Pro-life activist Lauren Handy — known for her efforts to uncover the truth about fetuses found at a Washington, D.C., abortion clinic that appeared to have been killed via partial-birth abortion — was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for violating the federal FACE Act.

Two years before she and fellow pro-life activist Terrisa Bukovinac discovered the fetuses at the Washington Surgi-Clinic, Handy was protesting at the same clinic, blocking the doors with other activists to prevent women from getting abortions.

“Inside the clinic’s waiting room, Handy directed blockaders to link themselves together with locks and chains and block the doors,” the Associated Press reports. “A co-defendant used social media to livestream the blockade, which lasted several hours before police arrested the participants.”

Handy, who was convicted in August 2023 and has been in jail since then, was on Tuesday given a sentence of four years, nine months. Prosecutors had recommended a six-year sentence.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly chided Handy for not being “sympathetic” enough to the women at the clinic who were prevented from getting abortions: “No caring or sympathetic gestures at all.” Kollar-Kotelly also claimed that Handy’s nearly five-year sentence wasn’t political. The AP reports, “The judge told Handy that she was being punished for her actions, not her beliefs.”

Even if Kollar-Kotelly is telling the truth, it’s hard to imagine others who committed similar violations not covered under the FACE Act — climate change protesters, for example — getting such a steep sentence. The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, passed in 1994, specifically targets pro-lifers by giving the federal government power to hand down harsh sentences for protests at abortion clinics.

While the Justice Department claims that “the FACE Act is not about abortions,” it has been used in recent years to target pro-life activists, including father of seven Mark Houck. (Luckily, Houck was acquitted.) Handy’s peers are also receiving sentences for their Washington Surgi-Clinic protest; John Hinshaw and William Goodman received sentences of about two years (21 and 27 months, respectively). Jay Smith was sentenced to 10 months last year.

On Wednesday, according to the Justice Department, “Jonathan Darnel was sentenced to 34 months in prison, Herb Geraghty was sentenced to 27 months in prison, Jean Marshall was sentenced to 24 months in prison, and Joan Bell was sentenced to 27 months in prison.” Bell, known as the “​​matriarch of pro-life activism” is 76 years old. Her husband, Christopher, has previously written for Human Life Review. Two others are still awaiting sentence later this month.

“These are good people who wouldn’t hurt anybody on purpose,” one of Handy’s attorneys, Martin Cannon, said. “Lauren has done enough time. Send Lauren home. Send them all home.”

Handy is the director of activism and mutual aid at Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, founded by Bukovinac. The Human Life Review interviewed Bukovinac for its Winter Issue about her activism, her work with Handy, and the fetuses found at the clinic.

“The assessment of Lauren Handy as a violent criminal is a lie advanced by those who remain collaborators in a violent system of legal child killing,” Bukovinac tweeted on Tuesday. “We must ensure the repeal of the FACE Act.”

Notably, all these FACE Act sentences have been handed down while the D.C. government still has not launched an investigation into the five fetuses found at the clinic.

Handy’s attorneys have said they will try to appeal her sentence, and members of Congress including Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) have pushed for a repeal of the FACE Act. Hopefully those in the justice system will come to their senses; what’s happening now is anything but just.