Federal agents raid home and arrest father, while family watches

February 7, 2023

Imagine a husband, wife and seven children are at their Kintnersville, Pennsylvania home early one day when loud banging on their front door occurs. They look out the window and see as many as 15 big trucks and cars in their yard, and up to 25 uniformed FBI agents wearing helmets and carrying shields, with weapons drawn, and some of the agents pointing their weapons at the house. This would be characterized by many or most people as a SWAT team.

Cooperating with demands by the FBI agents to open the door or they would break it down, the husband opens the door and finds several guns pointed at him. He is then arrested, shackled, and taken away, as reported by his wife. All of this occurred with the wife and children near-by and scared to death. 

The FBI later denied the SWAT Team claim, saying “There are inaccurate claims being made regarding the arrest.” “No SWAT Team or SWAT operators were involved.” The FBI agents merely knocked on the door, identified themselves as FBI agents and asked him to exit the residence, which he did, and was taken into custody without incident, the FBI’s response said.

The husband is Mark Houck, and his wife is Ryan-Marie Houck. She said that her husband, a pro-life advocate and author, “drove two hours south every Wednesday to speak outside of abortion clinics for six to eight hours at a time and at times [took] their 12-year-old son” with him. 

While Houck was in Philadelphia near an abortion clinic providing pro-life counseling with his son present, he said he was repeatedly approached by a 73-year-old abortion clinic volunteer, Bruce Love, who criticized Houck with vulgar and harassing language and even addressed Houck’s son in that manner. The son was frightened of the man, and Houck told Love to leave his son alone.

When Love once again approached the boy, Houck shoved him away. Although local authorities did not charge Houck, Love filed suit. The suit was dismissed by the District Court.

However, more than a year after the incident, the Department of Justice decided to pursue charges against Houck, even though local authorities did not regard the incident as a crime. 

The DOJ accused Houck of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act), a 1993 law that outlaws “violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain, or provide reproductive health services.”

In his recent jury trial Houck was found not guilty on each of two counts, as the jurors understood that his action against Love had nothing to do with interfering with those seeking services, or those providing the services. He was protecting his son from Love’s confrontation in the boy’s personal space.

Why did the DOJ file charges that local authorities realized were not deserved, and which they failed to prove in court?

“Defense lawyer Brian McMonagle said it was a case of the Department of Justice using a minor street scuffle between Houck and a Planned Parenthood volunteer, Bruce Love, to trounce Houck’s First Amendment rights to peacefully protest, pray and ‘sidewalk counsel’ at abortion clinics,” according to Phillyburbs.com. “They made a federal case out of a shove,” he said.

Peter Breen, senior counsel at the Thomas More Society, and Houck’s attorney, condemned the arrest as an abuse of power from President Biden’s DOJ during a “Tucker Carlson Tonight” interview on Fox News. He accused the department of trying to intimidate pro-life Americans.

“This was not a federal crime. We have controlling case law on that, strong defenses, but instead, 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,” he said.

“This was reckless and outrageous,” Breen told Carlson. “It put the Houck family in unnecessary danger. We’ve offered to bring him in. Didn’t get a response. Even if you’re going to arrest a regular person, you just send a couple of agents, they knock on the door, not dragging the head of the family out, violating the sanctity of the home, pointing guns at them. This was outrageous and uncalled for.”

Catholicvote.org reported last June that “At least 81 pregnancy resource centers and pro-life groups have been attacked and vandalized since a draft Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked in early May. Pro-abortion domestic terrorists have claimed responsibility, and delivered on their promise of a ‘summer of rage.’ The attacks have continued into the fall and winter.”

“The pregnancy resource centers, which provide free medical and financial support to pregnant and new mothers, have been spray-painted with pro-abortion and anarchist messages and symbols. Several have been set on fire. Other pro-life groups which advocate for the right to life have also had their offices vandalized.”

Why did the DOJ not arrest these criminals?

The DOJ indicted two Florida residents in January for attacks on crisis pregnancy resource centers, said a CBN News website story. These arrests were the first arrests for crimes against pro-life centers. What took the DOJ so long?