(PresidentialHill.com)- Last week, the pro-life activist who was arrested during an FBI raid of his home in September was acquitted by a Philadelphia jury of federal charges related to a 2021 incident when he allegedly shoved a volunteer at a Pennsylvania abortion clinic.
The jury acquitted Mark Houck, 48, of two separate federal charges that he violated the FACE Act (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act) stemming from an October 2021 incident outside of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Philadelphia.
Houck was accused of shoving Bruce Love, a clinic volunteer, in an attempt to interfere with Love’s work.
Houck argued that Love engaged in vulgar and harassing behavior toward Houck’s son and he only shoved Love to protect his child.
Deliberations began on Friday, January 27, and resumed last Monday. Catholic News Agency reported that one juror was replaced with an alternate around 1:30 pm and the verdict was reached a short time later.
Houck was represented by the Thomas More Society, a nonprofit conservative legal group that routinely represents pro-life activists.
After Houck’s acquittal, Peter Breen, the Thomas More Society’s head of litigation, said in a statement that his client took on “the full might of the United States government” and won. He said the jury rejected the “prosecution’s discriminatory case,” which Breen described as “harassment from day one.”
Breen added that the Biden Justice Department’s “intimidation” of pro-life supporters and “people of faith has been put in its place.”
The day after Houck was acquitted he appeared on the “War Room” podcast with host Steve Bannon to recount his story.
During the interview, Bannon said that under the Biden administration, those in federal law enforcement are no longer the good guys.
Bannon compared federal law enforcement to the Romans who persecuted “first-century Christians” as well as the Nazis, adding that they can’t argue that they are just doing their job. He said we learned from the Nuremberg trials that saying “just doing my job” is “not good enough.”
