling thought: “If you live in the Baltimore area, you must know that aborted babies have been burned to keep your lights on and your house warm. We call on Curtis Bay Energy to end this barbaric practice and to confirm publicly that they have done so.”
Bukovinac and Hardy described the horror of their discovery to The New American as the worst of their lives. They said they have suffered symptoms of post-traumatic stress since that fateful day. Their statements from Tuesday’s presentation are included below.
Terrisa Bukovinac’s press conference statement:
Hello, my name is Terrisa Bukovinac. I am an atheist, I am a leftist, and I am the founder and executive director of PAAU, the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising. On Friday, March 25, the Day of the Unborn Child, Lauren Handy and I went to Washington Surgi-Center to engage in anti-abortion advocacy. Upon arrival we saw a truck labeled Curtis Bay Medical Waste Services parked outside. We approached the driver who was about to load two large boxes with biohazard symbols onto his truck. We asked him if he knew what was in the boxes, and after he said ‘No,’ we told him: ‘Dead babies.’ The driver was visibly shaken. After he confirmed the boxes were from Washington Surgi, I asked him: ‘Would you get in trouble if we took one of these boxes?’ And he asked, ‘What would you do with them if you took one?’ Lauren said, ‘We will give them a proper burial and a funeral.’ The driver thought for a second and said, ‘Okay,’ and gestured towards the box. Lauren immediately grabbed the box off of the dolly, and we brought it back to her apartment.
In the presence of a Catholic deacon, Lauren cut open the box and the red plastic bag inside. We then proceeded to unpack the remains of 110 mostly first trimester aborted children. At the bottom of the box was a clear plastic bag with five more containers — one much bigger than the remaining four. Lauren reached into the largest bucket and removed the remains of a beautiful, intact and nearly-full-term baby boy who we named Christopher X. I think I can speak for both Lauren and I when I say this was the most devastating and soul-crushing experience of our lives. Not even years of anti-abortion advocacy could have prepared us for that moment, and it’s a moment that will live on for us for all of time.
We continued to open the larger containers, and discovered four more babies with a range of injuries including a fully-intact girl we named Harriet, who had one eye open, an incision in the back of her neck, her brain suctioned out and her skull crushed. Two other late-term babies named Angel and Holly were severely dismembered, and the final baby, Phoenix, was whole and still inside the amniotic sac.
A feticide is generally used during abortion procedures after 20 weeks’ gestation to cause an unborn baby a heart attack, which helps prevent a live birth and the excruciating pain of total dismemberment. But in 2013, Live Action captured undercover footage of abortionist Cesare Santangelo, the sole abortionist on staff for decades at Washington Surgi, admitting that he does not use feticide. Because of this admission and the advanced gestational ages of these babies and their intact condition, the likelihood that some were born alive is undeniable. Additionally, the injuries sustained by Harriet strongly imply she was the victim of a partial-birth abortion.
After spending nearly three days searching for a private pathologist to confirm these violations of federal law, a funeral Mass was held at Lauren’s apartment, where all 115 babies were named. Shortly after, the 110 smaller children were taken to an undisclosed location for burial. They have since been buried.
On March 29, Lauren and I coordinated with attorneys to alert the D.C. homicide unit of the location of the five larger babies and request an investigation into their deaths. Arrangements were made for the babies to be picked up that evening, but police didn’t arrive until the afternoon of the 30th just hours after Lauren was taken into custody by the FBI in connection with a rescue two years prior.
Today I stand in solidarity with Lauren and the eight other defendants who are facing harsh incarceration penalties under the FACE Act [Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act] for simply protecting the victims of violent oppression at Santangelo’s clinic. And while these heroes are being unjustly prosecuted, Santangelo continues to kill babies and exploit their parents for profit as he has done for decades. This must end.
“We are demanding that the D.C. police conduct a full investigation into the deaths of these babies, including thorough autopsies. We demand that the U.S. Department of Justice prosecute Santangelo for violations of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act and the Partial Birth Abortion Act, and we’re demanding it now. And in an effort to keep our promise to the Curtis Bay whistleblower, we demand a proper burial for the remaining five children post-autopsy.
Pro-life Americans will not stay silent in the face of such aggressive and barbarous violence, and we will diligently work until the American abortion industrial complex is fully disarmed and dismantled. Thank you.
Lauren Handy’s press conference statement:
Hello, my name is Lauren Handy. I am a devout Catholic who supports economic left policies and creating a culture of life. I’m also the director of activism for the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, and one of the nine defendants indicted by the FBI on FACE charges.
I made a promise — a funeral and a burial. It has been my desire since the beginning, since March 25, and through the whole process to ensure these children’s dignity were uplifted and respected. During the five days they were under my stewardship, the 115 victims of abortion violence were given a funeral Mass for unbaptized children, and 110 have been given a proper burial at a private cemetery by a priest.
But what about the five? Phoenix, Harriet, Christopher X, Angel and Holly — the children who have been featured in the news so far — were so advanced in their gestational age, and the patterns of their wounds suggest violent federal crimes, we arranged for the medical examiner to pick up the children.
Washington Surgi is part of a network of 21 abortion centers in the DMV [Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia] area. The abortion industry, which is the overlapping interest of state and business, use fear, isolation and violence to make profit off of people who are pregnant, families, and in particular, low-income women facing crisis and unwanted pregnancies. Uplifting and showing the five children does not pit us against their parents. I am deeply heart-broken for these families. Their exploitation from Washington Surgi, and then their children being used for profit by Curtis Bay, shows how deeply flawed our communities are structured.
