What Happened to the Houck Family?
There doesn’t seem to be too much love right now in the City of Brotherly Love.
Last weekend 100 “youths” in Philadelphia starred in a viral video while ransacking a Wawa.
On Monday Philadelphia surpassed its 400th homicide in 2022. Neither of these recent headlines are sparking meaningful action from law-enforcement officials like PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who is now running for governor. And don’t expect to hear from Shapiro on the FBI’s diabolical invasion on an innocent suburban family of nine.
Wait, what?
More than 11 months ago (yes, it’s been almost a year) a father named Mark Houck and his 12-year-old son were praying outside a Philadelphia Planned Parenthood. The 74-year-old male escort on duty at the clinic—nicknamed “12th and Locust” by regular sidewalk counselors—began verbally harassing the family. It comes with the territory: getting flipped the bird, hearing obscenities shouted from car windows, being spat upon or dodging a flying projectile.
And these “escorts” are notorious for being less than friendly to the Pro-life contingent. The escort, often a volunteer, is tasked with making sure a pregnant woman does not stop to talk to the sidewalk counselor. Otherwise, she might choose to forego her scheduled abortion, and Planned Parenthood can’t profit if she chooses life!
This wasn’t the first time 12th and Locust has had its moment in the spotlight. In 2019 the abortion mill made national headlines when PA state representative Brian Sims harassed a group of young girls praying outside. Sims promised $100 to anyone who could publicize the names and addresses of the filmed minors.
But the Pro-life movement is bigger than the media would have you believe, and Sims’ disgraceful doxxing sparked a retaliation from major Pro-life advocates including Abby Johnson, Lila Rose, and Matt Walsh, who organized a gathering of several hundred outside the facility.
Every Wednesday for 20 years, Mark Houck had prayed outside 12th and Locust. The escorts know him, and they know they can’t shake him. So one day, when he brought his 12-year-old son, they went after the boy instead.
The escort aggressively approached the minor, intruding on his personal space and spewing homophobic slurs. When Houck pushed the man away from his son, the man fell to the ground, requiring medical attention—”a Band-Aid,” according to Brian Middleton, a spokesman for the Houcks.
It’s all on video.
According to Peter Breen, the Houck family’s lawyer, “The Philadelphia D.A. refused to press charges, and he’s not a friend of Pro-life…then the alleged victim filed a private criminal complaint which, eventually, the local courts threw out because the guy couldn’t be bothered to show up for the hearings.”
Houck even offered to appear in front of the FBI voluntarily. Months ago.
Mark Houck’s wife, the mother of their seven children, joined Tucker Carlson Wednesday night, to talk about the arrival of more than 20 agents at the Houcks’ home in suburban Philly “in jackets with shields and helmets and guns.”
“If you’re going to arrest a regular person,” explained lawyer Breen, “you send a couple agents, you knock on the door. Dragging the head of the family out, violating the sanctity of the home, pointing guns at them…this was outrageous and uncalled for.”
All seven children were home.
“This was not a federal crime,” Breen said. “We have controlling case law on that. Strong defenses.
Then why was it picked up at the federal level, after being declined as a misdemeanor prosecution by a George Soros prosecutor in the city? Who gave orders for the Houck’s home to be targeted by the FBI? The signal for seven children to be held at gunpoint?
22 members of Congress are demanding an answer from Attorney General Merrick Garland.
But I’ll give you the answer.
Mark Houck stands for everything the Left wants to squash: positive fatherhood, strong Catholicism, and the conviction to make abortion unthinkable. He represents what is good and true in American culture. He’s an above-average American. He’s Father Knows Best. The dad next door. That’s why they went after him.
Breen concurs. “They’ve taken an innocent man and made an example out of him, presumably to send a message to Pro-life people and people of faith across this country.”
Mrs. Houck described the current state of her home. “We’ve had some counseling. We have more counseling to do. And the little ones, they’re scared. There’s a lot of crying. A lot of unrestful sleep. A lot of kids in our bed at night—and in the morning.”
If Houck is wrongly convicted of violating the FACE Act of 1994, he faces 11 years in prison, 3 years of probation, and $350,000 in fines. Pro-lifers mobilized immediately to raise $346,000 (and counting) on GiveSendGo for the Houck family.
The words of former President Trump—whose Florida home was also recently raided by the FBI—have never been truer:
“They’re not after me. They’re after you.”
