Terrisa Lin Bukovinac (born April 4, 1981) is an American anti-abortion activist. A member of the Democratic Party, she formerly served as president of Democrats for Life of America and is currently a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in the 2024 United States presidential election, with the intent of running a campaign to outlaw abortion. She is a subject of the 2022 documentary film Battleground which profiles three leading women in the anti-abortion movement.
Terrisa Bukovinac | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | April 4, 1981 |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Occupation | Anti-abortion activist |
| Political party | Democratic |
Political career
In 2017, she founded Pro-Life San Francisco and became the president of Democrats for Life of America in 2020. The following year, she founded Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU).
In 2022, Bukovinac and Lauren Handy claimed to have uncovered the remains of 115 aborted fetuses from a medical waste box taken from outside of the Washington Surgi-Clinic in Washington, D.C. They believed that five of them were old enough to be viable outside the womb, which if true would mean the clinic violated the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act and the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. According to Bukovinac and Handy, the remains of 110 of the fetuses were buried by a priest after a funeral mass, and they contacted the DC Medical Examiner to coordinate the retrieval of the remaining five fetuses in hopes that they would perform an autopsy. Along with some Republican senators, PAAU has pushed for an investigation into the Washington Surgi-Clinic, specifically relating to the circumstances of those five aborted fetuses. D.C. authorities declined to perform an autopsy and stated that the five fetuses appeared to have been aborted in accordance with D.C. law, which permits abortion in all nine months of pregnancy.
Bukovinac announced her presidential candidacy in early September 2023. Her campaign is being managed by Catherine Glenn Foster, who was previously president of Americans United for Life and served as council for the Alliance Defending Freedom; both organizations were vital in overturning Roe v. Wade. In relation to her views on abortion, Bukovinac supports a federal abortion ban, defunding Planned Parenthood, repealing the FACE Act and pardoning individuals convicted of crimes related to it, and decreasing costs related to giving birth.
As of December 31, 2023, Bukovinac's campaign had raised more than $28,000.
Political views
In addition to her support for the anti-abortion movement, Bukovinac supports increased workers rights including:
- increased parental leave,
- personhood for the pre-born, under the 14th Amendment.
She is a former pro-abortion Christian but now an anti-abortion atheist.