Sen. Ted Cruz joined pro-life advocates Thursday to demand an investigation into the bodies of five late-term aborted babies who may have been illegally killed in Washington, D.C.
Pro-life advocates with the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) said they found the bodies of five late-term aborted babies and more than 100 first-trimester aborted babies in late March in boxes from the Washington Surgi-Clinic, a late-term abortion facility in Washington, D.C.
Questions about whether the five were illegally aborted through partial-birth abortion methods or born alive and left to die remain unanswered, but Cruz said the D.C. medical examiner recently agreed to allow a private autopsy, the Catholic News Agency reports.
“We’ve learned that an attorney for PAAU has confirmed that the D.C. medical examiner has agreed to allow a private pathologist to examine the bodies of the five babies,” Cruz said. “This is a step in the right direction.”
The Texas Republican and pro-life advocates made the announcement at a press conference outside the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., while questioning why city and federal authorities have not conducted their own investigation, according to the report.
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“On the face of this, the evidence, the remains of these five children strongly suggests a violation of criminal law that, to date, the attorney general [Merrick Garland] is turning a blind eye to because his political preferences incline him in that direction,” Cruz said.
He also criticized the news media for scrutinizing pro-life advocates for obtaining the babies’ bodies, rather than the abortionist who killed them, CNA reports.
“Much of the media attention is focused on the activists …. who obtained the bodies, not on the abortionist who took the lives of these children; and not on the government officials in the District of Columbia and what they were doing with the remains or whether they were going to conduct an investigation,” Cruz continued.
PAAU executive director Terrisa Bukovinac thanked Cruz for his commitment to justice for the aborted babies.
“Senator Cruz and I both recognize the brutality of late-term abortion and the critical need for immediate action,” Bukovinac said in a statement. “These babies found by myself and Lauren Handy are likely victims of federal crimes at the hands of their killer Cesare Santangelo. It’s time for Merrick Garland to uphold the duties of his office by investigating these deaths and holding their killer accountable.”
Pro-life leaders named the babies Ángel, Holly, Phoenix, Harriet and Christopher X. They said they also named the 110 first-trimester aborted babies who they found in boxes outside the abortion facility and gave them a funeral Mass and burial.
Here’s more from the report:
Father Bill Kuchinsky of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston in West Virginia previously told CNA that he buried the other 110 aborted babies in a dignified way.
The Washington Post reported April 1 that D.C. officials said the city’s medical examiner would not perform autopsies on the five babies. Executive Assistant Chief of D.C. Police Ashan Benedict said at a March 31 press conference that the five babies “were aborted in accordance with D.C. law.”
The pro-life organizations Students for Life, Americans United for Life, Rehumanize International and Concerned Women for America also participated in the press conference.
Washington, D.C. allows unborn babies to be aborted for basically any reason up to birth, and the Washington Surgi-Clinic advertises abortions at “27 plus weeks of pregnancy,” which is long past the point when babies are viable outside the womb.
Years ago in an undercover investigation by Live Action, Santangelo admitted that he “probably wouldn’t” help a baby who survives an abortion even though “legally we would be obligated to help.” He later backtracked on that statement in an interview with the Washington Post.
This spring, dozens of U.S. Congressional leaders demanded a federal investigation into the babies’ deaths. However, some expressed doubts that the U.S. Department of Justice will do anything, pointing out that pro-abortion Democrat officials with the Biden administration lead the agency.
