Lauren Handy is at the center of one of the biggest stories on earth today, particularly in the United States. She's been charged with invading and blocking access to a D.C. health clinic, and now faces up to 11 years in prison if convicted.
00:00:00.000John, I need to say one more thing for you and a plug for you.
00:00:04.760As you know, this is the first long-form interview, the first interview, really, that Lauren and Teresa have done.
00:00:11.080And there's a long line of people that are going to interview them.
00:00:16.080I just hung up with the Washington Post.
00:00:18.200They're going to do something on Monday.
00:00:20.220The CBS News affiliate is going to do a long interview with them.
00:00:23.580But we wanted you to be first because I knew that you and your folks would give Teresa and Lauren the opportunity to tell the story as it really happened.
00:00:35.720And if your viewers do see and hear other news broadcasts, which are surely going to happen, some of them that are already emerging are hostile, belligerent, and untrue.
00:00:48.740So I thank you for the opportunity for Lauren and Teresa and for Missy and I to be a part of what we call a long-form interview.
00:00:58.760It's like the good old days of Larry King, you know, or some of these guys that would talk.
00:01:02.800They ask a question and let the people talk.
00:01:07.060This is the John Henry Weston Show and probably one of the most important shows we've ever done.
00:01:11.480We have with us today Lauren Handy, who is right at the center of one of the biggest stories on Earth today, particularly in the United States.
00:01:21.460You've already heard the news from last week where you had arrests of nine people with the police showing up in SUVs, guns drawn, some at five o'clock in the morning, kicking down doors.
00:01:32.620And it's over what? It's over a case from 2020 where nine pro-life activists did a rescue mission to save unborn babies in one of the most brutal clinics in America, right in D.C., where an abortionist does abortions just about right up to birth.
00:01:49.420The controversy, though, is much bigger.
00:01:52.000Check out this. This is from the media at the time.
00:01:55.220We have Lauren Handy with us. Check this out and stay tuned.
00:01:58.840D.C. police confirmed that the medical examiner collected five fetuses from inside the home of an anti-abortion protester.
00:02:11.200Her name, Lauren Handy. Handy has just been indicted on a charge of invading and blocking access to a D.C. health clinic.
00:02:39.440Yeah, Adam, I'm telling you what, kind of a bizarre, gruesome house of horrors here in a crowded D.C. neighborhood.
00:02:46.540D.C. police say they found those five fetuses right down here in this apartment, which is connected to that anti-abortion activist, Lauren Handy.
00:02:58.840Let's begin, as we always do, with the sign of the cross.
00:03:17.680In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
00:03:22.880At LifeSiteNews.com, we are so very privileged to give a chance for this first extended and exclusive interview with Lauren Handy and Teresa Bukovinek, who's helping out with this case.
00:03:37.540Lauren, of course, is one of the ones charged in this case, one of the ones who is expecting this horrific trial of, you know, potentially 11 years in prison, three years supervised release, $350,000 in fines.
00:03:53.500But this total insanity, I wanted to get Teresa Bukovinek, who is a longtime pro-life activist, right in the trenches, and who supports all these great folks.
00:04:05.520Give us what's going on right now from the ground level.
00:04:08.860And I'm going to ask you in a minute, too, to give us the backstory, which is totally fascinating.
00:04:16.400And on the 30th, was it, we received word that there were arrests being made by the FBI related to a rescue that Lauren and eight others participated in almost two years ago in Washington, D.C.
00:04:35.180And we heard that there were some, that the police were coming into homes and arresting people, some at gunpoint.
00:04:43.560And so we quickly rushed over to her house, we were expecting to contact the officer, and Lauren was prepared to turn herself in.
00:04:53.400But as we arrived at her apartment, we stepped out of the car, and FBI agents stepped out of their cars, and immediately called out Lauren's name, and the arrest began.
00:18:21.760And have that and, and each, each time I just say, thank you, Jesus, because it is a truly, for me, it truly is an honor, and a blessing and a privilege to be able to be united to Christ crucified.
00:18:39.980And to, and when we keep our perspectives on, have our, on the heavenly, it really grounds you in centers.
00:25:19.800Trace, if you're able to continue from there, how does this play out?
00:25:25.860So, for your audience, we did have a deacon present.
00:25:30.140We tried to find a priest there for the unboxing.
00:25:33.000But we were able to have a deacon present.
00:25:35.740You know, we made the necessary calls to our attorneys.
00:25:41.420And we decided that we wanted to find a pathologist or someone who could verify the late gestational ages of these unborn children.
00:25:51.420And to determine whether or not some of them had been born alive, these are very big babies.
00:25:59.580And we know from undercover footage that's been released by live action that Sant'Angelo does not use feticide when doing abortions.
00:26:10.260That means, like, the likelihood of a late-term baby being born alive is extremely high.
00:26:17.020And it's very unlikely at these gestational ages, without feet aside, that they weren't.
00:26:25.480No, I mean, that baby in the video, I've had eight children born, and that baby looked bigger than some of our children who were born a little bit early.
00:26:38.120Yes, we knew right away that there was potential evidence here of federal crimes, like the Born Alive Infant Protection Act.
00:26:50.000Also, one of the late-term babies seemed very obviously a victim of partial birth abortion.
00:26:58.420And so we were concerned from that moment on, preserving this evidence and ensuring that, or at least attempting to get justice for them, and to hopefully bring accountability to Sant'Angelo.
00:27:21.760So we searched around for a pathologist.
00:27:24.640We had a priest come a couple days later.
00:27:28.220We were still looking for a pathologist.
00:27:30.440He set a funeral mass for unbaptized children there at the location in front of the refrigerator where we had been storing them.
00:27:42.920And ultimately, we were unable to locate a private pathologist who would be willing to come evaluate the condition of these children.
00:27:52.840So we made arrangements through an attorney to hand them over to the medical examiner in order to make this determination about whether or not federal crimes had been committed.
00:28:06.000And that arrangement was made the day before the FBI arrested Lauren and that the medical examiner and the DC police homicide and forensics showed up to the apartment to collect these children just hours after Lauren had been arrested.
00:28:26.520So in the media, these two stories seem like one people have reported that the FBI raided Lauren's home and found fetuses that she had been keeping in her house.
00:29:14.420We have acted with the utmost urgency with this situation and respect for the remains of these unborn children.
00:29:23.420Okay, so the truth of the story is, the media reports that, you know, they go in to do this arrest of all these nine people.
00:29:37.420And at one of them, at Lauren's place, they find these remains of five babies.
00:29:44.160That wasn't related actually to the arrest per se.
00:29:47.200It was arrest, and then later they come and do what you guys, in fact, had called them for.
00:29:53.420What is truly remarkable, though, is that the lock and block happened at Sant'Angelo's clinic.
00:30:00.380And this was just a situation that we couldn't have planned for outside of Sant'Angelo's clinic last Friday.
00:30:07.780And it seems just pretty interesting that the two ultimately are connected, even though they were entirely separate incidents, years apart.
00:30:23.260Okay, so it's phenomenally interesting also, because this all goes on.
00:30:31.120The evidence comes forward on the day of the unborn.
00:30:39.480It's called that because it's on the day of the Annunciation.
00:30:42.100The Annunciation, March 25th, is the feast day where we celebrate the conception of Jesus Christ in the womb of his Holy Mother.
00:30:49.960So it's the perfect day for the day of the unborn, because it's the day that Jesus became the unborn.
00:30:55.380And on that very day comes the evidence in almost a miraculous way that you guys have that leads, yes, to this great suffering, but also to this evidence.
00:31:07.720I'm looking forward to seeing what comes from it.
00:31:10.660And your heroism is really incredible.
00:31:14.900However, I must say there does seem to be a connection in all of this anyway, because here is a DC clinic, a major DC clinic.
00:31:26.500It's the DC medical examiner that you went to, to come and check this out.
00:31:35.420And then you get served right away with this old case from 2020, and they come and get you on the very day that they're also coming to pick up this evidence.
00:31:49.440It's, sorry, it seems kind of related.
00:31:52.420I don't mean to be a conspiracy theorist, but from what we've seen with the FBI fooling around with evidence and covering things up and doing wild other things to accuse whistleblowers, this seems a little bit too much for me.
00:32:11.920It definitely seems like a wild coincidence.
00:32:14.220And regrettably, though, the DC police has already, they've already made a statement saying that they don't believe any crimes have been committed here, that the babies were afforded, according to DC law, and that they are not pursuing an investigation as to how these babies died, and how we acquired the fetuses.
00:32:39.840But in these kind of crazy times, where it seems like the powers that be are so much above us, and so much, we sort of seem to have nothing to do, we still can do something.
00:32:51.720Look, here's something else that's very weird.
00:32:54.560The abortionist in question, Cesar Sant'Angelo, his last name is Sant'Angelo, which means holy angels.
00:33:00.800There's no such thing as real coincidences in life, I don't believe.
00:33:06.940I believe in providence, and God's hand works in everything.
00:33:10.760We need to pray that the holy angels assist us with the conversion of Cesar Sant'Angelo.
00:33:18.260I don't, you know, we don't hate these people.
00:33:26.280Maybe I can ask you, Lord, do you hate Cesar Sant'Angelo?
00:33:33.280My heart is broken over the violence he committed.
00:33:41.920And I pray, and I'm fasting for his conversion.
00:33:46.340I know in my own life, my different things that led to my conversion, and I'm so grateful for God's grace and love and abundance and blessings, and I hope that for him too.
00:34:02.700And for me, I don't think hate is productive.
00:34:14.860I think righteous anger, I think grief and mourning and sorrow are more aligned with how I deal with things.
00:34:25.460It's very obvious we hate the things he's been doing.
00:34:31.240He's been killing, dismembering, and harming innocent little children.
00:34:39.380But we hold and harbor no hatred toward him, and we hope and pray, and even offer up our sufferings for his own conversion.
00:34:47.400Because a lot of us were there ourselves.
00:34:50.280And this is an incredible thing, because a lot of what's legally going on here is based on this kind of a notion of some kind of hatred for abortionists.
00:35:02.420And, you know, I remember whenever the media portrayed something going on with abortion, the abortion story of whatever nature, they used to start off with,
00:35:12.900this abortionist was shot through the window, and it's unbelievable, and have his casket there, his family standing around.
00:35:17.960And as if that's the take from the pro-life movement.
00:36:06.060Tell us, if you can, if you have anything else.
00:36:09.460I'd also like, if possible, to speak with the collaborators you've been working with, both with Missy Smith and also with Randall Terry, who I know are there as well.
00:36:19.460But are there any final comments that either of you two had before we go to them?
00:36:23.440The first trimester children that we found are being plans for a proper burial.
00:36:34.080And we are working towards making sure the five other children, Christopher X, Harriet, Holly, Phoenix, and Angel, get a proper burial as well.
00:37:04.480So, if you can tell us what we can do from a more practical perspective.
00:37:11.620We will be praying about this for sure.
00:37:13.440But what else can be done, and what do you have to tell us?
00:37:19.240I would cry out, for those who are watching in America, contact the Justice Department and ask, really demand, that the Justice Department do an investigation into this abortionist.
00:37:30.000The D.C. authorities, the law in D.C. is so bizarre.
00:37:35.880Some people read it to say you can kill a baby up until the day of birth, and you don't even have to be a licensed physician.
00:37:42.720But federal law, the Border Protection Act and the law against partial birth abortion, these are federal matters.
00:37:51.460And we ask people to contact the Justice Department and to demand that they open an investigation into this abortionist, and that they drop the charges against these nine people.
00:38:04.420The nine people are the heroes in the story, not the villains.
00:38:08.600This is like some dystopian, horrific novel where the people trying to save lives are put in prison, and the people that are doing the killing are walking free.
00:38:58.540Well, I guess it was November 27th, 2020, I got a call from a friend, a pro-life friend, who had heard on the ham radio of her own that there was a baby had been found dead in a toilet in a Ruby Tuesdays restaurant in Upper Marlboro.
00:39:23.640And so, I made some calls, I looked at the footage that I was able to get on the internet, and indeed there was a little baby girl that had been found and turned over to the medical examiner.
00:39:38.900So, I called the medical examiner and offered to give a good Samaritan, offered to have a funeral, and the medical examiner was very angry about it and ugly.
00:39:53.100So, but he did say, if you want to know anything more, call the detective who the case had been turned over to.
00:40:00.640And it took a long time, but I was able to get legal custody of the remains of a little baby girl.
00:40:10.180She was full-term, she was a third trimester baby, and she was found dead in a toilet.
00:40:23.480And the mother was contacted and said she didn't want anything to do with it.
00:40:27.460So, I moved forward and was able to find a funeral home and a mortician to pick up the remains and name the baby Philomena Grace.
00:40:36.980We ultimately, months and months later, because it hit in the middle of COVID, we were able to have a beautiful mass, which Bishop Joseph Coffey was the main celebrant, and then two other priests.
00:40:50.560And then we had a burial at this wonderful little cemetery outside the church in the Garden of the Innocents.
00:40:59.280So, it's not a, I agree with you, there are no coincidences.
00:41:04.240And this baby was killed by an orphaness.
00:41:06.660This, the baby was killed by St. Angelo.
00:43:47.060So, we have been able to work together with people of no religious background, of incredibly different political background spectrum, Republican, Independent, Democrat.
00:44:01.120And on most issues, we probably just, or at least on a lot of them, we just don't grieve.
00:44:07.880But we recognize that there's a man dying in the ditch.
00:44:47.580And there are Christians who are upset because these people who are saving babies don't fit the common mold of a devout Christian.
00:44:56.320And, you know, I say to people, look, if my daughter was drowning and it took me and one other person to save my daughter, I'm not going to do a litmus test before I let that person save my daughter.
00:45:11.280I'm not going to say, are you a Christian?
00:45:34.500They call the pro-life movement the greatest ecumenical movement on earth.
00:45:37.380And I totally believe it because it is where, you know, we come together and fight for life.
00:45:43.780And you find so much courage in all these different backgrounds from not only racial backgrounds and cultural backgrounds, faith backgrounds, too.
00:46:01.180And usually we care enough about one another to engage on these other topics.
00:46:06.440I know after the March for Life, when we've all been working like crazy, we go back to the bar and we're usually talking about religion to one another.
00:46:13.980Anyway, there is great fun in the movement, great love and great courage.
00:46:18.900And also, in some ways, the Good Samaritan was a rebuke to those of us who are like the priest and the Levite, who walk by on the other side of the road.
00:46:31.060I have been amazed at the courage that I've seen in some of these young people.
00:46:35.540And I've said to them, you're not proclaiming Christianity, but you're sure a burr in the saddle of Christians because you're doing the things that we should be doing.
00:46:45.500But this case, John, I think is is really something as if when it's all revealed, it will be really bond so many people together because we all I mean, unless someone is has a truly hardened black heart, they love children.
00:47:07.500John, I need to I need to say one more thing for you and a plug for you.
00:47:12.360As you know, this is the first long form interview, the first interview, really, that Lauren and Teresa have done.
00:47:18.520And there's a long line of people that are going to interview them.
00:47:23.640I just hung up with The Washington Post.
00:47:25.700They're going to do something on Monday.
00:47:27.760The CBS News affiliate is going to do a long interview with them.
00:47:31.160But we wanted you to be first because I knew that you and your folks would give Teresa and Lauren the opportunity to tell the story as it really happened.
00:47:42.940And if if your viewers do see and hear other news broadcasts, which are surely going to happen, some of them that are already emerging are hostile, belligerent and untrue.
00:47:56.280So I thank you for the opportunity for Lauren and Teresa and for Missy and I to be a part of what we call a long form interview.
00:48:06.140It's like the good old days of Larry King, you know, or some of these guys that would talk.
00:48:10.360They ask a question and let the people talk.
00:48:19.100I wanted to do one last thing before we sign off.
00:48:21.740The human toll is real for all these nine who are really out there to save babies, to sacrifice themselves for life.
00:48:33.460And I really do hope people are really generous in assisting the LifeFunder.
00:48:38.480If you don't mind, I'd like one of you maybe to describe what's going on with Lauren personally.
00:48:44.960And Lauren, if you're willing to do it yourself, that would be great.
00:48:47.440I, you know, I know this stuff is really hard for you, but to understand the toll of what's going on, I think people need to hear it as well.
00:48:56.260We've been with her and we know she's really suffering.
00:49:03.200She had a brand new, beautiful new apartment.
00:49:05.540And in fact, there was nothing in her refrigerator.
00:49:08.980And so that worked out well with 115 babies, but it didn't work out so well with her landlord when all the police and the newspaper and all that came, they asked her to leave.
00:49:22.140So it's a, it's, she, she thought that she was going to be able to go and live with a certain group of people that have always been there for her.
00:49:28.800And they said, nope, you can come back and live here as long as you promise to not do anything pro-life and not speak about the pro-life movement.
00:49:36.020And of course she would not be willing to do that.
00:51:23.640I mean, talking about children very advanced in age, being killed.
00:51:30.380And I want to encourage people that I did whatever to the best of my ability to follow church teaching, to give and respectfully honor and love these children.