Lauren Handy

Lauren Handy is an American anti-abortion activist. She has been arrested a number of times for her activism, including for violating the FACE Act, which led to time in jail until she was pardoned by Donald Trump. She is the director of activism and mutual aid at the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising.

Life and education Handy grew up as a Southern Baptist. Her father is a painter. She was molested as a child by a non-family member. Handy is a queer convert to Catholicism. As the Catholic Church teaches that sexual acts outside of marriage are sinful, she remains celibate.

She attended Central Virginia Community College with the intent of working in a museum as an art historian. While there, she was both pro-life and agnostic. As she tells it, a student at nearby Liberty University invited her to go sidewalk counseling.

Handy was moved by the experience of seeing women walking into an abortion clinic, and started to attend church several days a week. Six weeks later she skipped her final exams, dropped out of school, sold all her belongings, and moved to California to become a full-time activist with Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust. She has lived with several congregations of the Missionaries of Charity, including one in Haiti, where she worked in a hospice.

Activism Handy is an anarcho-mutualist, and she opposes abortion and the death penalty. She described her political views as "very far left" and says she does not agree with "the average Democrat or the average liberal," and that she wants to create "trans-inclusive spaces within the pro-life movement." Handy is currently the Director of Activism for the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising.

Handy believes abortion is an act of violence, and she therefore wants to interrupt this cycle of violence. Handy claims she does so through employing non-violent principles and tactics, but this perspective was disputed during her trial.