An Important Update on #JusticeForTheFive

The five babies who inspired the #JusticeForTheFive movement will receive autopsies, according to Progressive Pro-Life Uprising (PAAU).

On March 25, PAAU activists Terrisa Bukovinac and Lauren Handy recovered the remains of 115 children who were killed by D.C. abortionist Cesare Santangelo. (Bukovinac is an atheist with deep connections to Secular Pro-Life.) Most of the victims were killed legally and received a prompt burial. Five, however, displayed injuries suggesting that Santangelo violated the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Act or Born Alive Infant Protection Act. Those five bodies were surrendered to D.C. authorities. Unfortunately, D.C. politics are very pro-abortion; local officials refused to conduct autopsies or investigate further. They even insinuated that Bukovinac and Handy were the real criminals.

On April 9, Senator Ted Cruz sent a letter to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Police Chief Robert Contee, demanding that they preserve the evidence in this case. He specifically put them on notice that “these remains should not be destroyed, incinerated, or discarded, but instead should be respectfully preserved so that Congress can conduct necessary and vital oversight.”

Thankfully, D.C. authorities appear to have heeded those words. At a PAAU press conference last week, Sen. Cruz announced that the medical examiner will allow a private pathologist to examine the remains. He called it a “step in the right direction,” and I share that cautious optimism. Whether the five will receive justice, in the form of accountability for Santangelo, is an open question.

Sen. Cruz called upon Attorney General Merrick Garland to press charges, urging him that “there is a reason Lady Justice wears a blindfold; because justice does not have a party.” Those are moving words, but given that abortion-industry-aligned Democrats currently control the Senate and White House, we may have to wait until next year for real action. Republicans are expected to retake the Senate in the midterm elections, and Sen. Cruz vowed to use that majority to conduct Congressional hearings on late-term abortion.