U.S. attorney general confirms investigation into ‘DC Five’ aborted babies

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before the House Committee on Appropriations at the U.S. Capitol on June 23, 2025, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 24, 2025 / 18:07 pm (CNA).

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed this week that there is an “ongoing investigation” into the deaths of “the D.C. Five,” the five late-term aborted babies recovered from a Washington, D.C., abortion clinic three years ago.

During a June 23 House budget hearing for the Department of Justice, West Virginia Rep. Riley Moore noted that, in 2022, the D.C. Metropolitan Police “recovered the remains of five unborn children, apparently from a D.C. abortion mill, which appeared to be the victims … of a brutal partial-birth abortion.”

Moore asked Bondi — who was at the hearing to present the White House’s Department of Justice budget — if the government would “commit to working with me and this committee to conduct a full and fair investigation into the deaths of these children to ensure justice is served for the D.C. Five?”

Bondi confirmed that the controversy is “an ongoing investigation,” adding that she “cannot discuss that in this forum.”

“The D.C. Five” were found at the home of Catholic convert and pro-life activist Lauren Handy. The group Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising said it obtained the remains from reported whistleblowers who thought the killings may have violated federal laws against partial-birth abortion and infanticide.

Activists said the remains were from the Washington Surgi-Clinic, an abortion center in northwest D.C. operated by late-term abortionist Cesare Santangelo.

Following the discovery of the babies, pro-life House members and U.S. senators demanded autopsies to investigate if any of the abortions were performed after the babies were partially born, which would have violated the Partial-Birth Abortion Act and the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act.

“Public reporting suggests that President Biden’s [Department of Justice] directed the D.C. chief medical examiner to destroy the remains of the children without performing an autopsy, which the [examiner] appears not to have done yet,” Moore said at the Monday hearing.

Though President Joe Biden’s DOJ did not apparently investigate “the D.C. Five” case, it did prosecute multiple pro-life activists under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. Lauren Handy was one of the prosecuted activists and was charged for her role in a protest at an abortion clinic. 

She was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison until President Donald Trump pardoned her and 22 other pro-life activists in January. 

Although Bondi declined to share details about the open investigation, she noted that the “woman who retrieved those five fetuses was convicted and she was pardoned by President Trump, and they were basically unborn babies, is what is alleged … but I can’t discuss it any further.

The exchange between Moore and Bondi follows a May letter sent to interim Washington U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro by a coalition of nine pro-life organizations led by Advancing American Freedom. The letter urged Pirro to investigate the suspected infanticide of the D.C. Five.