Fed’s Effort To Criminalize Pro-Lifers Fizzles In Philly
By DEACON MIKE MANNO
As I write this, we are receiving news that the pro-life sidewalk counselor, Mark Houck, was acquitted of all charges by a federal jury in Philadelphia, on charges that he was attempting to block access to an abortion facility.
To bring you up to date, the case started in October of 2021 when the father of seven was taking his usual place in front of a Planned Parenthood clinic. Mr. Houck was there praying and available to anyone who wished to visit. It was a routine, scheduled visit. That day an aggressive abortion escort, Bruce Love, was present and as usual hurled insults and other vulgarities at the pro-life counselors present.
That day Mark had his then 12-year-old son with him. At one point Mark and his son left the area and traversed some distance from the clinic while visiting with someone. He was approached by Mr. Love who was aggressively trying to bait Mark. Love temporarily left where Mark and his son were, but shortly came back and started to verbally harass the son, who tried to hide behind his father. Houck tried to protect his son from the abusive vitriol Love was spewing at the boy. As Love moved closer, Mark turned, bumped Love who fell to the ground. Remember, this all occurred several yards from the clinic entrance.
Philadelphia police refused to arrest Mark, so Love filed a citizen’s criminal complaint against him. Three times the case was called for trial and while Mark, his lawyers, and witnesses were present, Mr. Love never appeared. Once after such an incident, Mark returned to his position as a sidewalk counselor and was taunted by Love for having had to go to court. Finally, after his third no-show, the judge threw out Love’s complaint.
Then on September 23, 2022, almost a full year after the incident with Mr. Love, almost two dozen armed FBI agents, with long guns and a battering ram, pulled a pre-dawn raid at Houck’s home and, in front of his children and wife, took him into custody. Peter Breen, vice president, senior counsel, and head of litigation of the St. Thomas More Society, told my radio listeners that before the raid Houck and his legal team were in contact with the Justice Department and had offered to voluntarily turn him in if the DOJ wanted to pursue charges.
However, as in many such recent cases, the Biden administration ignored the offer and staged the raid anyway, likely in an effort to dissuade other pro-lifers from sidewalk counseling, much as the DOJ was used to intimidate parents from attending school board meetings.
Interestingly, on December 6, Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, in remarks to an audience celebrating the 65th anniversary of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, told those assembled that the administration was planning raids on pro-lifers as a response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. As she spoke 98 Catholic churches (it’s over 200 now) and another 77 pro-life pregnancy resource centers (and counting) had been vandalized by pro-abortion gangs.
Now, of course, one of the problems with the case against Houck was that he was charged with violating a federal law that prohibited blocking, or interfering with, clinic access. Since the episode between Mark and Love occurred at least half a Philadelphia city block from the clinic entrance it plainly had nothing to do with clinic access. Yet the DOJ, knowing that, and having witness’ statements in hand, ignored the facts and refused to reveal any of this information to the grand jury, according to Breen.
In fact, the administration actually sent in from Washington their key prosecutor in clinic access cases to prosecute Mark. The case opened Tuesday, January 24. On the morning of Monday, January 30 the jury returned a not guilty verdict on both counts. Had Mark been convicted he would have faced eleven years in prison.
Breen called the trial an attempt by the Biden administration to intimidate pro-lifers. After the verdict he said:
“This was a test case by the Biden Department of Justice to try to use and extend the Freedom of Access to Clinics Entrances Act to sidewalk counselors in altercations with aggressive abortion escorts. If Mark had been convicted today you would expect the Biden Administration to be coming after sidewalk counselors all over the country, and giving free license to abortion escorts to try to provoke confrontation with those sidewalk counselors…. It cannot be overstated how important this victory was today. . . .
“Now, with this not guilty verdict we clear the way for Congress to investigate more deeply what happened here and why is it that the Biden Administration is so hell-bent on going after the nation’s sidewalk counselors, who are providing such a valuable service to our country and especially to those who are seeking abortions or contemplating abortion?”
So, what should we make of this? After all, it wasn’t very long ago that Biden surrogates would apologetically refer to the president as a “devout Catholic.” That was the constant drumbeat anytime the issue of abortion came up. But note that lately no one uses that descriptive any longer. Ya think that folks are seeing the truth?
The other day the media were reporting on an episode on the White House lawn between a reporter and the president. The reporter noted that Catholic bishops were demanding that public tax dollars did not fund abortion. According to the account by Catholic League President Bill Donohue:
“In an angry reply, Biden pointed his finger and said, ‘No, they are not all doing that, nor is the Pope doing that.’ Biden’s monumental ignorance of basic Catholic teachings on abortion is startling.”
It is startling. And now his attack on pro-lifers, his promotion of abortion at any time for any reason, and now his advocating for “gender affirming” treatment for young people to include life-altering drugs, sometimes given without the knowledge of parents, as well as condoning transition surgery which mutilates, and ruins young bodies, gives the lie to where his head truly is.
By his actions, the president is telling us that he really does not understand the faith. Should he still claim to be Catholic? That’s not up to me to decide. But what I do know is that the Church hierarchy ought to step up to the plate and take on the bastardization of our faith that the president and his allies promote.
(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him on the Iowa Catholic Radio podcast at https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/)
