According to Life News, a jury has acquitted a Pennsylvania pro-life activist accused of allegedly pushing a Planned Parenthood escort during a dispute outside of an abortion clinic.
Mark Houck, 48, was charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which makes it a federal criminal to use force with the intent to hurt, intimidate, or interfere with anybody who provides reproductive health care. He entered a not guilty plea.
The charges against Houck resulted from an incident outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Philadelphia in October 2021. Houck was accused of shoving Bruce Love, a clinic volunteer. The prosecution stated that the Catholic father and activist attacked Love in an attempt to disrupt the abortion clinic’s operations, which Houck rejected.
Instead, Houck alleges that Love was nasty and was harassing his son, and that he simply shoved Love to protect his child. Every father has that right even if he’s protecting his children from a member of the Politically Correct Death Squad.
In September 2022, multiple FBI officers arrested Houck at his home.
Shortly after Houck’s arrest last October, his attorney, Peter Breen, told Fox News Digital that the Department of Justice’s detention was an “outrageous abuse of power” aimed to scare pro-life Americans.
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL“The message from the Biden Department of Justice is pure intimidation against pro-life people and people of faith,” said Breen, who is senior counsel at the Thomas More Society. “Why in the world would you send this phalanx of officers heavily armed to this family’s home, violate the sanctity of their home, frighten their children? Why would you do that, other than just to send a message?”
The jury began deliberations on Friday and resumed Monday morning, with a gathering outside the courtroom praying, including Houck’s relatives. Around 1:30 p.m. Monday, a juror was replaced with an alternate juror, according to the Catholic News Agency. The decision was reached soon after.
“We took on Goliath — the full might of the United States government — and won,” said Peter Breen, the Thomas More Society’s executive vice president and head of litigation. “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.”
Last year, Bill Devlin, a pastor who has preached with Houck for more than 20 years, told The Christian Post that federal prosecutors looked to be “stretching the statute of the FACE Act.”
“We are deep brothers in the faith, and I’ve come alongside to undergird and support him because it’s the presumption of innocent until the government can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mark Houck violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act,” Devlin told the outlet.
Representative Chip Roy (R-TX) tweeted his congratulations on Houck’s acquittal.
“Good. Begs question of the $48 billion we give to DOJ… #StandUpForAmerica”
Good. Begs question of the $48 billion we give to DOJ… #StandUpForAmerica https://t.co/tuKQ1Ez1hA
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) January 30, 2023
