Five House Republicans and pro-life groups on Wednesday called for justice for five aborted fetuses that are to be destroyed by the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Lauren Handy and Terrisa Bukovinac, two activists with the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising group, discovered the fetuses in March 2022 in a box of 115 fetuses outside the Washington Surgi-Clinic in Northwest.
The clinic, located at George Washington University, is run by Dr. Cesare Santangelo, an OB-GYN who is known to perform late-term abortions.
Dubbed the “D.C. Five,” the fetuses appeared to be late-term abortions. D.C. police later found the fetuses in Ms. Handy’s home. The other 110 were said to have been buried.
“We are standing against that kind of callousness against life. We are united to continue to advance the defense of life. We need to protect these individual lives. These five precious lives deserve to be respected,” Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said Wednesday at a press conference. He was joined by fellow Republican Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Bob Good of Virginia, Pat Fallon of Texas and Chris Smith of New Jersey.
The lawmakers and pro-life groups say the abortions violated federal law, including the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act and the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act.
“The D.C. Five abortion case is horrifying. Period. Full stop. Horrifying,” Mr. Biggs said. “When we consider that anyone would use the barbaric practice of partial-birth abortion, we must discover what happened and hold those individuals accountable. Killing a child, let alone five, through a partial-birth abortion is a crime under federal law.”
The fetuses have been in the possession of the chief medical examiner’s office since their discovery. The Justice Department last week said the office can dispose of them.
“Pulling their broken bodies from that box was the most viscerally heartbreaking experience that I have ever had,” Ms. Bukovinac said. “This is a seminal moment for the pro-life movement, a moment that is so palpable and with so much power that it can change the course of history forever.”
She compared the discovery to the 1972 photo of the “napalm girl” during the Vietnam War and the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till.
Mr. Fallon and 44 colleagues last week sent a letter to the Justice Department to stop any move to discard the fetuses.
“We demand that you immediately halt plans to dispose of these children, as they may well be evidence of a crime,” the lawmakers wrote. “We further demand you stop stonewalling and finally conduct a thorough investigation into the deaths of these children to determine what truly happened, and to hold any lawbreakers or murderers accountable. At the end of this investigation, we encourage a respectful burial of the babies.”
Mr. Roy and Mr. Biggs later wrote a letter to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith calling for the preservation and investigation of the fetuses.
As of Friday, the fetuses were still being preserved.
“We need to further investigate all of this. We need hearings. We need proper burial for these children. We need to respect their lives,” Mr. Biggs said Wednesday.
Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, along with other pro-life groups such as Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and Concerned Women for America, are calling for a full investigation into the abortions and the role of the energy company that was allegedly going to burn the bodies for energy, which the company has denied. They also want Dr. Santangelo to be held accountable.
No charges have been filed against Dr. Santangelo or the Washington Surgi-Clinic, which declined to comment for this story.