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Social Issues
Deepa Shivaram, NPR

An anti-abortion group claims it took 115 fetuses from a medical waste truck

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Anti-abortion activist Lauren Handy speaks during a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. The anti-abortion group Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising says it took 115 fetuses from a medical waste truck.
Anti-abortion activist Lauren Handy speaks during a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. The anti-abortion group Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising says it took 115 fetuses from a medical waste truck.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

An anti-abortion group that is facing previous federal charges said it took 115 fetuses from a medical waste company and buried 110 of them at an undisclosed location.

Washington, D.C., police, which originally said it found five fetuses in one of the group members' apartments, is continuing to investigate the case.

At a news conference Tuesday, two members of Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, Terrisa Bukovinac and Lauren Handy, said they got the fetal remains from a medical waste company employee who gave them the box from his truck.

The two women saw the medical waste truck, from Curtis Bay Medical Waste Services, outside Washington Surgi-Clinic, which performs medical procedures such as abortions. The women said they then took the box to Handy's apartment. In total, they claim there were 115 fetuses in the boxes.

Bukovinac said in the news conference that she asked the driver of the truck if he would get in trouble if they took one of the boxes. She says he was shaken when they told him what the contents of the box were. The two women apparently told the driver they would bury the fetuses.

"The driver thought for a second and he said, 'OK,' " Bukovinac said.

Curtis Bay Medical Waste Services told WUSA9 that it does not transport fetal remains and denied that any package was handed over to the anti-abortion group. The Baltimore-based company did not respond to NPR's request for comment.

Several members of the anti-abortion group face federal charges from 2020, when they protested at an abortion clinic. They were charged with conspiracy against rights and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.