The next 11 years of Mark Houck’s life were in the hands of a Philadelphia jury.
Houck had been charged in September 2021 with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, a Clinton-era federal law that prohibits obstruction or intimidation of any person receiving or performing “reproductive health services.”
Before we continue, consider that disingenuous phrase “reproductive health services.” It’s the same Newspeak that the Left seeks to use for abortion clinics, which simultaneously attempting to manipulate federal criminal statutes to penalize life-affirming clinics as “deceptive.”
This is the criminal side of “Lawfare,” as practiced by the Deep State.
You can also be charged with violation of the FACE Act for intentional damage or destruction of property of such a clinic. Since Biden’s installation as president, this act has been used to secure the indictments of 25 sidewalk counselors in just the last year.
Meanwhile, only four individuals have been charged with FACE violations in the same period for violently attacking pregnancy resource centers. So much for blind justice.
If the FACE Act were to be administered in an equitable fashion, we’d be seeing many more indictments of members of Jane’s Revenge, a violent crew of far-left vandals who’ve been on a criminal rampage against pregnancy resource centers and maternity homes across the nation. This criminal conspiracy has only gotten worse since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last June.
Yet, Biden’s weaponized Department of Justice raided the home of Mark Houck, father of seven, early on a fall morning for a “crime” committed a year earlier.
The crime? Pushing a creepy, sex-obsessed seventy-plus Planned Parenthood escort away from his then-12-year-old son.
The trial began at a Philadelphia federal court last Wednesday and was attended and live-tweeted by Joe Bukuras of Catholic News Agency. Bukuras noted the packed courthouse and abundance of rosaries—and tears—each day.
According to Bukuras, the jury declared a deadlock on Friday and adjourned until Monday.
Bukuras reported that on Monday morning, US District Court Judge Gerald Pappert had each member of the jury brought to his chambers to speak with himself and counsel for both parties. Then, shortly after 1:30 P.M., one juror was replaced by an alternate. Reasons for the switch have not been publicly disclosed. Approximately one hour later, the not-guilty verdict was in.
“I’m George Bailey today,” said Houck after he and his team were dismissed.
The first thing the Houck family would do after his acquital, the father declared, would be to get some celebratory ice cream.
This was a total victory over Biden’s Orwellian, anti-free-speech mandarins in the DOJ. But the fact remains that this chilling indictment was a disgrace and an embarrassment to American jurisprudence.
The complaint insinuated that Houck was keeping pregnant women from entering Planned Parenthood by use of obstruction or intimidation. Video footage proves Houck and his son were far from the entrance to the clinic at a nearby street corner, merely praying, protesting, or offering women a different option.
A street corner is public property. That’s why Houck’s lawyers drove home the argument that this was a First Amendment issue.
The old man, Bruce Love, functioned—we employ the past tense here because he has since been relieved of his volunteer duties—as an “escort” for Planned Parenthood.
The footage also shows that Love approached Houck and his son, breaking Planned Parenthood’s stated rules of engagement. The Houcks testified that the oddly-misnamed Love berated them with obscene taunts, including homophobic slurs, supposedly a major no-no for the party of Peter Buttigieg, Sam Brinton and Ed Buck.
When “B. L.”—as he was known to his Planned Parenthood pals—got too close to the 12-year-old, Houck pushed him to the ground.
At most, this case belonged in some low-level state court. In fact, it was dismissed in municipal court in Philadelphia after “victim” Bruce Love repeatedly refused to make an appearance.
Recall that phrase “reproductive health services.” The next 11 years—the length of the potential prison sentence—of Mark Houck’s life were contingent upon how the jury defined the abortion escort.
Biden’s Democrat prosecutors unconvincingly argued that Houck shoved Love because he was providing “reproductive health services.”
This is precisely why the FACE Act is such bad law, why it should never have been enacted, not to mention why it should be stricken from the federal criminal code.
An abortion escort is not a “reproductive health service” provider. Bruce Love was never a “health service provider.” If you can classify an abortion escort as such, they are legally untouchable. They can call you names, they can spit on you—and they will—but if you make one wrong move they’ll throw you into federal prison and throw away the key.
For 11 years.
The Biden DOJ wants to intimidate you, the protestor, the sidewalk counselor, the rosary-sayer. They want you to imagine The United States of America v. Mark Houck as The United States of America v. You. They want you to imagine yourself as one of the indicted.
The FACE Act likely won’t receive the attention it needs from Congress any time soon. Too many Democrats. So in the meantime, let this be a lesson. Learn your rights. Know where to stand. But never stop getting out there to offer women another option.