FBI arrests Catholic leader
Former assistant FBI director Chris Swecker on criticism facing the FBI and DOJ following an arrest of a Catholic leader.
A young Philadelphia couple recently explained to a pro-life organization how Mark Houck, a pro-life Catholic activist who was recently arrested by federal agents, convinced them not to abort their baby.
"I had one hand on the door about to go into Planned Parenthood, and then Mark stopped us, and he was like, ‘You guys don’t have to do this,'" the unidentified young mother told Pro-Life Union of Greater Philadelphia in a video published Sept. 26.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania arrested Houck, 48, on Sept. 23 in front of his wife and seven children at his rural Kintnersville home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The pro-life father, who often protests peacefully outside abortion clinics, is co-founder and president of The King’s Men, a Catholic ministry that aims to spiritually mentor young Catholic men.
The arrest reportedly resulted from an altercation Houck had with a Planned Parenthood escort in Philadelphia in October 2021, when he was accused of pushing a 72-year-old man outside the clinic after the escort allegedly verbally harassed Houck's 12-year-old son. Federal authorities arrested him under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which prohibits demonstrators from blocking access to abortion clinics.
Explaining how she was ridden with "shame and guilt" upon finding out she was pregnant, the mother Houck spoke to said she scheduled an abortion at a Planned Parenthood clinic, but was unsure about it. If Houck had not stopped her, she said, "I really felt like I would have went through with it and I would have been living with regret."
"We talked to him, and he really got through to us, like, literally before we walked into the doors," the father said. "He made sure he told us and made us feel like, you got it… and he was right. He opened my eyes to a lot of stuff."
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The mother said Houck "was really just trying to get to know us on a deeper level than us just trying to get an abortion, and that’s another reason why it was real easy and quick to open up to him, because it wasn’t a judgmental thing at all."
Mark Houck, seen with his children, was arrested by the FBI in relation to an alleged altercation with a man outside a Planned Parenthood in Philadelphia in October 2021. (Thomas More Society )
Believing their daughter was sent to them by God, the couple said they named her Nevaeh, which is heaven spelled backwards. "She's a warrior since she came out the womb two months early; one pound, seven ounces strong," the mother said. "So there's definitely nothing but God in her."
"Thank God he was that extra push, because she definitely wouldn't be here," the father said of Houck.
During his arraignment in federal court in Philadelphia last week, Houck pleaded not guilty to two counts associated with the charges against him related to the alleged assault of the escort. He faces potentially 11 years behind bars.
In a recent interview with Fox News Digital, Houck's attorney Peter Breen condemned his client's arrest as an abuse of power from President Biden's Department of Justice (DOJ), which he claimed was intended to send an intimidating message to pro-life Americans.
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Pro-life Pennsylvania man Mark Houck with his family. (Thomas More Society)
Houck's wife, Ryan-Marie, described her husband's arrest to Catholic News Agency as done by a team of roughly 25 federal agents, with guns drawn and in about 15 vehicles, pounding on their front door and allegedly threatening to break it down. The Philadelphia office of the FBI later claimed there were fewer agents involved than she claimed.
The DOJ on Wednesday indicted 11 more pro-life activists who investigators said blocked access to a Tennessee abortion clinic during a protest, saying they also violated the FACE Act.
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Activists with the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising protested in front of the DOJ in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, demanding the impeachment of Attorney General Merrick Garland over Houck's arrest.
