Pro-life Activist Found Not Guilty of Charges

01.02.2023

You probably recall from the last personal update or Lifezine the case of Mark Houck. The Catholic pro-life activist and father of seven whose home was raided by a squad of heavily armed FBI agents last year at dawn in front of his terrified family. The FBI arrested him at gun point.

On Monday, Mark Houck was found not guilty of assault charges outside an abortion clinic. The father of seven and his supporters were overjoyed at the aquittal as he embraced his family.

“We couldn’t have done it without faith,” he said.

Mark Houck embraces his family after being acquitted | Joe Bukuras/CNA

The incident stemmed from Mr Houck pushing away a man outside an abortion clinic who was allegedly crowding and verbally harassing his 12-year-old son.

The FBI's heavy-handed raid was condemned by pro-life activists and lawmakers, and charging him with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. A lower court had previously declined to prosecute Mr Houck.

Much of the trial was focused on whether Mr. Houck pushed the man because he was providing "reproductive health services" and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. The man repeatedly denied that he ever harassed Mr. Houck's son.

Pro-Life persecution

Mr Houck is only one of 26 non-violent pro-lifers whom Biden’s Justice Department under Attorney General Merrick Garland has arrested and charged on similar bogus charges. The Biden administration has allocated $25 million to investigate and file false, unwarranted charges against peaceful pro-life activists in addition to those already charged. 

Behind much of this is Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, an abortion zealot who has admitted she is acting essentially because she fears the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision will curtail too many women’s and abortionists’ ability to kill babies. (Not that she put it quite that way.) She heads Garland’s new government-wide Reproductive [sic] Rights [sic] Task Force, the stated purpose of which is to “protect access to reproductive [sic] health [sic] care [sic]”.