BREAKING: Mark Houck cleared of FACE Act charges in rebuke to Justice Department’s aggressive prosecution

Philadelphia, Pa., Jan 30, 2023 / 13:23 pm (CNA).

Pro-life activist Mark Houck was found not guilty Monday on federal assault charges stemming from a shoving incident outside a Philadelphia abortion clinic.

Supporters of the Catholic father of seven children cried and hugged one another after the verdict was read in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia.

Houck, 48, of Kintnersville in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania, acknowledged that he twice pushed a volunteer escort outside a Planned Parenthood facility on Oct. 13, 2021, though Houck maintained he did so because the clinic volunteer was verbally harassing Houck’s 12-year-old son.

After local authorities declined to press charges, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) stepped in, dispatching a team of FBI agents to arrest Houck at gunpoint in front of his terrified wife and children.

The morning raid on Sept. 23, 2022, at the family’s home sparked outrage within pro-life circles and swift condemnation from many federal lawmakers, who blasted the FBI’s heavy-handed tactics and the Justice Department’s use of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. Though the 1993 federal law, known as the FACE Act, was written to also prosecute crimes at pro-life pregnancy facilities and places of worship, it has been used almost exclusively against pro-life activists.

Houck was charged with two counts of violating the act and faced 11 years in federal prison if convicted.

Houck was doing sidewalk counseling outside the clinic at the time of the 2021 incident in connection with his work with The King’s Men, a national men’s faith formation apostolate he runs.

Much of the testimony during the three-day trial focused on whether or not Houck pushed the clinic escort, 73-year-old Bruce Love, specifically because Love was providing reproductive health services, as detailed in the FACE Act. In his testimony, Love repeatedly denied verbally provoking Houck.

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.”

The jury began deliberations on the case on Friday but said they were “deadlocked” and would not come to a decision that night. They resumed deliberations Monday. An alternate juror took the place of one of the original jurors at about 1:30 Monday afternoon. After a brief deliberation, the jury found Houck not guilty on both counts.

The verdict is a victory for pro-life advocates who rallied to Houck’s defense and a rebuke to the Biden administration’s Justice Department, which has pledged to aggressively enforce the FACE Act in the wake of last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.

U.S. District Judge Gerald Pappert himself raised the possibility that the case should never have been brought to trial, asking the prosecution Thursday whether the federal FACE Act didn’t “seem to be stretched a little thin here.”

Following the uproar over his arrest, an online fund drive launched and has raised more than $405,000 as of Monday. Twenty-two U.S. House members and at least a dozen U.S. senators have also championed his cause.

This is a developing story.