Pro-life dad, Mark Houck has been acquitted.
A trial by jury found the father of seven not guilty of breaching the 1994 FACE act during an altercation provoked by 73-year-old Bruce Love.
In a video of the incident, Love, an abortion “escort” volunteer with Planned Parenthood, can be seen charging at Houck on a public walkway.
Houck, 49, was outside the “safe access” zone (SAZ), with his son when the apparent breach of laws protecting the practice of abortion occurred.
Court testimony quoted by The Daily Wire, recalled Houck’s son saying, “Love was at an arm’s length distance, saying, “Your dad’s a bad person. Your dad’s harassing women” and so I moved away… because I was scared.”
The abortion activist refused Houck’s requests to stop targeting his son with abuse, which led to Houck pushing the abortion “escort” away.
Love then fell backwards landing on the sidewalk.
The acquittal is contra to the Biden administration’s heavy-handed prosecution of the pro-life advocate.
Houck was arrested and then charged with two separate counts of breaching the FACE act, in the early hours of Friday morning in September last year.
Guns out, an anti-terror FBI SWAT team terrorised the Houck family, swarming their home, in what was a politically motivated attempt by the Biden White House to intimidate the pro-life movement, post-Roe V. Wade.
Both charges concerned Houck pushing Bruce Love, which the prosecution’s prejudiced version of events, alleged that Houck had ‘interfered with a so-called volunteer abortion patient escort.’
If convicted, Houck faced up to 11 years in federal prison.
Defending Houck, the Thomas More Society, counter-argued, “he is innocent of these lawless charges, and we intend to prove that in court.
“He had a one-off altercation with a man who harassed Houck’s minor son, approximately 100 feet from the abortion business and across the street.”
TMS delivered.
Chief litigator, Peter Breen argued the FACE act does not “‘”cover disputes between advocates on the public sidewalks outside of our nation’s abortion clinics.”
Breen, quoting Democrat, Ted Kennedy, one of the architects of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, obliterated the prosecution’s case by reminding them, “Clinic escorts are excluded, because they do not provide reproductive health services in a facility, as required under the FACE Act.”
Backed by the facts, Breen asserted, “[This proves the] Biden Department of Justice’s prosecution of Mark Houck is pure harassment, meant solely to intimidate our nation’s pro-life sidewalk counsellors who provide vital resources to help pregnant women at risk for abortion.”
Houck’s defence, questioned the CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania, Dayle Steinberg, who ‘conceded,’ that Bruce Love was in violation of Planned Parenthood’s own non-engagement rules.
Steinberg also suspended Love after the incident.
Updates from the case posted by TMS, recalled Love, admitting under cross-examination,
“Mark’s sidewalk counselling activities were fully legal and proper, and if Love hadn’t initiated the confrontations, they would not have happened at all.”
After Houck’s acquittal, Breen further described the DOJ’s prosecution of the pro-life dad as “abusive,” adding, “the FBI raid on his home back in September was “absolutely outrageous.”
Outside the court, Houck took to prayer, thanked God, and then prayed for his accusers.
The political persecution of the pro-life movement is as clear as day.
This includes the kid-gloves treatment of far-left extremism by the Woke desk jockeys in the White House’s justice department.
A Family Research Council report covered by Caldron Pool in December exposed the inconsistency in how the DOJ treats pro-abortion criminals versus their pro-life victims. (See here)
It’s worth restating that this double standard is not the exception, it’s the rule.
Houck’s victory is a massive blow to this double standard.
It also puts a huge thorn in the side of the Biden administration’s sinister posturing to its voter base, militarising the government to enforce the violent termination of an unborn child’s life in the womb.
Talking with Hannity, Breen said, “They were trying to scare pro-lifers from coming out on the sidewalks, and being active. Biden’s DOJ sent their best prosecutor – the top guy for FACE prosecutions – to help deal with the case. Once the jury was properly seated, it took them about an hour to find Mark not guilty.”
