A US pro-life activist has received a payout of more than A$1.5 million nearly four years after a terrifying early morning FBI raid on his home left he and his wife and seven children seriously traumatised.
Devout Christian Mark Houck was hounded by the Department of Justice (DOJ) over a minor altercation outside a Philadelphia abortion clinic and charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act by the Biden administration in 2022.
The faithful servant of the 40 Days for Life movement was later cleared of committing any crime.
President of 40 Days for Life, Shawn Carney, called the settlement a “huge legal victory for free speech.”
“A SMALL ARMY NEEDED TO ARREST A HUMBLE CHRISTIAN”
An initial attempt to prosecute Mr. Houck was dismissed when his accuser failed to appear at the hearing.
A year later, without any warning, around two dozen heavily armed FBI agents and police officers, described as a “small army”, banged on the door of the Houck home in a pre-dawn raid.
Even after Mark Houck surrendered peacefully, the agents kept their semi-automatic weapons pointed at his head and that of his wife Ryan-Marie, while their children screamed in terror.
That continued after their father was led away in shackles.
A COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY OPERATION
Outside, officers had surrounded the house and crouched behind their vehicles with guns drawn as if Mr. Houck was the Unabomber.
The operation was completely over the top and unnecessary.
The Department of Justice could have easily phoned Mr. Houck to come in for an interview.
With a large and much loved family to care for, he clearly wasn’t a flight risk.
But it seemed the DOJ wanted to terrorise that innocent family.
THE SUFFERING CAUSED BY THE FBI RAID
A subsequent lawsuit alleged Ryan-Marie experienced multiple miscarriages and suffered panic attacks.
The children had repeated nightmares and difficulty sleeping.
Mr. Houck suffered from anxiety after losing speaking engagements and business opportunities and saw his professional reputation “tarnished.”
WHY WAS MARK HOUCK CHARGED IN THE FIRST PLACE?
The charges against Mr Houck stemmed from an incident that took place as he and his 12-year-old son prayed outside an abortion clinic in 2021.
A volunteer reproductive health care escort then began harassing the boy and yelling at him.
Mr. Houck gently pushed him away and the man fell to the ground with no serious injury.
The escort didn’t even turn up at the first attempt to prosecute the father.
After a jury acquitted Mr. Houck in early 2023, he and his wife filed a lawsuit alleging that the DOJ engaged in malicious and retaliatory prosecution, abuse of process, false arrest and assault.
“A SIGNIFICANT REBUKE OF THE DOJ’S CONDUCT UNDER BIDEN”
After a judge dismissed their lawsuit in March last year, the Houcks took the case to a Court of Appeals.
That resulted in the seven-figure settlement.
40 Days for Life said the outcome “marks a significant rebuke of the DOJ’s conduct under the Biden administration and underscores growing concerns about the weaponisation of federal law enforcement against pro-life Americans.”
CEO Shawn Carney called it a “massive victory for the pro-life movement at large” as well as “a huge victory for all Americans who want our right to speak our minds peacefully in a law-abiding way without fear of our own government.”
The Trump DOJ is due to release a report concluding that the Biden administration “shattered the public’s trust by weaponising the FACE Act to advance a pro-abortion agenda.”
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