A group of members of Congress has sent a letter to the acting US Attorney General requesting that the Department of Justice investigate the 2022 discovery of the bodies of five infants who may have been illegally aborted or left to die shortly after birth.

“We write to urge the Department of Justice to comprehensively investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths of five preborn children whose remains are held by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in the District of Columbia to identify whether they were victims of the crimes of infanticide or partial-birth abortion,” said the July 20 letter, which was signed by 57 members of Congress.

The letter, first reported by the Daily Wire, was addressed to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Jeanine Ferris Pirro, US Attorney for the District of Columbia. The lead signatories were Sen. Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, and Rep. Chris Smith, Republican of New Jersey.

The five bodies were discovered in March 2022 in a box of medical waste from the office of the late-term abortionist Dr Cesare Santangelo at the Washington Surgi-Clinic in Washington, DC. According to the letter, a whistleblower working for a medical waste company gave the box, which also contained the remains of 110 legal first-trimester abortions, to members of the activist group Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU).

“The injuries observed on 5 nearly full-term babies recovered from the box suggest that they were aborted with federally illegal methods, or left to die after being born alive,” states PAAU's website, Justice for the Five. The organisation says doctors who examined photographs of the bodies concluded that four appeared to have been viable premature infants.

In Washington, DC, abortion is legal throughout pregnancy without gestational limits, although certain methods of late-term abortion are prohibited under federal law.

The letter claims that the Department of Justice did not investigate the discovery during President Joe Biden's administration, potentially in violation of federal law. It argues that, under the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002, “these five children should have experienced equal protection under the law at any stage of development, including as abortion survivors”.

The letter further alleges that at least one of the infants appears to have been killed through an illegal partial-birth abortion, citing what it describes as “deep lacerations to the posterior neck”.

“If this baby girl was alive when the abortionist made these lacerations, then her death directly violated the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, which criminalises the partial deliverance of a living child for the purpose of performing an overt act that intentionally takes the life of the child,” the letter states.

This is not the first time Lee and Smith have called for an investigation. On April 8, 2022, about a week after the bodies were discovered, they joined 69 other members of Congress in requesting that then-Attorney General Merrick Garland investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths.

“The Department of Justice never provided a substantive response or indicated that any investigation had occurred. On the contrary, after two years of inaction, reports indicated that the Department of Justice advised the Chief Medical Examiner to discard the bodies of the infants,” the July 2026 letter states.

The bodies were not discarded.

The letter notes that former Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed in 2025 that the Department of Justice was investigating the case.

“After years of inaction by the Biden administration, we write to you again to reiterate these concerns and request that DOJ promptly complete a thorough investigation into the death of each child, including autopsies of the infants and the preservation of all collected evidence,” the lawmakers wrote.

They continued: “Additionally, we request that you ensure these children receive a proper and respectful burial once the investigation is complete and all responsible parties have been brought to justice.”

While the “grievous, barbaric acts that killed these children in their most vulnerable stage” cannot be undone, the letter concludes, “we equally cannot allow such lawlessness and inhumanity to evade our justice system any longer.”