FBI raid on home was meant to ‘instill fear in pro-life America,’ Mark Houck tells House panel

The Justice Department might want to forget about the Mark Houck debacle, but there’s no chance of that happening with House Republicans in charge.

The pro-life activist said Tuesday that his wife and seven children are still shaken by the FBI raid last year on his rural Pennsylvania home, where he was arrested at gunpoint for alleged violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. A jury acquitted him of the charges in January.

“My children were downrange of many guns, and they screamed through the whole process. The committee should know they were traumatized,” Mr. Houck told the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government.

Mr. Houck had previously offered to turn himself in to federal authorities. So why the raid?

“I’ve been thinking about that for many months, and I can only come up with that the intention was to humiliate me, to scare my children, and to instill fear in pro-life America,” Mr. Houck said.

His experience was front-and-center at the hearing on what Republicans described as the weaponization of the FACE Act, a 1994 federal law invoked last year by the Biden administration to arrest an estimated 26 pro-life activists, including Mr. Houck.

That’s more than six times the number of pro-choice activists charged so far by the Justice Department in the 80-plus attacks on pro-life offices and pregnancy centers following the May 2022 leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.

Rep. Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said the committee was concerned about “the unequal application of the FACE Act by the Biden administration.”

“Here’s the worst part. While these radical left-wing groups go unpunished, the Justice Department at the same time has unleashed federal law enforcement on pro-life advocates,” said Mr. Johnson, the subcommittee chair.

Democrats swung back by citing attacks on abortion clinics. The National Abortion Federation’s 2022 report on violence and disruption found death threats or threats of harm rose from 182 to 218, while stalkings increased from 28 to 92; burglaries rose by 231%, and four clinics were hit by arson.

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, Pennsylvania Democrat, said it would have made more sense to examine political violence and threats and attacks on public officials and law enforcement, all of which are on the rise, “but that’s not the purpose of this hearing.”

“This majority has stacked the hearing with witnesses to testify about only threats and violence impacting only anti-abortion facilities, while ignoring the far more numerous threats against facilities that provide abortion care and other reproductive health services,” she said.

The FACE Act applies to attacks on both abortion clinics and pro-life pregnancy centers, but the Justice Department has issued only four indictments against suspects linked to the radical pro-choice group Jane’s Revenge, which Mr. Johnson called “not even a drop in the bucket.”

Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, said “we’re sick of the double standard,” citing the Houck prosecution.

Why’s Joe Biden’s DOJ targeting pro-life advocates? https://t.co/K3JfVihmZ2

— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) May 16, 2023

Mr. Houck was arrested in September and charged with FACE Act violations stemming from a squabble with a Planned Parenthood volunteer outside a clinic in Philadelphia in October 2021.

Mr. Houck said he pushed the volunteer, Bruce Love, to the ground after he shouted at his 12-year-old son. Local prosecutors declined to bring charges. A civil lawsuit brought by Mr. Love was thrown out by the court.

Even so, Mr. Houck received a federal target letter last year. He offered through his attorney to turn himself in to authorities, but instead, an estimated 20 federal agents and state troopers descended on his home in what quickly became a cause celebre for pro-life groups.

He faced up to 11 years in prison, but was acquitted by a federal jury in Philadelphia.

Mr. Jordan accused the Justice Department of using the activist as “the example” because he checked the boxes by being a pro-life Catholic with seven children.

Mr. Houck said his children are still struggling to make sense of the episode.

“I see it every day in their faces. I see it in my wife. Just the fear in their eyes,” said Mr. Houck. “Certainly, they have a fear of law enforcement now, because the law enforcement guys come after the bad guys, not the good guys. So my children are confounded by that.”