Mark Houck, a Pennsylvania dad was recently acquitted of all charges after being accused of pushing a Planned Parenthood escort. The Biden administration had sought to put Houck behind bars for 11 years, but the jury found him not guilty after only an hour of deliberations.
It all started when Houck and his son encountered a volunteer, Bruce Love, outside an abortion clinic. Love was standing too close to the boy and making him visibly scared as well as reportedly making vulgar and disparaging comments to the boy. Houck, a Catholic dad, tried to protect his son by telling Love to move away. But when Love persisted, Houck pushed him away.
The Biden administration thought this was a violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and sought to prosecute Houck. But the jury disagreed and found him not guilty.
The FBI showed up at Houck’s house with a SWAT team of 25 people, all armed with guns, and raided his home in front of Houck’s wife and seven children.
“They said they were going to break in if he didn’t open it,” wife Ryan-Marie previously told Catholic News Agency, “and then they had about five guns pointed at my husband, myself, and basically at my kids.”
Peter Breen from the Thomas More Society, the organization representing Houck, said the case was a big victory for the pro-life movement. He said the Biden administration was trying to scare pro-lifers from being active, but the jury sent a clear message that this kind of behavior is not acceptable.
“What we did was win a big victory for the pro-life movement against the Biden administration,” Breen said. “They were trying to scare pro-lifers from coming out on the sidewalks and being active. Biden, that DOJ, sent their best prosecutor, the top guy for face prosecutions from Washington, to help deal with this case in Philly, and that jury, once we finally got it seated fully, took about an hour to find Mark not guilty on all charges.”
