A federal jury has acquitted Kintnersville anti-abortion activist Mark Houck of charges that he violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act on Oct. 13, 2021 at a Planned Parenthood location in Philadelphia.
“Relief. Overjoyed. Blessed,” Houck said when asked to describe his feelings during a press conference after the jury’s verdict was announced Monday. “Grateful for the justice that we feel was finally served.”
A portion of the press conference was posted to the website of the Thomas More Society, an Illinois-based law firm that specializes in serving pro-life clients like Houck.
The FACE Act makes it a federal crime “to use force with the intent to injure, intimidate, and interfere with anyone because that person is a provider of reproductive health care,” according to a description of the Act the U.S. Attorney’s Office provided when it indicted Houck in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Prosecutors claimed that then-48-year-old Houck twice shoved to the ground a then-72-year-old volunteer escort who was helping two patients as they left the Planned Parenthood on Locust Street.
Attorneys with the society framed the incident as an altercation between Houck and “an abortion activist who repeatedly targeted Houck’s son with vulgar verbal attacks.” Furthermore, they argued, the incident did not meet the requirements for violating the FACE Act.
Peter Breen, the Thomas More Society’s head of litigation, characterized the prosecution of Houck as an overreach by a Biden administration Justice Department bent on intimidating Americans who vocally oppose abortion.
A call to the public affairs office of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania was not returned Tuesday morning.
Houck said he was “baited into a difficult situation and my son was brought into it” but he’d be resuming his activist activities “wiser” but “more bold than ever.”
“I’m ready to go back out,” he said. “I’m happy to continue the mission. The mission goes on....We wanted to protect the whole movement.”
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