A Philadelphia jury acquitted Mark Houk, the devoted Catholic father of seven, of federal assault charges for supposedly shoving an abortion clinic volunteer.
Peter Breen, Thomas More Society Executive Vice President and Head of Litigation, said via email: “We are, of course, thrilled with the outcome. Mark and his family are now free of the cloud that the Biden administration threw upon them. We took on Goliath – the full might of the United States government – and won. The jury saw through and rejected the prosecution’s discriminatory case, which was harassment from day one. This is a win for Mark and the entire pro-life movement. The Biden Department of Justice’s intimidation against pro-life people and people of faith has been put in its place.”
Houck Trial: Post-Verdict Press Conference, January 30, 2023 from Thomas More Society on Vimeo.
I also wondered what happened with the juror dismissed this morning. Houk’s attorney said the juror didn’t participate in the deliberations, so they brought in an alternate. An hour late…not guilty.
Kind of suspicious, you know?
The alleged incidents occurred in October 2021 at a Planned Parenthood in Philadelphia. Witnesses said Houck tried to counsel women outside an abortion clinic, offering them help and support when a volunteer allegedly confronted Houck’s son.
The 72-year-old man allegedly threatened Houck’s 12-year-old son. Like any normal father, Houck rescued his son by pushing the volunteer away from his young son. The guy fell down:
On several occasions when Mark went to sidewalk counsel last year, he took his eldest son, who was only 12 at the time, she explained. For “weeks and weeks,” a “pro-abortion protester” would speak to the boy saying “crude … inappropriate and disgusting things,” such as “you’re dad’s a fag,” and other statements that were too vulgar for her to convey.Repeatedly, Mark would tell this pro-abortion man that he did not have permission to speak to his son and please refrain from doing so. And “he kept doing it and kind of came into [the son’s] personal space” obscenely ridiculing his father. At this point, “Mark shoved him away from his child, and the guy fell back.”“He didn’t have any injuries or anything, but he tried to sue Mark,” and the case was thrown out of court in the early summer.
The guy tried to sue Houck, but the state of Pennsylvania dropped the charges. What 72-year-old harasses and swears out a 12-year-old, especially one who wasn’t doing anything? Disgusting and vile behavior.
Find me a parent who doesn’t do everything they can to protect their child.
But to the shock of no one, Biden’s DOJ swooped in and charged Houck after domestic terrorists spent months destroying and vandalizing churches and pregnancy centers.
In September, 25-20 FBI agents raided Houck’s house and arrested him in front of his wife and children. They alleged he violated the FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) Act.
The way the FBI arrested him, you’d think he went on a murderous rampage:
According to his wife Ryan-Marie, who spoke with LifeSiteNews, he also drives two hours south to Philadelphia every Wednesday to sidewalk counsel for six to eight hours at two different abortion centers.Ryan-Marie, who is a homeschooling mother, described how the SWAT team of 25 to 30 FBI agents swarmed their property with around 15 vehicles at 7:05 a.m. this morning. Having quickly surrounded the house with rifles in firing position, “they started pounding on the door and yelling for us to open it.”Before opening the door, she explained, her husband tried to calm them, saying, “‘Please, I’m going to open the door, but, please, my children are in the home. I have seven babies in the house.’ But they just kept pounding and screaming,” she said.When he opened the door, “they had big, huge rifles pointed at Mark and pointed at me and kind of pointed throughout the house,” Ryan-Marie described.When they came in, they ordered the kids to stay upstairs. “Our staircase is open, so [the kids] were all at the top of the stairs which faces the front door, and I was on the stairs as well, coming down.”“The kids were all just screaming. It was all just very scary and traumatic,” she explained.After asking them why they were at the house, the agents said they were there to arrest Mark. When Ryan-Marie asked for their warrant, “they said that they were going to take him whether they had a warrant or not.”
WFMZ reported what the prosecution had to prove:
To find Houck guilty, the government needed to prove three things beyond a reasonable doubt:- that Houck intentionally pushed Love, causing him bodily injury.- that Houck interfered with Love’s job as a reproductive healthcare worker.- that Houck attacked Love specifically because he is a reproductive healthcare worker.
Reminder why the confrontation happened between Houck and the volunteer: The 72-year-old man harassed and expressed cruelty toward Houck’s 12-year-old son.
It had everything to do with protecting his son and nothing to do with the vile old man volunteering at an abortion clinic.
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