WASHINGTON — Joseph Lash says he was not expecting that the battle over abortion rights would be delivered directly to his mailbox.
The D.C. resident says this past weekend he received two flyers at his home in the Berkley neighborhood near Palisades that read, “Beware Dr. Cesare Santangelo, late-term abortionist, resides in our neighborhood," the medical expert's home address is also included.
“It looked like a thinly veiled threat against him and his family," says Lash, who posted about the mail on the social media application Next Door.
Only one of the handouts contains a stamp, Lash thinks that the other might have been delivered in person. The flyers attributed to the group, Created Equal contain a photograph of a fetus that according to anti-abortion activists is one of five found inside the Capitol Hill home of Terrisa Bukovinac and Lauren Handy in March.
On the back of the flyers, it reads:
"On March 25, 2022, five aborted children who were retrieved by a whistleblower were killed by late-term abortionist Cesare Santangelo at his Surgi-Clinic in Washington, D.C. Since then, an investigation has been called for into whether Santangelo violated federal law. This violence against innocent children has no place in our nation."
Santangelo has been licensed to practice in D.C. for more than 20 years without any disciplinary issues on his record.
Lash expressed concern for his neighbor and other health professionals.
“I think we are going to see a lot more of it. It is really scary to see it close to home, a couple blocks away," he added.
The handouts come days after the Virginia Fusion Center, an anti-terrorism and violence partnership between the Virginia State Police and Department of Emergency Management warned about potential unrest related to the Supreme Court leak.
They alerted their members about potential threats to large public gatherings, possible cyberattacks, and as well as the release of personal information to increase targeted attacks known as doxing.
But abortion rights activists also have faced criticism for sharing personal information like the addresses of the Supreme Court Justice’s homes which have led to weeks of protests in Maryland and Virginia.
The events outside the residences of Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Samuel Alito were mentioned Wednesday during a hearing on abortion rights held by the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Rep. Darrell Issa, from California, criticized that none of his Democratic colleagues have denounced the protests.
Anti-abortion activist Catherine Glenn Foster echoed his sentiment and added, “It fits the narrative, the leaker meant to bring up chaos and public pressure."
However, Lash disagrees with the sentiment.
"Victims are showing up to Supreme Court’s houses, aggressors are delivering home addresses and physical threats, not peaceful protests,” Lash said.
We reached out to Created Equal, the group whose name appears on the flyers that showed up in the D.C. neighborhood but we have not heard back in time for this report.