Lauren Handy

Lauren Handy was the principal co-organizer, along with co-defendant Jonathan Darnel, of a coordinated blockade of the Washington Surgi-Clinic, a reproductive health clinic in Washington, D.C., on October 22, 2020. Handy and Darnel planned and organized the clinic invasion using social media, text messages, and phone calls, advertising the event as a "historic" rescue that was livestreamed on Facebook. Evidence at trial established that Handy arranged a fake patient appointment to secure the group's entry into the clinic. Once inside, she and co-defendants Herb Geraghty, Heather Idoni, Jean Marshall, Joan Bell, John Hinshaw, William Goodman, Paulette Harlow, and Jay Smith used their bodies, furniture, chains, and ropes to blockade two clinic entrances, preventing staff and patients from accessing the facility. A clinic nurse was injured during the forced entry; one patient had to climb through a receptionist window to access the clinic, and another was left lying in the hallway outside in physical distress. Handy was convicted at trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia of conspiracy against rights (18 U.S.C. § 241) and violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act, 18 U.S.C. § 248). Her conviction came on August 29, 2023, in the first of three separate trials in the case.