Pro-Life Dad Who Was Arrested by Dozens of FBI Agents with Guns Drawn, Has Been Acquitted
Thank the Lord
Months ago, dozens of FBI agents with gun drawn descended on the home of pro-life Christian Mark Houck, 48, to arrest him for allegedly violating pro-choice laws as wife and children looked on in horror. Last week, he was acquitted in a federal court. According to reports:
Houck was on trial for allegedly violating the Freedom of Access to Clinics Entrances Act (FACE Act) after he shoved a pro-abortion volunteer escort who was harassing his young son outside an abortion clinic in Philadelphia. The defense argued the law does not apply in this case and that Houck was protecting his son from verbal abuse.
The FACE Act prohibits “violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain, or provide reproductive health services.” Houck’s attorneys had argued he did nothing to interfere with anyone’s access to the abortion clinic where the incident occurred.
He was facing up to 11 years in prison and a $350,000 fine if the jury had sided with the Biden administration.
Prior to the raid on Houck’s home, attorneys with the Thomas More Society claimed to have sent emails to the FBI, explicitly offering to bring their client in for questioning — an attempt to avert any danger that could have accompanied a public arrest. Those emails, according to Houck’s attorneys, were unanswered — until more than a dozen heavily armed federal agents showed up at his home early one Friday morning to arrest him.
During the incident:
Houck was at the abortion clinic praying and ministering within his legal rights (on the sidewalk, not clinic property) when clinic volunter Bruce Love approached Houck’s 12-year-old son and began unleashing a string of vile comments, cursing the young man. That’s when Houck intervened, and eventually pushed Love in order to protect his son, causing Love to fall to the ground. The police were called but they eventually decided there was a “lack of evidence” of an assault taking place and declined to pursue the issue any further.
With the good news, Houck said he’s eager to head back out and do sidewalk counseling in front of the murder mills, saying “Sign me up, I’m ready to go back out. Pray, put me down for 10 o’clock, pray, I’ll be wherever you need me. Just happy to continue the mission, the mission goes on.”