By Calvin Freiburger
Published Wednesday, July 22, 2026 - 12:06 PM EDT

             WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — More than 50 Republican members of Congress are urging Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche to investigate the remains of unborn babies discarded years ago by an abortion facility in the nation’s capital for possible cases of infanticide that so far have evaded justice.

             In 2022, the group Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) discovered the remains of five aborted babies (warning: graphic images) in a crate outside the Washington Surgi-Clinic in D.C., operated by notorious late-term abortionist Cesare Santangelo. While the authorities refused to investigate, an initial medical examination indicated that some of them died by infanticide and partial-birth abortion, both of which are illegal.

             But instead of investigating, the federal government took action against the pro-lifers who exposed them. In August 2022, a D.C. jury found the pro-life activists guilty of conspiracy against rights and violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for blocking access to the Washington Surgi-Clinic in October 2020. President Donald Trump pardoned them and other pro-life activists during his first week back in office, but the possible crimes that they uncovered remain unsolved.

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks alongside FBI Director Kash Patel at a news conference at the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice building on April 21, 2026, in Washington, D.C.

             Now, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) are leading a letter urging Blanche to “comprehensively investigate the circumstances surrounding” those deaths, The Daily Wire reports. 

             “For four years, members of Congress have remained alarmed at this clear violation of life and law, but the Biden Administration Department of Justice refused to act,” the letter reads. “We cannot undo the grievous, barbaric acts that killed these children in their most vulnerable stage, but we equally cannot allow such lawlessness and inhumanity to evade our justice system any longer. Under President Trump’s and your leadership, we are hopeful that these children will finally receive the justice they deserve.”

             A Justice Department spokeswoman responded that the DOJ “is aware of the Senators’ request and takes these matters seriously. As with all allegations of potential criminal conduct, the Department will review the information carefully and will investigate any credible allegations of criminal actions. The Department remains committed to following the facts and the law wherever they lead.”

             The abortion lobby has long attempted to paint infanticide as an imaginary problem, but the facts show that it is very real. “Although the United States fails to record reliable data on abortion survivors, we have estimated, through Canadian government extrapolations, that 1,734 infants are born alive after a failed abortion procedure every year in the United States,” says the Abortion Survivors Network. “In other words, about 2 out of every 1,000 abortions result in a live birth. After 49.5 years of Roe v Wade, 85,817 babies lived through an abortion procedure.”

             In September 2024, the Family Research Council (FRC) wrote that “State-level abortion reporting statistics from nine states show that at least 277 infants have survived abortion since 2006.” Only eight states require reporting such data, and there are no federal reporting requirements on the subject, guaranteeing that the real number is higher. Several former abortion industry insiders and policy scholars have told Congress or admitted under oath that infanticide after failed abortions happens beyond the notice of official numbers.

             Infanticide is technically illegal nationwide under the under the federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002. However, BAIPA “did not directly create civil or criminal penalties,” as admitted by a 2019 PolitiFact article (which nevertheless gave Trump a “False” rating on the subject, which LifeSiteNews dissected at the time). That law was “toothless and purely symbolic,” the article quoted University of Massachusetts law professor and Pro-Life Legal Defense Fund member Dwight Duncan as saying. Yet for at least the past decade, congressional Democrats have consistently voted against the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would mandate basic medical care for abortion-surviving newborns with penalties that existing law lacks.

             As of September 2024, only 18 states have laws requiring medical care for infants delivered alive after attempted abortions, according to FRC, leaving abortionists free to commit infanticide in a majority of the country.

This article was published on July 22, 2026 and can be found online at: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/republicans-urge-trump-doj-to-investigate-brutally-aborted-late-term-babies-in-dc/?utm_source=featured-news