A 48-year-old father and Catholic pro-life activist who was raided by the FBI and arrested for supposedly assaulting an abortion worker was cleared of federal charges of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act on Monday. While the FBI continues to ignore Joe Biden’s illicit hoarding of classified documents, it aggressively targeted Mark Houck. Fortunately, in this case, the feds did a big FACEplant.
A jury deadlock delayed the decision, but Houck was ultimately acquitted of both charges of violating the FACE Act. That’s the first good news Houck’s family has gotten since the September 2022 FBI raid and his arrest. “A Pennsylvania federal grand jury indicted Houck for allegations that he assaulted an abortion clinic volunteer, Bruce Love, in Philadelphia in September 2022,” The Daily Caller explained. “Federal officials claimed that Houck violated the FACE Act by using ‘force with the intent to injure, intimidate, and interfere with anyone because that person is a provider of reproductive health care.’” But the jury found that wasn’t the case.
Houck pleaded not guilty to the charges. Both he and the 40 Days for Life legal counsel said Houck pushed Bruce Love away while defending his 12-year-old son from verbal abuse in October 2021. Furthermore, the legal counsel said the FACE Act only applies to an altercation over abortion, which was not Houck’s case (he was contesting Love’s verbal abuse of his son), and that the FACE Act does not apply to volunteers like Love. The abortion volunteer also approached Houck down the street from the abortion clinic, not just outside the clinic.
Yet, a SWAT team of between 25 and 30 FBI agents stormed Houck’s house in September, pointing guns at Houck, his wife, and his seven children. The children reportedly pleaded with the FBI agents surrounding their house in the early morning not to arrest their father.
As PJ Media’s Paula Bolyard previously wrote, citing Mrs. Houck, “For ‘weeks and weeks,’ a pro-abortion protester got in her son’s face, screaming ‘crude… inappropriate and disgusting things… such as, ‘Your dad’s a fag’’ and other statements too vile for the Catholic mom to repeat.” Houck repeatedly asked Love to stop screaming and violating his son’s personal space, but Love refused, so finally, Houck shoved Love away from his son. Love was not injured but still sued Houck, as if he were the victim instead of the victimizer. The feds, who have largely ignored hundreds of instances of pro-abortion violence, tried to use the incident to target the pro-life Houck.
40 Days for Life’s general counsel Mark Britton celebrated the ruling in Houck’s favor: “This is a win not just for the pro-life movement and Mark but for free speech and every single American. The federal government trumped up charges months after a local case had been dismissed. If the feds had prevailed, every argument in front of every abortion facility, no matter the subject, could result in federal charges.”
Unfortunately, despite this good news, the fight is not over. Of eleven pro-life activists charged by the Justice Department in October with FACE violations, seven face up to 11 years of jail time and $350,000 in fines, The Daily Caller said, while five face a year in prison and fines up to $10,000.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member